Licence fee freeze means more repeats, warns BBC boss
December 6th, 2010 - 8:09 pm ICT by Aishwarya BhattLondon, Dec 6 (THAINDIAN NEWS) The head of BBC has revealed that the planned budget cuts by the UK government will mean cuts in new programs.
Mark Thompson who was speaking on BBC One’s Andrew Marr Show said if the 16 percent cut by the government is finally implemented, the network will be forced to repeat most of its programs because it will not be able to afford new programs.
The UK government plans to cut its spending in the wake of huge budget deficit that threatened to bring down the country’s economy. As a result, the government plans to cut funds to BBC by at least 16 percent. The TV Licence has also been frozen until 2017 and BBC feels very stretched by the move.
Thompson revealed that the network might be forced to do fewer original programs as a result of the cuts. Some believe that the move will result in the station showing older programs and thereby making them ineffective in the face of strict competition in the media industry.
Thompson said that, “In recent years, we’ve slightly reduced the numbers of hours of factual programmes we make for network television, but because we’ve really focused on big, ambitious things – this year, for example, science across the BBC, our opera season – we’re trying to concentrate our efforts”.
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Tags: andrew marr, bbc, boss, budget cuts, budget deficit, economy, example science, london, mark thompson, network television, opera season, tv licence, uk government