Case not made (2)

So, looking round his digital services, Controller Speech Mohit Bakaya has decided to close Radio 4 Extra.  16 years ago, under Tim Davie, the finger was pointed at BBC6 Music and The Asian Network;  either would have generated considerably more savings than closing 4 Extra, and the argument was that there were plenty of other outlets delivering popular music. 

Culturally, there's no rival to 4 Extra - it provides something only the BBC can. The management has been hollowed out since it first arrived as BBC7.  A station editor/scheduler will be saved; financially, there's little extra work in paying out much reduced/zero repeat fees; some freelance announcers will lose work.  The BBC 'owns' the prinicipal means of transmission - a Digital Audio Broadcasting multiplex, which carries all BBC network and digital stations. Radio 4 Extra gets enough bandwith for mono speech; I'd be puzzled if stopping it delivered a measurable cash benefit.

1.5m listeners reached every week, and it's not clear that the 'brand' will survive digitally for smart speakers etc - a big mistake. Radio 4 Extra's schedules give the BBC archive a recognised and friendly 'discovery' window, something that Matt Brittin says he values. 

The BBC's Morning Service is left floating. Will BBC Local Radio really accommodate it in their schedules ?  Why no similar imposition on Radio Wales, Radio Scotland and Radio Ulster ? 

Case not made

It would be presumptuous of me to engage in a 'value' v 'cost' discussion with a top businessman like Matt Brittin. 

What's the 'value' of a top quality radio drama studio in Birmingham, against the construction cost, which he puts at £1.5m ?

What's the 'value' of a continuous 24 hour radio news production operation in London, compared with the cost of a move of one of three shifts to Sydney ?  

On the 'cost' side, the BBC's screwball calculations help News, but hinder the BBC. Restructuring costs (i.e. paying for 26 redundancies) are 'held centrally' and merely noted on the News 'business case'. Should any candidates for the exit be entitled, they may draw down pensions 'early', and the pension scheme is a burden on the licence-fee payer; not part of the News 'business case'. I wouldn't mind betting that the costs of establishing/training/parallel running new offices and studios for 20-odd new staff in Australia mean that any marginal savings in this exercise appear in year 2. 

And what price the lost 'value' of a cohesive approach to UK and World events, where handovers between shifts are face-to-face, and explanations of the sinkholes and craters that surround the delivery of even straightforward stories are passed on with more than just an end-of-shift memo. Where staff shaping the UK morning agenda have a commonality of experience with their core audience, starting their own daily lives with UK tv, radio, papers ?  Perhaps even enjoying an overnight 'breakfast' with members of the Today production team. 

It's entirely possible to write UK news in Blue Street, North Sydney, but, over-time, there will be stuff that's clumsy, out-of-tune, misguided - and strong stories left alone, because the local context is not obvious to someone on the other side of the world.  It's why, after all, BBC News is boosted by so many dedicated correspondents and stringers overseas.  In this case, the baby is on the way out with the bathwater.... 

G-day, UK !

The World Service and BBC Radio Newsroom are going through extaordinary contortions, to save a net total of seven posts, and stop spending on night shifts. 

Production of World Service Bulletins (which currently sustain Radio 2, Radio 5Live and local radio frequencies overnight), as well has the half-hour "Newsroom" and the 0600 Global News Podcast is being moved to Sydney. 

26 London jobs will go, their work carried out by 19 new employees in Sydney, who will work eight hour shifts across seven days.   Apparently the London newsroom remaining shifts, of 'days' and 'evenings', will continue unchanged. 

(This plan should have become clear with the dropping of the midnight news on Radio 4; I feel I've let readers down....)

Internal comms are onside

The BBC's new Director of News, Rachel Jupp, will be relieved and delighted to learn she has the whole-hearted support of BBC News' Head of Internal Communication and Engagement. Keira Hammond has shared her unclouded view with colleagues via the business network Linkedin:  "My first impressions of Rachel as a leader? Calm, authoritative and with a real appetite for change. But alongside that, she’s empathetic, kind and an absolute pleasure to work with. A really exciting combination as we look ahead to what comes next for BBC News."

Tracking Trump

The BBC's legal team has been keeping the Florida Court updated with news of President Trump's unavailability for a deposition on October 16th, because he was dealing with matters 'of national importance'. 

The BBC submits this Notice to raise newly available information regarding the “matters of national importance” that Plaintiff claimed kept him from his scheduled deposition.

As the BBC now knows, on October 16, Plaintiff attended and addressed a campaign rally in
Dalton, Georgia, alongside Plaintiff’s favored candidates in Georgia’s upcoming U.S. Senate
and gubernatorial elections.  Plaintiff subsequently traveled to his resort club and residence at Mar-a-Lago for a Republican National Committee fundraising event. In light of the foregoing, the BBC respectfully reiterates its request for the Court to compel Plaintiff to confirm a date for his deposition; notify the BBC of a secure location where such deposition is possible and any other logistics required to ensure Plaintiff’s safety; and sit for the deposition, as the core rules of discovery require. 

White words

Oddly, the Tories gave the BBC one of their longest charters ever: Willie Whitelaw quietly sorted a 15 year deal in 1981, and saw off calls for advertising. There was no White Paper.  But those that followed adopted some pompous titles for their proposals, and Lisa Nandy has only 60 days to think of one.

1994 The Future of the BBC: Serving the Nation, Competing World-wide. Secretary for National Heritage Peter Brooke

2006 A public service for all: the BBC in the digital age. Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell

2016  A BBC for the future: a broadcaster of distinction. Culture Secretary John Whittingdale

Bits and bobs

Some odds and ends, which should perhaps be viewed as contributing to a febrile atmosphere around the BBC as we await a White Paper... 

The Telegraph has chosen to 'reveal' that civil servants with expertise in statistics have been given regular secondments to assist the BBC News Verify team. The placement scheme has seen 39 civil servants seconded for three-month or six-month stints in the past eight years, with four more being recruited for next year. Some have been given bylines, but with no indication of their main employment. (Note: the scheme started way before Verify, after a huge review of News' coverage of statistics, driven by the BBC Trust, which saw the creation of the role of Head of Statistics).

The Mail on Sunday says that a computer 'game' which is part of the BBC Bitesize offer for Key Stage 3 Geography, encourages open-border choices. It was launched in August 2025. 

Celebrity Traitors averaged 9.6m viewers on Thursday, and 9.3m on Friday. The previous Thursday episode, in which the exit of Richard E Grant was confirmed, has risen to 14.1m views over seven days. 

I don't believe it

Current noise leakage from the BBC/DCMS careering Evri van trying to deliver a White Paper on time gives little indication of a quality outcome. 

If they're clinging to a 'reformed licence fee', they're going in the wrong direction.  Yes, it would be useful to demand fees from anyone who may have glimpsed a moving image on a screen over a year, but enforceability is the problem. Yes, it would be possible to get addresses of Netflix, Amazon, Disney+, Apple etc subscribers, but why would they pay up ?  Are the Government seriously contemplating making 'proof of licence' a condition for the streamers to deliver to new accounts ?  And, Mr Brittin, when you shuffle more material onto YouTube, you don't have to have even an email address to watch moving pictures on that platform. 

Fire sale

There's something a bit helter-skelter about today's decision to put the output of the BBC News Channel on YouTube, just like that. Over the past two years, the strategists at BBC Studios/Global have invested in hacks across the USA, with nearly 60 in Washington, looking for payback with ads on the Channel, and ads on bbc.com, plus subscriptions. The channel and website content has been shaped to appeal to the North American market. For many, it's not BBC News anymore, but BBC News About America. 

Now, a key component of the $8.99 subscription offer across the USA and Canada, a 24 hours news channel, is available for nothing, nada, nowt, zip, zilch on YouTube in the USA. 

Anyway, it's early days - not many picking up at 2100 BST today... 

Chart news

A few more viewers returned to GB News in September. Monthly reach for parent company All Perspectives was 3,357,000, compared with 3,275,000 in August, and 3,920,000 in September 2025.