BBC Cuts - (potentially) stupid question

[Simbu]

Why does a licence fee freeze = 20% cuts?

I appreciate they'll get less money in real terms thanks to inflation, but the Beeb is acting as if their income is shrinking like i did after clicking on that Jodie Marsh link...

Can someone explain?

[The Nur]

Easy way to make their end of year reports look good?

Please note, the information above may well be complete bks. It was a complete guess.

[loafer123]

Costs inflate, income doesn't, therefore cuts required.

In addition, the BBC has taken over funding responsibility for the World Service, which was previously funded directly by the Foreign Office.

[Happy82]

Perhaps to try and gain sympathy from the public sector and become the voice of those persecuted by the evil coalition?

[AndyClockwise]

Because it's easier to blame the "nasty" coalition rather than admit the move to Salford was an ill conceived waste of time & money?

[obob]

Because inflation will eat into their budget. So they will have less money in real terms therefore they need to make savings.

[StevieBee]

It's not all bad news at the BBC. They've just issued a tender for a new Graphic Design roster with an annual budget of £8m a lot of which is directed to their annual report!

[Gene Vincent]

I wonder if they will now address the 56 [yes that is correct] staff just at R1s 'Newsbeat' team.

The BBC is profligate in ways almost beyond imagination, they never address this, just cut headline stuff to make maximum dramatic effect.

The BBC is in parts a hungry monster with a spiteful heart.

[Derek Smith]

AndyClockwise said:

Because it's easier to blame the "nasty" coalition rather than admit the move to Salford was an ill conceived waste of time & money?

I'm not quite sure what you mean by that. Are you suggesting that the move to Salford was the idea of the BBC?

The tories have it in for the BBC so that is why they are limiting what it can produce and what it can afford. Murdoch wants his fee for supporting the conservatives in their failure to get a majority.

The programmes shown will be poorer.

They have also had to sell the Radio Times and that has cost them.

there is little doubt that the 20% is well below what it will actually cost them.

And fund the Welsh TV channel. let's not forget that. The station that has no viewers.

[chris watton]

Derek Smith said:

The tories have it in for the BBC .....

Can you blame them?

[Mark Benson]

The BBC is just another arm of the public sector, with the same wastage and the same horror at having to manage it's resources better.

The problem is, they produce the entire news input for a large part of the population, and so can influence what people think and how 'cuts' are perceived. Try explaining that the 'cuts' aren't actually cuts at all to the average punter on the street, they just know that the BBC says the coalition is 'cutting' this and 'slashing' that, the nuances are lost on them.

[130R]

Gene Vincent said:

I wonder if they will now address the 56 (yes that is correct) staff just at R1s 'Newsbeat' team.

How about the music festivals that R1 host every year? WTF is the BBC doing funding a free music festival? Ridiculous.

[ninja-lewis]

loafer123 said:

Costs inflate, income doesn't, therefore cuts required.

In addition, the BBC has taken over funding responsibility for the World Service, which was previously funded directly by the Foreign Office.

Also responsible for S4C and BBC Monitoring. The Government have kept and increased the ringfence that covered the Digital Switchover and will use it to fund broadband rollout. They've also told the BBC to work with their local TV pilots so that means more cuts in existing areas to fund these new priorities.

[Gene Vincent]

130R said:

Gene Vincent said:

I wonder if they will now address the 56 (yes that is correct) staff just at R1s 'Newsbeat' team.

How about the music festivals that R1 host every year? WTF is the BBC doing funding a free music festival? Ridiculous.

That too.

It has loads of money and a bureaucracy that is adept at spending it within an unspoken confine, self-perpetuation is the term that springs to mind.

The 'luvvies' have a hand on all that money... that is why the BBC is happy to hype their soaps and promote 'competition' with other stations, it is a false market buoyed up by public [our] money.

[Fittster]

130R said:

Gene Vincent said:

I wonder if they will now address the 56 (yes that is correct) staff just at R1s 'Newsbeat' team.

How about the music festivals that R1 host every year? WTF is the BBC doing funding a free music festival? Ridiculous.

Are you advocating the BBC should not fund music festivals? So we really will have a last night of the proms.

[CATS ARE BOXING]

The BBC needs to take a leaf out of the commercial sector and stop using the excuse that a 20% cut in budget necessarily leads to a 20% decrease in actual service. In any normal company you are expected to deliver more for less each year, otherwise you are getting worse at your job and as an institution.

I have worked in a large, former semi-public sector organisation and we were able to remove a third of the staff, cut more cost and deliver vastly better service on every level. This was done by removing staff and layers of management that did little, or actually had a negative effect on customer service because they had “been there 25 years”.

The BBC does have some excellent programmes. I fail to see, however, why we fund a vast amount of mediocre output that could exist happily on commercial channels. I understand the need for the BBC to exist to take risks with new formats and so on, however once success is demonstrated a format should be auctioned to commercial stations.

Personally, I'd take it trimmed down to BBC News 24, R4 and R5 but I'm happy to admit that not all will agree!

[Simbu]

Gene Vincent said:

I wonder if they will now address the 56 (yes that is correct) staff just at R1s 'Newsbeat' team.

Seriously? I thought it was just someone reading selected headlines off the BBC News website.

[Gene Vincent]

Simbu said:

Gene Vincent said:

I wonder if they will now address the 56 (yes that is correct) staff just at R1s 'Newsbeat' team.

Seriously? I thought it was just someone reading selected headlines off the BBC News website.

I haven't read it at all, I listened to the News Output Controller on 'Feedback' on R4 a few months back, he didn't deny the number and instead tried to justify an increase to 60+ Newsbeat doesn't gather any news from base, it instead has 30+ editors [on an editors pay scale] simply 'dumbing down' [my words] the output from R2/3/4... not the most intelligent use of our money.

[130R]

Fittster said:

Are you advocating the BBC should not fund music festivals? So we really will have a last night of the proms.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/13477856

How much does a two-day music festival for 100,000 people cost? If they can afford to bankroll this event then rather than freezing the licence fee they should be cutting it in half. The license fee is an anachronism anyway.

[markcoznottz]

chris watton said:

Derek Smith said:

The tories have it in for the BBC .....

Can you blame them?

Derek you mean by having them tighten thier belts like we have had to?. Labour certainly wouldnt have made them cut thier cloth. You do yourself a disservice with your sometimes unreformed socialist comments.