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BBC

Dimbleby calls on BBC to retrench back to just two main TV channels

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By John Glenday, Reporter

November 20, 2013 | 2 min read

Veteran broadcaster David Dimbleby has urged the BBC to merge channels and ditch some of its cookery and gardening output in order to cut costs.

In Dimbleby’s vision the likes of BBC Four would be set for the chop and merged with BBC Two in order to bring the station up to the ‘quality thing it was meant to be.

Dimbleby made the remarks on Radio 5 Live amidst an ongoing debate as to whether the corporation has become ‘too big’ and now needs to streamline its operations.

Dimbleby said: “The politicians are gunning for the BBC, there’s the licence fee coming up. To me, the most important decision actually is to redefine the BBC’s role for the next period.

“To answer people’s questions about whether the BBC’s got too big, whether it’s too powerful for its own good, whether it’s crushing newspapers — local newspapers particularly — I think there is some truth in that.

“BBC Four, for instance, which has very good, high quality work done really on a shoestring. You talk to people now working on the arts bit in the BBC and they barely have time to research things because it’s being done on the cheap.

“Merge that with BBC Two, cut out some of the gardening and the cookery and all that on BBC Two, and turn it back to the quality thing it was meant to be. And then you have two big channels, BBC One and BBC Two.”

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