The corporation ordered the figures from accountancy firm Deloitte in a move which reflects the growing threat that Mark Thompson, its director general, feels from critics including Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corporation which owns Sky TV, the Times and the Sun, and David Cameron.

Thompson is understood to have already planned savings, in an attempt to safeguard the core activities of the corporation in the face of likely Tory cuts. He is expected to undertake to increase the amount of original British content commissioned by the BBC and confirm that the number of expensive American imports will be drastically reduced. He has not ruled out closing down channels and has also hinted that the extensive BBC website, which many newspaper proprietors complain skews the market for paid-for online news, will be scaled back.

Hmm, american imports such as what? The apprentice, but what else?? Is masterchef american?

I was under the impression that the beeb exported far more to the US than it imported?

I think it's good news that they're going to concentrate on less importing. Perhaps that means they're going to act more commercially and export even more shows. That can only be a good thing for us.