BBC Four and CBBC TV channels to close as part of further cuts at broadcaster

Sejal Karia reports on how cuts to the BBC are being made to plug a £1.4 Billion blackhole that has grown over the pandemic.

BBC World News and the BBC News channel will also merge to create a single 24-hour TV news channel serving both UK and international audiences, the corporation has said.

Meanwhile, its regional TV news programmes in Oxford and Cambridge will be scrapped.

It's all part of a strategy to “build a digital-first BBC”, which has been unveiled by the BBC’s director-general Tim Davie.

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Speaking to BBC staff on Thursday, Davie said: “This is our moment to build a digital-first BBC. Something genuinely new, a Reithian organisation for the digital age, a positive force for the UK and the world.

“Independent, impartial, constantly innovating and serving all. A fresh, new, global digital media organisation which has never been seen before.

“Driven by the desire to make life and society better for our licence fee payers and customers in every corner of the UK and beyond. They want us to keep the BBC relevant and fight for something that in 2022 is more important than ever.

“To do that we need to evolve faster and embrace the huge shifts in the market around us.”

He added: “I believe in a public service BBC for all, properly funded, relevant for everyone, universally available, and growing in the on-demand age. This plan sets us on that journey.”

The news comes off the back of the BBC needing to save a further £285 million in response to the Culture Secretary’s announcement in January that the licence fee will be frozen at £159 for the next two years.

It has already undergone a series of rounds of redundancies and cuts over the past decade prompted by below-inflation increases in the licence fee.

Mr Davie, who took over from Lord Tony Hall as BBC director-general in September 2020, has overseen a slimming down of the corporation since starting in the role, with the BBC losing some 1,200 staff in the last 18 months.

BBC Four, which is home to BBC Proms, BBC Young Dancer and BBC Young Musician, was launched in 2002 and has traditionally shown mainly arts and documentary content, as well as various international dramas.

However, last year the corporation announced it would become the “home” of archived content and that it would broadcast fewer original programmes.

The BBC did not say whether BBC Four, as well as CBBC and Radio 4 Extra, would eventually move online to the iPlayer service.