The Cuts - Spending Review Coverage

A thread for coverage of the Spending Review, some special programing tomorrow for this :

12:15 - 13:30 The Spending Review Live : An ITV News Special (ITV1)
Alastair Stewart presents with analysis from Daisy McAndrew.

11:30 - 15:00 The Spending Review (BBC Two)
Coverage with Andrew Neil

And all day on the news channels.

Sky saying that the licence fee will be frozen for 6 years and the Foreign Office to cease funding the BBC World Service.

BBC also now reporting this, with "insiders say[ing] that this is a significantly better settlement than the proposal to force the BBC to pay the cost of free TV licences for the elderly."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-11572171

Michael Crick reports a BBC management source that moving the World Service funding source to the licence fee makes sense because soon BBC and World Service journalists will share the same building. Looks like this could also lead to more integration between BBC World Service, BBC World News and online services to cut down in costs and avoid duplication where possible.

But it also means that BBC licence fee payers are now going to be paying for services that are not aimed at them, nor indeed receivable by them. Taking the radio station for example: BBC World Service's availability and remit in the UK is largely filled by the other television and radio services. Is it just the English version of World Service my £145 is going on, or the other 31 languages as well?

The S4/C announcement is also worthy of mention - why should people living on Shetland fund a service of negligible use and (without satellite or cable receiving equipment) no way of viewing it?

TWITTER.COM/RUSKIN147

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A depressing evening at TV Centre. As I left, one of our brightest talents, now heading to pr, said he was glad to be out of it.

Wholly agree an appalling day in the history of Broadcasting in Britain.

The Conservatives were always going to find a way to destroy the BBC. It appears they have unfortunately succeeded. I don't see why the licence fee needed to be frozen for six years in total. Bearing in mind the Government are likely to find a big pot of cash to spend before the next election.

The licence fee should have been frozen for the two years as the BBC agreed and then increased by about £2.50 each year. That would have at least brought in significant revenue to the BBC.

I dread to think how many jobs will be lost as a result of this and what the services we receive in the future will become.

Interestingly are the BBC responsible for the 2012 Olympics coverage as host broadcaster? If so how are they going to fund that?

The BBC can cut back on some of their service - scrap the BBC News Channel for starters and reduce the size of the news department.

... says the guy with a BSB strap as his signature. Go away, let us pro BBC people cry together at this terrible news.

No, the host broadcaster for London 2010 is OBS - http://www.obs.es/obslondon2012.html

Lol..The size of the BBC is just unbelievable though. A few cuts here and there will do no harm.

They have less channels than Sky. And "here and there" doesn't involve letting your lot have free reign on the 24-hour news market in this country.