The BBC says it will explore a ‘phased exist’ from the broadcast Red Button service.
It comes as the corporation looks to plug a £150 million (€215m) funding shortfall caused by viewers opting out of the Licence Fee, because they claim to only watch on demand content. Under the plans there will be a further reduction in management layers and £35 million will come from the sports budget.
£12 million will be cut from BBC Online as new features and development is rationalised across the BBC’s digital services. A further £5 million will go from News.
The BBC has progressively reduced its linear Red Button services, the BBC News Multiscreen was removed from Freeview as long ago as 2009.
However, at the same time the BBC has been developing the new Connected Red Button, later Red Button+, which is likely to be the home for additional video content, such as the recent Radio 2 concert by Jeff Lynne’s ELO, or the Wimbledon multiscreen.
Launched on the Virgin TiVo platform in December 2012, Red Button+ has subsequently been made available on a small range of internet connected TV sets, from Samsung, Sony, LG, Panasonic, Sharp and Toshiba. It can also been seen on services from EE and YouView.
