Yahoo News BBC 'forced to axe' TV shows over budget concerns
The Director General of the BBC, Tony Hall, has called the corporation's current financial situation 'unsustainable', suggesting it could make "less" original content as a result.
Speaking at the Royal Television Society conference in London, Lord Hall admitted that "the cracks are beginning to show" in the Beeb's output as a result of budget constraints.
"We do not believe what we currently do is sustainable with the resources we have," he explained (via The Guardian). "We need to find more money, and that could come from a variety of different sources."
Lord Hall went on to add that "great programmes" had been "decommissioned or lost to other broadcasters, purely to meet savings targets".
Related: BBC Two has axed sitcom Quacks after one series
So, uh, that's the Great British Bake Off he's on about, we take it.
Although Lord Hall didn't outline any specific plans to improve the Beeb's financial situation, he did appear to dismiss the idea of 'doing less'.
"We could, of course, continue to do less," he suggested, "but the public don't like cuts to BBC services. It's their BBC and they want more from us, not less."
One potential way the BBC may plan to increase revenue is by scrapping free licences for the over-75s over the next couple of years.
After phasing out the government's responsibility of providing free licences for the over-75s, the BBC recently confirmed that it will review the scheme in 2020 when it has sole control.
"We have got to be mindful," Lord Hall said. "We know that those over 65 or over 75 consume many, many more BBC services than others [but] there is real hardship among some or many of those over 75 too."
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