BBC Looking To Cut Online Budget By 25%

Horrible.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-12265173

 

If they're not serving an exclusive British audience, the BBC needs to show profitability in areas that get away from it's core mission. That's one reason why the BBC wants to expand the iPlayer to international markets on a subscriber basis.

The coalition is trying to slash costs wherever it can.

 

The Beeb is getting hit hard by the austerity measures in the UK. Its World Service, which is no longer bankrolled by the UK version of the Defense Department, is taking a similar hit.

 

I don't know about the whole product, but their sports site has decreased in quality the last couple of years. It used to be my number one daily stop for EPL news, now I hit it about twice a week.

 

Horrible?
I guess, maybe from an American point of view and for the folks who will lose their positions, but it really is a different media environment in Britain due to the license fee and the fear that the BBC is overstepping its boundaries and eroding the marketplace for those not funded that way.

 

Does the World Service get any money for being distributed on NPR stations? My local NPR carries the world serivce. I find it a refreshing alternative to UFO/sportrs talk at night.

 

I'd say there's much more fear that News Corp's impending purchase of what it doesn't already own of BSkyB is going to homogenize the marketplace. Most people here, if asked, actually rather like the BBC, the bleatings of the right-wing press (largely controlled by guess who) notwithstanding.

Also, the World Service is still funded by the Foreign Office, and will be until 2014, when it becomes the BBC's responsibility. Given that the license fee has been frozen for the next six years (you're welcome, by the way ), the reasons for the cuts start to become obvious.

 

Horrible, yes, for folks who want their news sorta down the middle, not like xxxxxxxx or sssssssss or elhjplohje.