Which BBC service would you axe?

In the PM newsletter, Eddie Mair asks what should the BBC cut in the light of its disappointing licence fee increase.

If they were to cut a whole service, which would you cut? Or would you reorganise?

Personally I'd cut split BBC Two's content between BBC Three and BBC Four and just have three channels rather than four. BBC One would continue as is, BBC Two would be the factual based stuff off the existing BBC Two and BBC Four, and BBC Three would be the comedy/drama stuff off the existing BBC Two and BBC Three.

I kind of agree with what you say about BBC Two. It does seem very redundant these days.

However, I'd have voted for BBCi given the option. There's very little about the service I use which wasn't previously catered for by Ceefax. Just a basic text service would do me fine, without all the video streams. Whether cutting this would make enough savings is another matter though.

I think Moz has absolutely nailed it on the head there.

A lot of the whole original point of BBC Two was a platform for "un-BBC One" stuff (e.g. A: experimental comedy and drama, etc etc; B: high-brow and in-depth cultural and documentary programmes etc etc).

BBC Three and BBC Four basically repeat the A and B ideas above, but - more sensibly - on seperate respective channels.

This does indeed make the current BBC Two now look like merely a "The Best Of" of other BBC channels. So, it's a bit like UKTV Bright Ideas!

In a post Analogue Switch-Off UK, it will therefore be fairly pointless IMHO.

BBC 2 W - what a waste of time, effort and DTT space that appears to be.

Bozz

Oh totally agree - perhaps that could be a BBC Regional service if you want to vote for that?

Without a doubt BBC 2 and BBC2W.

BBC One needs to stay regional but having regional content and regionally branded trailers on any other BBC channel I find totally superfulous (sp) and costly.

When I watch BBC News 24 or BBC Three I dont see any Wales branded trailers so I dont see why they are required on BBC2!

I personally would cut BBC Parliament and sell off BBC America to gain further revenue. I also would like Moz would get rid of BBC3 but intergrate the best of BBC4 and BBC3 into what is BBC2. BBC3 Relies heavily upon repeats after repeats and therefore is largely a waste of time.

A question about BBC2W:

I know that when it first started, the news bulletin therein was called " 2W News & Sport ". I don't recall ever watching it, but I assumed that the news agenda would be a hybrid of UK/world and Welsh news stories (in other words, an English-language equivalent of Newyddion ). If this was the case, then there was some value to the news service, as it offered something unique.

The wider existence of 2W as a whole seemed fairly unnecessary - a glorified "service" basically built around the news bulletin. Wales might as well only opt-out of network BBC Two for, say, just 30 minutes, rather than a couple of hours, and therefore just have the news and/or Dragons Eye.

As the 2W news has since been renamed as just plain old "Wales Today", that implies to me that it must now have the usual WT news agenda??? If so, then it is now utterly pointless.

BBC Parliament!

And it's not a disapointing licence fee settlement at all - it's about time the Beeb had their wings clipped!

Obviously, none of the (white elephant) digital services will go- 'choice' and visibility being part of today's society's doctrine- but the content of 3, 4 and the children's channels can easily be put on 1 and 2- there'd just be far fewer repeats overall and, if necessary, there's always the option of offering programmes via the red button.

And, if there was a level playing field for repeat showings on terrestrial and digital TV, archive TV could have a regular place on 2.

I didn't include BBC Parliament or BBCi because I didn't think their budgets were comparable with the others.

BBC3 is a shocking excuse for a channel. That would be what I'd get rid of, and put their new stuff on BBC2.

I mean really, all it does is repeat Two Pints nonstop. And their only big thing recently - Torchwood - was shown again four days later on 2 anyway.