Friday, November 12, 2010

UK trade magazine claims more BBCWS cutbacks

The UK trade magazine Broadcast says that entire services from the BBC World Service could be closed as part of its £67m cuts, with those broadcasting to areas such as the Caribbean, Vietnam and Macedonia thought to be most at risk. It says that services in regions of legacy interest, or that cover relatively small populations, are the most likely to be cut, while Portuguese-language broadcasts within parts of Africa are also in the firing line.

Broadcast quotes a BBC insider as saying it’s a case of “trying to keep the global footprint while cutting resources”, but the Foreign Office will have the final say, with a decision expected later this month. But Craig Oliver, controller of English at BBC Global News, declined to comment on the potential cuts and said the World Service was looking at a number of different strategies.
(Source: broadcastnow.co.uk/R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)