Red Button ‘at risk’ from £150m BBC cuts

The BBC’s red button service is also facing cuts, which may have an effect for next year’s Rio Olympics, though the broadcaster may move towards viewers being able to choose to watch different events online rather than through TV.

Funding is one of the main issues up for debate as part of the BBC’s royal charter which is due to expire next year and is now under Government review.

The BBC says the savings are a outcome of a drop in the licence fee income because of what it calls the “iPlayer loophole”, that is people switching to watching BBC services only on “catch up” via the iPlayer which does not now require payment of the licence fee. The broadcaster previously announced that delivering a “leaner” BBC will come from slashing £50M by eliminating divisions and cutting 1,000 posts by 2017; that work is underway.

“However, we have also recently secured a series of important rights – including Wimbledon, Premier League highlights, live coverage of Euro 2016 and 2020 football championships and Six Nations rugby shared with ITV”.

While drama, a hallmark of the BBC, will be protected, £12M will be saved out of the TV budget. Factual, comedy and entertainment all face cuts, while last week it was announced that BBC1 had lost The Voice to commercial rival ITV after pulling out of a potential bidding war for the Talpa format.

“We will inevitably have to either close or reduce a few services”, said the broadcasting company.

That follows the decision made by the government earlier this year to place the burden of paying for free TV licenses for pensioners onto the BBC. The corporation’s director general said cuts to programmes or services would be unavoidable. No Director-General wants to announce reduced spending on services that the public love. “This is very tough, but the BBC’s financial position means there is no alternative”.