Over the past month or so we've been hearing how the BBC are coming to terms with a lower than expected rise in the television license fee. So far the corporation has announced plans to sell its Broadcasting House and make substantial cuts to staffing in order to meet budget targets - but now it looks as though programming itself will come under fire.
Today's Daily Star reveals that the BBC want to cut the number of episodes in every new series of shows like Hustle, Spooks and Robin Hood - down from 8/10/13 to something like 6 episodes a year. I'm hearing from a number of sources - including somebody claiming to work for BBC Wales itself - that the BBC plan to cut down the number of Torchwood episodes - for the proposed third series - down from the typical 13 a year that we currently get to a mere 8.
Remember, nothing's been officially confirmed by the BBC regarding any of these programming cuts as of yet. Expect to hear some announcements over the coming weeks and months - and fingers crossed it won't affect Torchwood in any major way; or at all.
UPDATE: The BBC are apparently "discussing their options" with regards to all programming. There's various factors that must be considered when making a decision on a show's broadcasting future.
In other news John Barrowman will be performing on this year's Children in Need appeal. He joins Kylie Minogue, who's also singing on stage. There's also a short Doctor Who episode that features a return from Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor. Exciting, huh?
16 comments:
Noooooooooooooooooooooooo :(
Oi! When you going to announce the winners of the +1 contest mate?
WHATTT? Theyre maybe gonna do what! I cant beleive it. Please BBC don't deprive us of our 13 episodes of Torchwood, tis what some of us live for!!!
BBC Head Tells Staffers About Cuts
BBC Director General Mark Thompson has officially broken the news to staff that the publicly supported broadcaster plans to cut 10 percent of its program production, mostly news and "factual" TV, including documentaries. The cuts will reportedly reduce the staff by 2,500 and will be imposed over the next six years, making it possible to eliminate some positions by simply not filling them when employees leave voluntarily or retire. Meanwhile, commercial broadcaster ITV acknowledged that a "serious cultural failure" within the network had occurred during game shows in which audience members phoned in votes from home using a premium-rate telephone number. ITV acknowledged that it earned nearly $16 million from telephone votes that were never counted. In a statement, ITV Executive Chairman Michael Grade said, "I've never been involved in anything as grisly as this or anything that's damaged broadcasting as much as this."
13 episodes a season is barely enough as is, and with the Doctor only having 3 specials in 2009, the idea that we'll also have less Torchwood episodes that year is very disappointing.
Hopefully this is just a rumor which will not happen, because if they cut the numbers of episodes they will have to fill the missing episodes with other programmes (or repeats). Also I understand that it is the TV Centre not Broadcasting House that will be sold off.
they can't do this! I agree with wghat the person above me said, though - they can't get rid of episodes without having to fill up the gaps with other shows.
Apparently, it's BBC3 that will get the most cuts :-( that's the best BBC channel!
I prefer quality over quantity.
rather 8 episodes than none at all.if it happens fewer episodes might help tighten up the series and weed out rubbish episodes like random shoes and combat.
But I don't think the writers see Random Shoes & Combat as 'rubbish episodes'; everyone has there own take on what's good and what isn't, which means that we could actually end up with more episodes like those.
8 EPISODES???? If they are then they better be BRILLIANT episodes.
In fact I'm not standing for it.
If they do cut it down I'm going to start a protest! Who's with me?
:D
Hell Yeah Daisy! Agree with you there!!!!!
i notice someone above said combat was a rubbish ep. i totally disagree it was like one of my favs of the series i truly great action packed story
yeah that was me.not too keen on combat(too much of a fight club rip off in my opinion).
i thought it was a great ep but its evry1s choice what eps they like/dislike
ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
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