Last year the BBC spent £42m creating content for BBC Scotland. It still plans to create many of those shows for iPlayer – and BBC Two in Scotland will be reconfigured to deliver Scotland-only programming.
The part of BBC Three that commissions programmes will actually get more money to spend on creating content aimed specifically at 16-34s (with a core focus on the 16-25s).
This was the network that commissioned Normal People, Fleabag, Killing Eve – programmes of quality and wide appeal.
There’s also been a recent announcement of commissions dreamt up specifically for YouTube – to reach those 16-24s who the BBC (and other public service broadcasters) find so difficult to lure to their own platforms.
Many of Radio 4 Extra’s programmes will also still be on BBC Sounds. If you listen to the Daily Service, first broadcast in 1928 and the longest-running programme of its kind anywhere in the world, you will still be able to find it.
So these aren’t major cost savings. The BBC would likely argue, when it comes to audiences, who are at the heart of everything, it is pivoting to find them where they already are.
What’s been announced today is more about the direction of travel. It’s about the continuing evolution of the BBC, a streamlining as audience habits change.
That doesn’t mean it isn’t painful to all of us inside the BBC. Job cuts are always difficult. In News, 100 more roles are being axed. That’s on top of the 200 already announced. And the news division is still nowhere near its target of £51m of cuts.
And with only two fifths of the £500m of total savings now announced, there is still a very long way to go.
As a BBC user, you are going to hear much more about cuts in the coming months. Some will think that is a good thing as the BBC reflects the belt-tightening going on in most homes and companies across the UK. Others fear that the BBC’s important role in public life is being chipped away.
There is a bigger fight going on here. The BBC is negotiating with the government over its future – and how it will be paid for. It won’t harm the negotiations if it can show the corporation is being streamlined and made more efficient.
As long as it can also demonstrate that audiences aren’t being left behind.
