The BBC Trust will undertake reviews of the BBC News channel, BBC Parliament, Radio 5 Live, Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, the Asian Network and BBC local radio in England within the coming year, it announced today. All BBC services are reviewed on a five-yearly basis by the Trust and this year will see the turn of the above stations.
The National Audit office is being brought in to review the value for money of the BBC’s efficiency savings and the cost of overheads.
The broadcaster is facing a tough year ahead after a freeze in the licence fee until 2017 and planning to take on additional responsibilities, including for funding the World Service, BBC Monitoring and the Welsh-language channel S4C.
The BBC plan pledges to focus on quality and to be more transparent about top-level pay and expenses.
Every BBC programme (or piece of online content) should have a distinctive BBC quality, displaying at least one of the following: high editorial standards; creative and editorial ambition; range and depth; and UK focused content and indigenous talent.
The BBC needs to do more to address concerns about making effective use of the licence fee, particularly in relation to talent costs and top management pay and expenses.