The BBC is set to close the BBC HD channel, as part of proposals for cost-savings.
The BBC HD service launched as a trial service in 2006, and was the first free-to-view HD channel in the UK. As part of the BBC’s cost-cutting proposal “Delivering Quality First”, the HD channel is set to be scrapped and replaced by an HD version of BBC2.
The BBC HD channel differs from the newer BBC One HD channel, in that it can broadcast a pool of programmes from across the BBC’s output, including shows from BBC Three and BBC Four. The channel’s replacement, BBC Two HD, will presumably be limited to an HD simulcast of the main BBC Two channel’s shows, meaning less scope for showing exciting HD content from Auntie Beeb’s other channels.
Other BBC Cuts
As mentioned above, the closure of BBC HD is just one of the cost-cutting measures proposed as part of the BBC’s newly-published “Delivering Quality First” document, which will see a shakeup of the BBC to achieve savings of over £650 million a year.
Other changes announced as part of the BBC’s planned cost savings include:
- 15% reduction in purchases of rights for sporting events
- More repeats on BBC2
- A reduction of around 2,000 jobs over a five-year period
- More parts of the BBC, including BBC3, to move from London to Salford
- Less local programming and more networking on BBC local radio stations
- Spending cuts for BBC Radio 3 and the Asian Network
You can find more information on the BBC proposals here: Media Guardian – BBC to axe 2000 jobs
So NOT quality first then. Economy first.
I thought fools day was 1st April not 1st November.
Surely it cannot be true that the BBC is to go backwards and take away HD TV.
What is the point in buying a HD TV is there is no HD content?
Presumably this is a decision taken not a discusion point.
Can we therefore expect a reduction in the cost of a TV licence
Who lets them get away with this?
I dispair!
Why does’nt the BBC swallow it’s pride and do what was suggested
years ago to overcome part of the extra funding. Turn Radio One into a commercial funded service otherwise scrap it if it cannot compete with the I.B.A commercial stations. The rest of the radio service could even be considered for commercial funding. How much
would this save the BBC and Licence payers? We don’t have much
say these days in what this corporation does for the public. How about reviewing and cutting overpaid fatcats at the very pinnicle
of this monster broadcasting corparate. I really do wonder what
our licence fee will cover in the comming years.
Cutbacks on HD, cut-backs (inevitably) on broadcast sporting events, more repeats, less local programming. The BBC is the last bastion of quality programs – steadily declining as cutbacks in the past have led to an increase in “dumbing down” and more of the sort of thing that keeps many of us from watching most of the offerings from independent channels.
The BBC is FAR better value for money than SKY, who we are locked into because of their near monopoly in popular sports coverage – this is handing more (especially in the sports arena) to SKY – how long before public service broadcasting is completely neutered by business interests and political interference (open or hidden).
I don’t remember ever being asked whether I WANTED BBC services to be cut so drastically – I would prefer to pay a reasonable increase in license fee – I wonder how many people feel as I do.
Come on BBC,you are there to serve the people that fund you – the public.
I see the HD channels as “Delivering Quality First”. If you want to find alternative source of funding, look first at the overpaid presenters on some of your programs. Presenters who actually believe their own publicity and slag anyone who does not “measure up to themselves.
On a positive note however, I hope the BBC follow “industry standards”. Bosses should get the average 49% wage rises, it will help them to get over the trauma of kicking 2,000 poor soles out onto the street. Compare this to BBC radio 2 presenter Chris Evans who we found out ( from Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear ), spent a £1,000,000 plus on a “classic car”
being a pensioner i listen to radio merseyside day and untill radio 5 takes over but still have my radio on in bed all night long asi wake up all hours being dissabled i will if i go out on the bus have my mp3 player on the radio listening to radio merseyside as the ststion is the best for all news and current affires plus helpful hints and tips ,the phone in’s are very interesting ,music is of very good range plus sport coverage of all local types ,if this is cut i know that a lot of people will be deprived of a much needed and valuable sorce of entertainment moreso in the winter months when we cannot get out , so please consider this when cutting station out put,thankyou
This is very sad news but hopefully they will find a way to broadcast some BBC FOUR programmes – e.g. Prom concerts – in HD? Otherwise a lot of HD that I watch is currently shown on BBC TWO as well so I presume that will be broadcast on HD on TWO HD?
Why not bin BBC3 and BBC4 instead ……….. surely this is a retrograde step?
it really makes me wonder what on earth are we all still paying a tv licence for just for the Broken Biscuit Company (BBC) to cut every thing plus when the licence is due to be paid next year i am NOT PAYING AND THAT IS FINAL!
I think that the BBC would be far better off saving what English language services it can and not running scared from the likes of the Welsh Language brigade. Let the 20% of the people living in Wales who want to received output in Welsh pay for it themselves.
Seems a sensible way to afford savings. Now if only they would drop the local radio,
I am fed up with your excuses about money and the cost of programs
where you wan,t to start is these over paid djs on radio 1 i know
for a fact the station i listen to the djs don,t get payed as much
as as your lot lets get the facts right get rid of over payed idiots at the top including overpaid djs i am paying for these
programs on my licence sort it out
k Bagley
Perhaps instead of simulcast, BBC HD could be “BBC2 (HD)+1”. ITV +1 & C4 +1 channels can be quite useful!
I would happily pay double the current licence fee – the quality of the programmes produced deserves this.
Comment on the welsh language. We in Scotland have to loose our BBC radio channels from late afternoon due to the gaelic language channel. Cut the gaelic channel, save money and give us back our radio!
Why not have BBC3 HD? BBC2 is all repeats now anyway, and the majority of new programmes are on BBC3 anyway. Or keep BBC HD and only show HD programmes when they are on BBC2,3 or 4 and all other times, be unavaliable?? Surely that would be cheaper than running a simulcast of BBC2?
Typical technology moves on, the BBC moves backward
About time the BBC were made to be publicly accountable for the utter squandering of our compulsory TV TAX licence money they have completely wasted for many, many years now.
In this hard world we all have to account for how we spend our money – and even more so when it is money that everyone is forced to pay for ‘services’ that they maybe do not even want!
The BBC channels should be ‘pay-to-view’ just like on others like SKY and certainly advertising could be used to finance many BBC progs – just like on BBC Wordwide.
I do not see any mention in the BBC`s cuts programme of reducing some of the outrageous salaries of it`s EXEC`S and PRESENTER`S ?
A retrograde step by the BBC to cut the HD channel when there should be plans to make all BBC channels available in HD. They should be cutting the pay of it’s executives and presenters e.g. Jeremy Clarkson, Chris Evans, Chris Moyle, etc.
i really don’t know what to say to that but i’m sure many will speak out on this lol
If they are going to do this then would they sort out the bizarre Freeview channel numbering system…
Instead of:
50 BBC One HD
51 ITV HD
52 CH4 HD
54 BBC Two D
Lets have:
51 BBC One HD
52 BBC Two HD
53 ITV HD
54 CH4 HD
Apart from that, I agree that stopping the BBC Three & Four type programmes being shown in HD is ridiculous especially as there are a lot of new stuff on them that would actually cope with any upscaling done on them a lot better than old repeats.
Apart from the bad cost savings news,which I deplore, BBC have apparently caused me lots of frustration because HD channels won’t record on my Freesat Grundig GUFSD TR500. I AM ADVISED BECAUSE OF SOME TRANSMISSION ISSUES. ITV HD no problem.
BBC programming was once a byword for quality, but that is no longer true. There is still some very good, high quality TV, but this is becoming an exception. The BBC’s problems began when the Corporation decided to compete with commercial broadcasting, and broadcast the kind of tat that we see on the commercial channels. As evidenced by the Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand mistakes, The Beeb paid outrageous salaries to people whose only talent was to shock. Foul language and extreme behaviour was rewarded with the kind of annual salary that its audience would never earn in a lifetime. Daft, low brow “entertainment”, with screaming audiences and smarmy presenters, became the norm, as the BBC dumbed-down.
There are literally dozens of channels available now, even on Freeview, with so little real entertainment that only a small proportion is watchable by anyone with an IQ in more than double figures. The BBC decided to enter into this market by giving us extra channels, but fell into the same trap of having not enough watchable programming. Now that the money is tight and cuts have to be made, we will have even more repeats of programmes we did not want when they were new.
BBC Radio suffers from the same problems. Radio 1 is of course the young people’s channel and I do not have the right to comment upon it; but I note that at least one young person here is critical. Radio 2 has some aging Jockeys who really need to be pensioned off and replaced with others from a generation behind them. Local radio in my area is Radio Lincolnshire, which has a large proportion of presenters from “Look North” TV. This is East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, but the great majority of presenters and staff are from East Yorkshire – mainly, Hull. The areas either side of the Humber are very different and therefore the service does not represent Lincolnshire.
The BBC needs to get its act together. Wake up, Auntie!
i think the Hd channels so go in this order
1.BBC One HD
2.BBC HD
3.ITV1 HD
4.Channel 4HD
5.S4C HD
6.Channel 5HD
I believe this is happening (apart from the cost saving) as a result of the overpaid Execs at the BBC casting envious eyes to viewing figures of the two most prominent repeat channels – Dave and Itv3.
You will now get BBC repeats of all the old classics on BBC2 in competition with these channels but there are many good quality programs in the archives which are worth watching again (and again).
I agree with the comments about the demise of sport for all on tv which has been hijacked by Sky with their millions culled from the gullible public.
When competition was fair in the nineties and the BBC and ITV could compete with Sky, they put up their top package prices by 9, 10, 11 and 12% in 4 consecutive years so they could inflate their bidding power and bulldoze the opposition into the ground with the catastrophic results now apparent. I exercised my right to CANCEL at this time and have never been back.
This is the ONLY way to crush this monster now, but with their clever branching out into telephone and broadband as well, they know it is hard to get people to do so.