Mark Thompson: “The BBC will not retreat into an analogue past”

“The BBC will not retreat into an analogue past”, the Corporation’s director general Mark Thompson told delegates at today’s Financial Times Digital Media and Broadcasting Conference.

Speaking after today’s announcement that the BBC is closing digital radio stations BBC 6 Music and Asian Network, and slashing its online budget and spending on imports, Thompson said that the strategic review is intended to make the “licence fee work harder” and define what the BBC is for.

However, despite the cost-cutting – it is clear that a strong BBC presence online remains important. “In many ways, BBC online is the future of the service,” he said. “One day the web may be the only platform for BBC services.”

Thompson outlined five key areas the corporation will focus on:

• Producing the best journalism in the world
• Inspiring knowledge, music, culture
• Comedy
• Children’s content
• Events which bring the nation together, eg, sport, Glastonbury, commemorative events

Within these areas, he said that the BBC will now concentrate on providing quality over quantity, although he denied that the review signals a shrinking of the Corporation. “It’s not a blueprint for a small BBC or a BBC in retreat.”

Looking at the figures, he promised that 25% less would be spent on BBC.co.uk, with the senior management pay bill reduced by 20% and “an axe taken to the BBC’s bureaucratic past”.

And while a lot of criticism has centred on BBC Worldwide – particularly its acquisition of Lonely Planet – Thompson also promised that the tough limits imposed on its commercial activities will be acted on, and perhaps signalled a return to core values when he said that the “future of BBC Worldwide is in digital and broadcast”.