BBC announcement: they listened to us!

The BBC Trust just announced “initial conclusions” on cuts to BBC services including 6 Music and Asian Network.

The effect of our campaign is obvious. The Trust rejects the plan to close 6 Music, saying “the case has not been made”. It says it will only go ahead with closing Asian Network if it sees plans for “meeting the needs of the station’s audience in different ways”.  [1]

Together we shifted this debate. Back in February, the Murdoch media and their political allies were in all out attack mode. The BBC was under pressure from all angles to cut more, deeper, sooner. We shifted this debate with people power: 44,000 of us signed the 38 Degrees petition to the BBC Trust.

We’ve already achieved a massive amount. But this is no time to stop working together. We’ve shifted the BBC’s plans, but big threats remain.  We’ll need to keep speaking up for listeners, viewers and licence fee payers. We’ll need to be ready to fight back against enemies of public service broadcasting in the UK.

Please help make sure that 38 Degrees can keep standing up for the BBC. Click here to donate:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/bbc-announcement

6 Music may be saved for now but it’s soon likely to face yet another review soon.  We’ve made sure Asian Network can’t be scrapped without a plan for replacing it, but it remains to be seen if those plans are any good at all. And there are still plans for deep cuts in other areas.

The BBC’s enemies may have been a bit quieter recently, but they haven’t gone away. Rupert Murdoch’s media empire hates the BBC. Many in the new government owe Murdoch a favour or two after he backed them in the election. In the coming months he’ll look to cash in those favours by extending his empire, weakening the rules against political bias, and pushing for further cuts to the BBC.

38 Degrees doesn’t take money from big business, political parties or government. We rely on donations to keep standing up to Murdoch and protecting public service broadcasting.  Please click here to donate now:
https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/bbc-announcement

NOTES
[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/our_work/strategy_review/index.shtml