Media Top Stories

Asian Network saved

By | Published on Tuesday 15 March 2011

Asian Network

The BBC has backtracked on plans to shut down the Asian Network, which is rather good news, though the digital-only service will have to cut its running costs in half.

As much previously reported, the closure of the Asian Network was one of a number of cutbacks set out in a strategic review compiled by BBC management early last year. The same review, which had “do less better” as its guiding principle, also proposed the closure of 6music. The proposals were criticised by many, some pointing out that the “do less better” approach would result in more money being pumped into those services that compete head on with commercial rivals while depriving listeners of the sorts of services only the BBC can offer.

Of course, a high profile campaign by listeners, the music industry and celebrity fans forced a rethink on BBC6, which was officially saved last July. But the axe continued to hang over the Asian Network, despite an albeit less noisy campaign to save it. Until, that is, yesterday.

BBC Radio exec Andy Parfitt yesterday told staff at the Network that, pending BBC Trust approval, management at the Corporation would now keep the station going, rather than looking for alternative places to host content aimed at the British Asian community. Though he cautioned that the service – the most expensive digital-only station – would have to dramatically cut costs while continuing to build audience.

Despite those warnings, an insider at the Network told The Guardian that staff there were jubilant about the news their station was to be saved. The source said: “There’s not a feeling of anger so much as vindication [that bosses have come round to our way of thinking]. We need to bring the cost base down and make sure the audience keeps going up. Nobody objects to that. There is a feeling of unbridled joy, but also a nagging sense that the really hard work is only just about to begin”.

Although the campaign to save the Asian Network presumably played its part, some speculate that a key reason for this decision is that alternative ways to reach and service the British Asian community proposed this time last year worked out to be more expensive options than keeping a streamlined Asian Network going, and while the aim of last year’s strategic review wasn’t specifically to save money, cutting costs overall has become the key consideration since the unfavourable licence fee deal forced on the Beeb by the ConDem government last October.



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