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The eagle-eye of Media Watch has fallen squarely upon on Ofcom over the past week after it confirmed plans to allow Channel 4 to spend a disproportionate amount of its budget in England, but there have also been some big cuts at the BBC which have caused uproar.
Devolved nations' fury over Channel 4 licence
The announcement from Ofcom of a new 10-year public service broadcast licence for Channel 4 sparked a backlash in Scotland.
Under a section about “supporting production in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland”, Ofcom confirmed its decision to increase by a third the annual requirements on Channel 4 for production spend and programme hours made in the UK outside of England – from 9% to 12%.
An increase in spending in the devolved nations may seem all well and good, but if the out-of-England quota was to reflect population share across the UK, it would be 16%, not 12%.
Calls for Ofcom to impose the 16% figure were near universal from the devolved nations while the proposals were open for consultation and the Scottish Government has since said it is “deeply disappointed” in the quotas.
A Scottish Government spokesperson told The National: “Scottish ministers are deeply disappointed with the decision on the Made Outside England quotas for Channel 4’s next licence.
“We strongly believe this decision does not recognise the need for a publicly-owned public service broadcaster to represent and support all parts of the United Kingdom that it serves on a fair basis.
“As we previously set out to Ofcom, we are clear that Channel 4’s Made Outside England quotas should fairly reflect the populations of the nations, and the size and growth potential of their creative industries.”
The Welsh Government also said the increase to 12% fell short of expectations.
Channel 4 has said it will aim to hit the 12% out-of-England quota by 2028, rather than the 2030 date Ofcom has set.
BBC axes journalism programmes
Concern has also been expressed by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) around the cutting of two BBC journalism programmes, including one which started nearly 30 years ago.
The long-running interview programme HARDtalk launched in 1997 but an internal email to BBC staff confirmed the show will come to an end in March 2025.
The cuts will see a net loss of 130 roles in the news and current affairs department, with 185 being culled and 55 created.
It’s expected the programme will be replaced by either live news or pre-recorded programming.
The programme's long-standing presenter Stephen Sackur said the announcement was "depressing news for the BBC" and questioned the logic of cancelling an long-form interview programme “at a time when disinformation and media manipulation are poisoning public discourse”.
The technology news show Click, which is described by the BBC as its "flagship technology programme" is also being cancelled.
Click co-presenter Lara Lewington said on X/Twitter it was a shame to see the show cut at a time when AI transformation was becoming such an important topic of conversation.
She said: “The BBC gave us an amazing opportunity to cover the tech that has, and will transform our lives, in ways we could never have imagined.
"It is a shame to see our dear show come to an end at this moment of AI transformation and incredible acceleration in innovation and possibility, but such are the economic constraints.”
The NUJ described the cuts as an “assault on journalism”. It said the change will save only 2.5 jobs yet result in the scrapping of UK-based bulletins which highlight domestic stories.
“These latest cuts represent a damaging assault on journalism and news at a time when the UK needs greater plurality and diversity of news and trust in journalism is under attack at home and abroad,” said NUJ general secretary Michelle Stanistreet.
“Some of these decisions represent comparatively modest savings yet will disproportionately undermine the breadth and range of news content the BBC currently provides.”
