Radio 5 merger ruled out by BBC

The BBC director general, Mark Thompson, has ruled out the merger of local radio with BBC Radio 5 Live or dropping the BBC Parliament channel from Freeview as part of plans to find 20% of cost savings.

Thompson said he would not be closing any local radio stations or merging regional TV news operations in England, but declined to rule out service closures entirely.

"We haven't ruled out service closures yet but the work so far suggests there's a smarter way of making savings without taking entire services away from the public ... because every single service is strongly valued by its audience," he added.

The director general made the comments in an email to staff updating them on the progress of his "Delivering Quality First" (DQF) initiative to cut costs by 20% as a result of last year's flat licence fee settlement.

A merger between local radio and Radio 5 Live was one of the proposals to come out of DQF, but it has now been ruled out, as was the withdrawal of the BBC Parliament channel.
"I'd also like to reassure you about some of the things that we won't be proposing, but about which there has been speculation," said Thompson. "We won't be closing any local radio stations or television regions. There will be no full or partial merger of local radio and Radio 5 Live. We will not be removing BBC Parliament from Freeview. And as you heard from the chairman earlier this month, we will not be privatising BBC Worldwide.” He also said job losses would be "relatively higher in non-content areas and among senior managers".

He added that his staff email followed what he called a "positive meeting" with the BBC Trust last week, with final proposals due to be presented by management in September. Thompson said the BBC would focus its investment on five editorial priorities: the best journalism in the world; inspiring knowledge, music and culture; ambitious UK drama and comedy; outstanding children's content; and events that bring communities and the nation together.

Of the 20% savings, 10% will come from productivity, 8% from "scope reductions" and 2% from current efficiency programmes and from increased commercial revenue.

"Those scope changes have to mean real cuts in activity rather than efficiencies by another name, otherwise there's a risk that quality will suffer," Thompson said. "We haven't ruled out service closures yet but the work so far suggests there's a smarter way of making savings without taking entire services away from the public. Why? Because every single service is strongly valued by its audience."

He added: "Inevitably the financial challenge we face will mean post closures over the period to 2016 and I appreciate it's important to end the uncertainty as soon as we can. I expect percentage job losses to be relatively higher in non-content areas and among senior managers, and lower in content areas but this picture will vary across the BBC and over time. As always, where possible, we will seek to implement this through turnover, redeployment and voluntary redundancy. We expect the total job losses to be lower than some of the wild numbers I've seen in the press. We'll give you the full picture as soon as it is agreed with the trust."