BBC to axe Casualty, The Apprentice and more ?
The BBC has published a strongly-worded response to a new government report that has essentially said that many long-running TV shows including Casualty and Silent Witness should be axed in order to become more distinctive and to increase commercial advertising-funded rival income.
Director of policy James Heath has largely dismissed the Department of Culture, Media and Sport's report, saying that it would be "impossible" to cut so many shows, considering they also have to make savings of £700m over the next few years.
In a blog post criticising the proposals, Heath said: "The O&O report concludes that requiring BBC One to commit to a wider range and significant number of new titles in its schedule could reduce BBC One's audience share of viewing to below 20% (from 22% in 2015); and therefore might increase commercial advertising-funded rival income by £33 to £40m a year.
"Let's be clear what such proposals would mean. On a first analysis, this would mean, for instance, cutting a very long list of long-running shows like Silent Witness, Countryfile, The One Show, Casualty, Holby City, Masterchef, Pointless, The Apprentice, Watchdog, Who Do They Think They Are?, Songs of Praise, Have I Got News For You, The Antiques Roadshow and all their associated shows.
"Replacing all these shows with new titles, as the report suggests, would be impossible given the £700m savings the BBC has to make over the next few years, and which the report makes no reference to."
He continued: "So the result would be to reduce what all audiences get from the BBC, for a gain to commercial television of around a quarter of one percent of total TV revenues.
"Taken together with O&O's recommendations for BBC Radio, the net gain would be less than 1% of total TV and radio industry revenues.
"We share the ambition of a BBC that should be even more distinctive so that we can build on our strong record, but it's an odd ambition to want fewer people to watch great TV. On the same day as this report was published, the Government published the results of their public consultation into the BBC and its Charter.
"Over 80% of people responding to the Government's consultation said the BBC is serving audiences well. Almost three quarters said the BBC's services are distinctive and about two-thirds think it has a positive wider impact on the market."
Rejecting the report, he concluded: "So we don't believe in reconfiguring the BBC to maximise commercial profits rather than asking how can the BBC be improved to best meet audience needs. This report proposes a BBC designed for the convenience of its competitors not the enjoyment of audiences, to the long-term detriment of both."
Heath also pointed out how BBC One had a much more varied output of programming at peak times compared to ITV, saying: "ITV broadcasts close to double the number of peak-time hours of Entertainment and Soaps (45% to 25%). Almost half of BBC One's peak-time schedule is allocated to News and Current Affairs and Factual programming, against just 30% on ITV."
