The BBC Trust, the body now charged with overseeing the management of the BBC, has ruled out the idea of closing one or more of the corporation’s digital channels. Director-general Mark Thompson is required to fill a £2 billion (€2.7bn) funding gap following a licence fee settlement lower than the BBC had been seeking. This represents over £3 billion per year.
It has been suggested that BBC Three, which skews towards a youth audience, might be heading for the channel graveyard. Senior BBC figures are said to be frustrated at what they see is a regular call to axe services for the young whenever cuts are required. Instead, news, current affairs, education and drama are expected to suffer.
The Trust has said the BBC’s digital channels should carry more narrative repeats, where a programme is shown a few days after an outing on one of the main channels, and arguably the reverse of the current scheduling.