BBC announce changes to its online services

The BBC has announced a string of changes to its online services, in an effort to save �15m for the next Charter Renewal.

The review was launched last autumn and led by James Harding, Director of BBC News and Current Affairs. It reaffirms that the BBC�۪s purpose online is to provide a distinctive public service that informs, educates and entertains. It confirms that the public think it important that the BBC offers online services, and that much of what is there is already clearly distinct from the market.

In the next 12 months the following services will either be closed or scaled down, subject to any regulatory approval required. The BBC will:

– Close the iWonder service, but redeploy its formats across BBC Online
– Close the BBC�۪s Food website. BBC Worldwide�۪s Good Food site will remain
– Focus on distinctive long-form journalism online under a Current Affairs banner and close the online News Magazine
– Integrate Newsbeat output into BBC News Online, but close the separate Newsbeat site and app
– Continue to offer travel news online as part of BBC News but close the Travel site and halt development of the Travel app
– Stop running local news index web pages, offering instead an open stream on our rolling guide to BBC and local news provider stories, ��Local Live�۪
– Remove ring-fenced funding for iPlayer-only commissions
– Reduce funding for Connected Studio, the digital innovation programme, with innovation increasingly funded within business-as-usual and the Studio maintained as an enabler of innovation
– Reduce digital radio and music social media activity and additional programme content that is not core to services

James Harding, Director of BBC News & Current Affairs, says, ���The internet requires the BBC to redefine itself, but not its mission: the BBC�۪s purpose online is to provide a distinctive public service that informs, educates and entertains.

���The Review sets out what we want to be famous for online: trusted news; the place where children come to learn and play; high quality entertainment; live sports coverage and sports news; arts and culture, history and science; and historic moments, national events. And we are going to focus our energy on these six areas: BBC News; iPlay and BBC Bitesize; BBC iPlayer and BBC iPlayer Radio; BBC Sport; the Ideas Service; and BBC Live. We will stop doing some things where we�۪re duplicating our work, for example on food, and scale back services, such as travel, where there are bigger, better-resourced services in the market.�۝