The Times claims to have seen details of the strategic review of BBC services director-general Mark Thompson that recommends the closure of digital radio stations 6 Music and the Asian Network and a severe reduction in the size of its website. The report is due to go before the BBC Trust next month.
The corporation’s web pages are to be halved, backed by a 25 per cent cut in staff numbers. Its £112 million budget will also be cut by 25 per cent. It is also pledging to include more links to newspaper articles to drive traffic to the websites of rival publishers.
While the plans to link out more are nothing new, the review reportedly includes a pledge to never “produce services at a ‘more local’ level than is currently the case”.