17:16 Tuesday 14th July 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
CHRIS MANN: What is the future of the BBC? You’ve probably seen the recent headlines, which programes do we want, where could cuts be made, is the licence fee fit for purpose. The Government’s looking at it. They set up a high-profile panel to consider the very future of the BBC. And on Tuesday a Government Green Paper, a consultation, will reportedly ask whether the BBC should stop chasing ratings, and rethink how many popular entertainment programmes it broadcasts. Earlier today the BBC published its Annual Report and Accounts, with the Director General Tony Hall saying it had a duty to inform, educate and entertain. Let’s get the vies from the Shadow Front Bench, the Shadow Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport is Chris Bryant, who is concerned about the future of the BBC. He joins me now. Hell.
CHRIS BRYANT: Good evening Chris. Chris and Chris. Two Chrises.
CHRIS MANN: Indeed. A lot to do with the BBC. It’s under attack like never before. What is the future of the BBC as far as you’re concerned?
CHRIS BRYANT: I want a strong BBC, because I think there’s a golden thread that runs through the very concept of the licence fee, which is we all pay in, we all get something out. You might want big sporting events, I might prefer opera. Somebody else might prefer The Voice or Strictly. But it’s got to be inform, educate AND entertain. And my anxiety is that there’s been so much dark briefing from Conservative Ministers, normally to the Murdoch newspapers, to the Sunday Times and the like, saying oh we want to cut the BBC down to size. We want to slim it down. We want to stop it making Strictly and The Voice and things like that. And I just think that that is a terrible shame. The BBC is like our cultural NHS. It’s one of the things we do best in the world.
CHRIS MANN: But it’s a huge organisation worldwide, and it covers so many areas. There are some pretty startling figures in the Annual Report and Accounts. Salaries there and other expenses you’ll have seen. Doesn’t it need cutting down to size?
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