"Goodbye and goodnight 6Music...?"
Posted by Jordan Thomas at 10:50am on 4th March
After months of speculation, it looks as if the axe has finally been swung on 6 Music. Also to go is The Asian Network plus a host of other services. This will come as a major blow to independent radio production houses everywhere who worked on specialist programmes for the Beeb, as sources for the content seem to be drying up fast.
As reported on various websites and news portals, staff were told that 25 percent less will be spent on BBC online by 2013 and that 90p of every licence fee pound will be spent on programming.
Along with the cuts in the radio sector, The BBC is also going to close youth orientated services Switch and Blast, as Mr Thompson admits that Channel 4 should be chasing these audiences. The reasons for these cuts has been couched in political terms which seem to make out that the BBC has been running itself as a business, rather than a publicly funded body.
However, it was hinted at on Newsnight this week that massive cost over-runs on building projects and a looming general election had caused the rethink on where the BBC puts its cash in the near future. Also, the question was asked to Mark Thompson ‘why 6 and not 1Xtra or BBC3?’, a satisfactory answer could not be given. It’s worth a watch, if you haven’t seen it http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/newsnight (ironically, on the BBC iplayer).
The next few months could prove interesting!!