Finding The Least Painful Place To Cut

Michael Hedges June 13, 2011 Follow on Twitter

Calls to cut public broadcasting services are not new. Private sector broadcasters have fought for limits to public broadcasters expansion, winning battles but not necessarily the war. More recently – in this age of austerity – politicians have joined in. Unintended consequences, though, have a way of rising.

The BBC is, arguably, Europe’s biggest public broadcaster, certainly a renowned worldwide brand. Germany’s ARD would be larger in revenue and number of employees if it wasn’t really an umbrella for nine regional – and reasonably independent - public broadcasters. For most of the last five years, pre-dating the present UK Conservative Party regime, BBC executives have been in a multi-front battle over its size, scale and very existence.

Internal BBC proposals, floated last week, would cut 20% from BBC News, reported the Guardian (June 10). The 8,000 strong news staff would take the brunt of the cuts with perhaps 1,000 facing the unemployment line. The plan put forward by BBC News director Helen Boaden, which includes reducing location reporting and feature production, would likely take effect in 2013 when BBC News and the BBC World Service merge operations.

Downsizing the BBC falls on the shoulders of Director General Mark Thompson and BBC Trust Chairman Chris Patten. Thompson, who has a year remaining on his contract, has taken seriously the job of scaling back the BBC’s UK and global footprint. Last October, Deputy Director General Mark Byford, essentially the chief operating officer, was suddenly fired, saving at least one big salary. Details of proposed cuts to BBC News will be made public in July.

Lord Patten comes to the BBC Trust with unique credentials. A career Conservative Party politician, he oversaw as the last British governor of Hong Kong its return to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), negotiating voting reforms for citizens of Hong Kong. He then took on a foreign policy role as European Commission (EC) Commissioner for External Relations. Most recently he’s been Chancellor of Oxford University.

Perhaps as significant as Lord Patten’s worldview is his relationship with News Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch. Few can boast of suing Mr. Murdoch – over a book critical of the PRC – and winning. Clan Murdoch has made clear to one and all – and certainly Conservative Party leaders – they expect the BBC to be shrunk to the size of the Norwich public library, taking media and telecom regulator OFCOM with it. Nobody senses a great deal of love lost between Patten, who will have the BBC Trust job for five years, and Murdoch, who’s over 80, and the extended Murdoch family.

The BBC will “not be the same” when the downsizing finally takes place, said Lord Patten to the Telegraph (June 12). “Bloated” executive salaries will be cut, maybe a digital TV channel or two and high-priced sports rights curtailed. “We have to try to make sure that the BBC is regarded as more efficient than is the case today,” he added.

Uniform cuts, roughly, across all BBC operating divisions, departments and channels – referred to as “salami slicing” – is said to be Director General Mark Thompson’s preferred method. But slicing that sausage means taking a look at what’s inside and the BBC is a complex organization. Members of Parliament would prefer whacking a channel or two, reported the Economist (June 2), in addition to downsizing a few “leftie” stars. “The risk is that by trying to retain all its services, the BBC ends up spreading itself too thinly, so that quality and distinctiveness suffer,” said a House of Commons report (May 12).

Floated last year was a proposal to cut two digital radio channels, one being the alternative music channel 6Music. The hue and cry from music fans was loud enough for the BBC Trust to put that plan on permanent hold. Some, perhaps more cynical observers suggest BBC executives knew exactly what they were doing.

But the BBC World Service might face a lighter axe, particularly certain foreign language services. Between government austerity budget cutting and BBC license fee negotiations, funding the BBC World Service will be transferred from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) to the general BBC budget. Cutting language services has accelerated, unpopular within the BBC and regions served.

“I know (Foreign Minister William Hague) regards the World Service as an important part of this country's soft power and I'm sure that with goodwill and without megaphones we'll be able to sort it out,” he allowed in the Telegraph interview. “I'm hoping on Arabic services we will be able to protect that as something that is at the core of what the BBC is doing. The issue is can we restore some of what was going to be lost and I hope we can.”

The BBC will certainly be changed, shrunk, repurposed even. Mr. Murdoch and lesser mortals insist. But don’t look for Fred the Shred or Chainsaw Al in the sausage factory.

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