The director-general of the BBC has told MPs that output could be effected were one of his newsrooms to be hit during the current Coronavirus outbreak.
Tony Hall explained the broadcaster was committed to keeping everything open to ensure the BBC would keep broadcasting the information the public needed.
“You could imagine a local station or some other part of our news operation being out of action for a period,” he said. “We have to make sure our news services keep transmitting on television and on radio, and we are making sure we’ve got every eventuality covered,” he said.
A series of meetings have been held and possible scenarios plotted.
Lord Hall had been called before the DCMS Committee to answer questions about cuts to services and answer questions on proposed changes to the licence fee.
He said a possible end to the BBC News Channel had been predicted for some time, but he couldn’t see it happening: “I think people want to find out what’s happening live.”
Whilst the possibility of BBC Three being revived as a linear channel wasn’t discussed directly Lord Hall did hint at possible new investment to the youth-skewing channel. “What we’re looking at, and the board will be looking at this over the coming weeks, is whether we can divert more resources into BBC Three to build the kind of creative content they’re delivering.”
