Tessa Jowell’s Green Paper on the BBC, the subject of one of our articles this month, appears rather innocuous on the surface, but a more careful reading perhaps begins to explain the extensive, and I believe possibly disastrous staff cuts currently threatening the Corporation's ability to carry out its job.
The good side is that with a renewed remit to produce exactly the kind of programming we at Transdiffusion would like to see – meaningful, deeper, without having to chase ratings or be complained about for wasting the licence fee – the BBC is being told to produce quality programming the commercial channels can't or don't do enough of.
The question today, however, is how those programmes will be made, with significant staff cuts announced only days ago.
The fact is that they'll come by farming out more programme-making to independents. Is this really such a good idea? And does it mean anything more than appearing to cut costs by moving them from one part of the balance sheet to another, at the cost of a very dark time for a significant number of BBC employees, including several in areas that are already arguably understaffed?
It must not be forgotten that the staff are the lifeblood of any company, and their forced departure should not be taken lightly. You can't make programmes without people – especially good ones. Is going outside really cheaper? I doubt it.
