The BBC have confirmed its plans to cut back on its website as part of a company-wide strategy review. The corporation will cut spending on its website by 25 per cent and cut back on the number of webpages on the site by up to 50 per cent, it has been announced.
Sections of the site including BBC Switch and BBC Blast, both aimed at a younger audience, will be shut down, the BBC said. The move was announced by BBC director general Mark Thompson, who has been under pressure from critics who believe that the corporation is stifling competition in many markets and costing too much money.
03/03/2010
Two digital-only radio stations, 6Music and the Asian Network, are also to be closed down. More than 30 MPs, including Labour’s Tom Watson, have already signed a motion to save 6Music and the Asian Network, according to BBC News.
Thompson defended the cuts, saying it was part of a push to “deliver a more focused BBC doing fewer things better and leaving space for others by setting clearer boundaries”.
“It will pledge new ways of guaranteeing access to licence fee payers to see and hear our content first and for free. And we will deliver greater value by making the licence fee work harder for the wider economy,” he continued.
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