BBC Boss Matt Brittin On Expected Service Closures: “No Program Or Channel Will Exist Forever”

BBC director-general Matt Brittin has hinted that the broadcaster is preparing to close TV and radio networks as it looks to save money and better serve audiences online.

In an interview that will air over the weekend, Brittin told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg that the BBC’s ambition to save £500 million ($662M) “may well mean” that services are shut.

The former Google executive said the BBC “wouldn’t guarantee any program or any channel will exist forever. The tight financial situation means that we’re having to look at some of those decisions a bit sooner than we might like.”

Brittin’s comments follow Deadline reporting on Wednesday that the BBC is expected to announce the closure of TV and radio networks as early as next week. There is speculation about the future of BBC Three, but nothing is confirmed at this stage.

Brittin told Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg: “We might have some channels and services where maybe 100,000 people are watching the broadcast service, but 500,000 are getting those programs on iPlayer. When’s the right time to migrate that service fully to being on demand? And part of my job is to safeguard value for money for the licence fee payer.”

He added that the BBC had to go “in different ways to reach audiences and we’re locked into yesterday’s model of how people consume content and actually the audience is always already living in tomorrow’s world.”

The BBC’s £500M target expands on a previous savings goal worth £1.5 billion. The bigger picture behind the cuts is that 94% of the UK population use the BBC every month, but fewer than 80% pay the £180 annual licence fee. The BBC is attempting to bridge this gap.

Up to 2,000 jobs are at risk under the savings strategy, while the BBC is also involved in tense negotiations with unions over employee pay rises. Unions have rejected two BBC offers, meaning the risk of industrial action is increasing.