http://www.techradar.com/news/televisio ... ces-653877

Don't like the sound of that, though I suspect the BBC is getting spread a little thin in general, just going by the state of some of the online articles and TV output compared to what it used to be

Glad iPlayer seems safe though

As long as Top Gear stays on, I'm happy.

This won’t be the first time the BBC has had to scale back its web presence. A big shame too, as it’s one of my regulars.

Cut back CBBC and CBeebies. Merge the two into one channel.

As soon as I read the subject title, I had a mild panic attack about iplayer.


I can't see them ditching Top Gear anytime soon, considering the number of viewers.

Mind you I completely forgot about it on Sunday. Thank crunchie for series link.

I detect the hand of Murdoch behind the scenes.

Mark Thompson implies that channels such as 6Music could be in firing line, along with BBC3 and BBC4 (website might get scaled back too)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/no ... t-thompson



That I like the sound of, as the BBC has no idea what to do with them anyway it seems - just so long as the money isn't then spent on a load of reality w@nk

Hmm - recent survey for the BBC Trust focussed on BBC2 and BBC4. I like BBC4 - it’s more like BBC2 used to be like - it was where the clever stuff lurked. The BBC provides a good range of channels, and I hope that if they do have to drop a couple, they can maintain the output quality. I rarely watch BBC1 or BBC2 before 9pm, but I do “tune in” to BBC4 earlier in the evening.

I rarely watch BBC1 or BBC2 before 9pm either

BBC3 and 1 Xtra can go. No-one will miss them. Perhaps they could scale down the BBC news channel. Does it really need exist?

BBC4 must stay. Like Paul says, it's like BBC2 used to be.

Cut back 3+4 as you can't see them on analogue.

In two years, no-one will be able to see anything on analogue anyway. They're switching it off in 2012.

Maybe so, but should people be paying a licence fee for something they can't receive atm?

I would miss BBC3. It still has Mighty Boosh, Family Guy and a few others that I watch when I can.

You have to keep an eye on them, they try and fudge programmes into funny brackets to get around having to do "proper" programmes. For example, The One Show falls into "educational" programming!

A fair argument, and one which I suspect the Beeb would counter by saying they are required by government statute to develop digital services in the UK, and the digital channels are free-to-air broadcasts that only require a cheap set-top box, or access to the interwebz.

I'm not sure what the figures are, but digital take-up in the UK has grown markedly in the past year or so. I rather think analogue viewers are becoming ever smaller in number.