BBC Cutting Back on TV by $120M

[Mark Jeffries]

The British pubcaster, dealing with a hiring freeze and a freeze in the license fee that viewers are supposed to pay to fund them, is cutting original TV programming by 1,000 hours a year and increasing funds for radio and and online services--of course, there'll still be "Breakfast" and the 1:00, 6:00 and 10:00 news (although the domestic news channel and BBC World News are becoming one and the same, with some programming differences), along with "EastEnders," "Strictly," "Doctor Who" and "Pointless" (although there may be fewer episodes per year):

It's noticeable that  the increase in radio, the house orchestras, which play mostly classical music, and the annual Prom concerts series are getting cut, which should piss off the aging but loyal Radio 3 audience who views commercial classical stations ClassicFM and Scala with contempt.  Also, despite much criticism, it seems that the Beeb is plowing ahead its plan to cut back local programming on the local radio stations, with local programming outside of live sports (mostly soccer) to be from 6 a.m. and 2 p.m., with regional programming for most of the day and national programming late at night (the stations with the exceptions of Radio London and Manchester's GMR simulcast news-talk-sports Radio 5 Live overnight), with hosts and DJs to be cut while the news departments focus on online.