BBC chairman will oversee reforms to win back public trust

So it's official: the BBC Trust is still considering the possibility of axing whole channels and/or services, and although the chairman has "complete confidence" in Mark Thompson with relation to the issue of regaining public trust, it seems that the trust is privately less impressed with his ability to handle the financial side of the BBC's affairs.

If whole channels are to be axed in order to save money, then obviously it will be one or more of the recent digital-only additions that will be closed altogether - BBC One and BBC Two can be judged to be relatively immune at this point, although their broadcasting hours could be reduced at some stage as a cost-cutting measure.

Technology has moved on since the launch of BBC Three, BBC Four, etc. more than five years ago, and the rapid takeup of broadband services has made on-demand services more viable for broadcasters to implement. And on the radio side, the advent of podcasts has meant that a fair amount of audio listening is now done 'offline' at the listener's convenience.

Therefore it's not hard to imagine that BBC Radio 7 (as it's now known) in particular could be axed in favour of an enhanced podcast service despite its worthy content. That in itself would be a real shame, but given the BBC's current financial situation it may not have any choice but to do this.

Also potentially vulnerable on the television side is the CBBC Channel (now having a very narrow remit, plus closing this channel would a political gesture in light of the move of children's TV to Salford), BBC Three (too many repeats, the cause of BBC Two's recent decline?), and BBC Four (less repeats but its programming arguably deserves a wider audience).

The closure of one or more of the BBC's channels and/or services would be met with a degree of public outcry but it would send a clear message to the general public and central government alike: you cannot cut back significantly on the licence fee without sacrificing services if the BBC's reputation for quality output is to be maintained.