Fearing a backlash from a potential Conservative government, the BBC has preempted calls to cut back on its operations by doing it themselves. They announced a consultation on some swinging cuts to infrastructure and programming that will have an affect across all their operations. American Anglophiles may be wondering, will this affect BBC America?
That’s a complicated question that I can try to answer.
I suspect that the cuts will not affect BBC America. BBC America is a partnership between BBC Worldwide – the BBC’s commercial arm that’s sort of separate from the main BBC – and the Discovery Channel. It’s pretty much run by the Discovery Channel. *UPDATE* BBC America have clarified that they only contract with the Discovery Channel for distribution and that Discovery has no editorial control over the channel – it’s run 100% by BBC Worldwide.
BBC America essentially licenses the rights to use the BBC name and it decides on it’s own programming. That’s why you’ll often see shows aired that didn’t originally air on BBC in the UK. It’s a profit making enterprise that is quite separate from the public service remit of the BBC in the UK.
It could affect the ability of BBC America to show BBC News programs since they are still produced by the actual BBC and not Discovery Networks. I certainly hope this is not the case since the news on BBC America is fantastic.
I’ll reach out to our contacts at BBC America and see if they have anything to say on the matter. I’ll keep you posted.
*UPDATE* We just got off the phone with a representative from BBC America and they’ve stated that the BBC Cuts announced today SHOULD NOT negatively affect BBC America. They also said that the BBC’s new focus is going to be on creating more content for television – which means that BBC America will have more shows to choose from – something everyone at BBC America is very excited about.
So, the good news is that BBC America is safe from the structural changes at the BBC in the UK.
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Anglotopia was founded by Jonathan and Jackie Thomas for people who love Britain - whether it's British TV, Culture, History or Travel - we cover it all. Anglotopia was started to get us back to the UK for a trip and it did that in 2009. Now, the goal is for Anglotopia to make our dreams of traveling to the UK whenever we want a reality.
