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Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ savings strategy

The Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ director of strategy John Tate on the Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ budget cuts, Paul Dacre addresses the Leveson Inquiry into phone hacking, and why the Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ wants to stop paying fees to Sky.

The Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ has announced its proposals for "Delivering Quality First", a strategy to cut twenty percent of the Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ's spending over the next five years. No Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ channels will be scrapped but there are concerns that the savings could overstretch resources and erode the quality of Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ programmes. Steve Hewlett hears about the decisions from the Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ's director of policy and strategy, John Tate.

The Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ's proposals include big cuts to local radio and reductions in budgets for network radio although Radio 4 will be protected more than others. Radio critic Gillian Reynolds explains why she fears the cuts to Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ radio are worse than they seem.

The Daily Mail's editor in chief Paul Dacre has addressed the Leveson Inquiry into phone hacking, calling for continued self regulation of a press which he said is "vastly better behaved" now than it was when he started working in journalism. The Guardian's media correspondent Dan Sabbagh, who was at the seminar, picks out some of Paul Dacre's main suggestions.

According to a report commissioned by the Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ executive, the corporation pays fees of about £10 million a year to Sky to carry Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ channels. The report says this is an unusual set-up as, in many countries, the opposite is true and satellite broadcasters pay terrestrial channels for their programmes. In the light of the recent budget cuts, John Tate tells Steve Hewlett the Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ should stop the payments to Sky and spend the money on local radio and Ä¢¹½¶ÌÊÓÆµ Four instead. Sky says the payments are a fair and proportionate contribution towards its running costs.

The producer is Simon Tillotson.

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30 minutes

Last on

Wed 12 Oct 2011 13:30

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  • Wed 12 Oct 2011 13:30

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