BBC Cuts

Looking at London's radio Rajar, 5 Live has over 1m listeners on AM and digital, while BBC Radio London which has an FM outlet has 452k. This can't be a viable proposition as it is?

It could be argued that Londoners are already tuning into 5 Live, yet BBC Radio London as a full time station (it doesn't close down overnight for the 5 Live simulcast) has never been an important part of London radio listening.

4 Extra should go. What little original content it produces can be squeezed into the Radio 3 or 4 schedules somewhere, and there's no reason why the huge radio archive they have can't be made available online, surely, with some of it showcased on one of the networks every now and then.

With the boom in podcasts, and the rise of smart speakers and radio apps on mobiles and tablets, I wonder if BBC Radio 4 Extra could be a candidate for the chop? 4Extra content lends itself especially well for on-demand listening.


I also wonder if night time radio services should be restructured? BBC World Service and 5Live simulcasting overnight, especially 1am-4am (Business Matters, The Newsroom, etc), with UK focused news and sport at x:01 and x:30:30 (i.e. opting out of the World Service bulletin). An extended Morning Reports from 4am on 5L, with elements of the current last hour of Up All Night, contribuing to more of a news focused 5L.

In conjunction with the full-time R4 Extra axe, BBC Radio 4 switching to current R4 Extra programming during the night instead of WS.

Turn 1Xtra into an internet-only station, given the massive uptake of connected devices among the target audience. This may seem dramatic, but many other radio broadcasters around the world operate extensions to their main stations as internet services.

Handle news on the various BBC domestic stations like IRN on commercial radio - i.e. various stations come together at the TOTH for a standard three minute bulletin, instead of having different news teams on different stations. (Perhaps initially off-peak hours).

Edit: I see as I was typing this, dvboy suggested the same thing about 4 Extra in the post above!

R4X seems to be a quick win. It doesn't really do anything.

It's only £3.3M that is saved by closing this station, but I guess it's a start.

Politically it would be the most controversial though. Basically Tories scrap funding for over 75s licence fee, pass it over to the BBC. Then if the BBC scrap it, Tories slam the BBC for doing so. It's been discussed before but what is essentially a welfare benefit should not be down to the BBC to decide upon.


BBC News could be in danger again - as we've seen in the last few weeks MPs will kick up a fuss about saving BBC Parliament, which nobody watches, but would they be so concerned about BBC News, which watches and analyses their behaviour inside and outside parliament, potentially more in depth than the terrestrial bulletins allow, be considered as controversial.

Sadly previous cuts means the BBC News Channel isn't the product it once was - and they might argue a more straight forward bulletin on BBC2 at 11am (if Victoria Derbyshire was axed) and 3 or 4pm would reach more people alongside summaries added online and to the connected service. Move the BBC4 news to 8pm and they're covering primetime quite well.

To answer the original question although this will upset some...

- Close BBC Four and what's left of BBC Three, handing this remit back to BBC Two.
- Close Radio 4 Extra and hand that remit over to Radio 4 proper.
- Close 6Music. Nearly all of its remit could be handed over to Radio 1 and Radio 2.
- Close 1Xtra. Again, Radio 1 can take on the remit.
- Close the Asian Network. There's enough enthusiasm in the commercial sector to provide an alternative.
- Radio 3 is a difficult one but I'd be sorely tempted to close down its FM presence and keep it on DAB and other platforms.
- Merge local radio into 5Live, with opt outs of a national network for breakfast, drive, weekend brunch and local sport.
- Also, do we still REALLY need Radio 4 on LW?
- And a no brainer, close BBC Scotland. Give them a Scottish Six If they really need it but I'm sorry it doesn't warrant an entire channel.

Also, merge every news operation into one. Why couldn't, in daytime, one newsreader do Radio 1 on the half hour then Radio 2 on the hour?

The really controversial one is scrap the license fee and switch to a subscription model. However, following the example of SVT in Sweden, advertising could be shown between, but not during, programmes.

CBBC will never return to BBC One and BBC Two for the simple reason is that it doesn't rate well, same reason CITV was axed from the main ITV channel.

France Télévisions have a similar model with commercials banned from 9pm. (French prime time is much later than in the UK)

BBC Radio 1Xtra will never close, for the simple fact that it is the UK's BIGGEST Black Music Radio Station and it has a bigger audience than Capital XTRA. It serves its audience well and this is coming from a young Black boy, who in a heavily Caucasian dominated Radio industry, feels massively under-represented by the lack of diversity.

If anything BBC Radio 4 Extra should go, it's a pointless station that anyone hardly tunes into.

BBC 1Xtra has around half the listeners of 4 Extra.

(Just over 1 million for 1Xtra versus around 2 million for 4 Extra, looking at 2018 1Q and 2Q RAJAR figures.)

I think they should get rid of BBC X because I never watch/listen to it.

But I think they should keep BBC Y because I watch/listen to it

Actually BBC Z is very good/gets good ratings/provides an essential service


and repeat.....

You seem to be missing the point. Most of the comments here have been based on looking at market data, programming budget and available audience. It’s far from “I don’t like it so shut it down.” I’m personally quite happy to read through it! For example, I’m fully aware that BBC4 stands a significant chance of being axed and I would support this, even though I’m a huge fan of the channel! The reality is that most of the programming I watch there could easily be slotted into BBC 2’s increasingly skimmed down schedule.