(Image source: BBC)
I appears the BBC World Service is cutting shortwave broadcasts even further in an attempt to meet tighter budget numbers. Not many details, at the moment, in terms of what language programs will suffer the most.
Many thanks to Richard Cuff for the tip:
(Source: The Guardian)
The BBC World Service will further reduce its shortwave transmissions next year as part of a £15m savings drive which staff have been warned will be a “real stretch”.
The money will be used to invest in new TV and digital services, part of a programme called Invest to Innovate.
An extra £6.5m is being pumped into the World Service’s budget this year, alongside an extra £1.5m of savings, helping to create 130 jobs. New initiatives include a global version of Radio 1’s Newsbeat.
But the BBC’s director of global news, Peter Horrocks, said further savings would be required in the future.
[…]Horrocks said changes would include more multilingual reporting, with staff filing for their own language service and in English, as well as a further reduction in shortwave transmissions.
He said the World Service would also have to integrate further with the main BBC News operation.
Horrocks also announced that the BBC’s global news division, which includes its world news TV channel, would be renamed “World Service Group … a sort of World Service-plus” and the World Service board would be axed with the change in its funding.
[…]It closed five language services, stopped radio broadcasts in seven languages, cut back on shortwave and medium-wave transmissions and axed a number of World Service English programmes.[…]
Read the full article at The Guardian online.
I´ll lamment these cuts I hope the African Service in Engish will not be affected I can listen to it almost every day on the 15420 as a local quality reception. And BBC excellent shows, news, sports, Focus on Africa. Osmar from Brazil.
I´ll lamment these cuts I hope the African Service in Engish will not be affected I can listen to it almost every day on the 15420 as a local quality reception. And BBC excellent shows, news, sports, Focus on Africa.
If the BBC would stop using Babcock they could save around 5 million pounds a year. Just to give you an example. The BBC WS use Sentech in South Africa. They pay around 250 to 270USD per hour. But yet the times I have used Sentech I paid 120USD for the same power and antenna. If the BBC WS cut out the middle man (Babcock) they could save lots of money with out cutting back on services. Babcock is know for it’s over inflated prices.
Once again they have taken the easy and LAZY way into cutting a budget. They really should introduce some kind of commercial adverts or sponsors into the World Service just as PBS does here in the USA. Furthermore, those who argue that commercials wouldn’t work because of time zone issues are clueless.