US EditionBBC to dismantle ‘crown jewel of live British broadcasting’
BBC Studios Events team reduced by 80% amid a 10% budget cut, with live event coverage shifting to freelancers after recent RTS award win.
- BBC Studios Events will cut 80 per cent of its staff, leaving Claire Popplewell as the sole in-house lead as part of a corporation-wide plan to reduce costs by 10 per cent.
- The BBC cites a 'tough wider market' and the need for efficiency, stating future live-event coverage will rely on experienced freelancers despite the unit's recent RTS award for coverage of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
- One source familiar with the plan described the reduction as 'desperately short-sighted,' calling the unit 'the crown jewel of live British broadcasting' and fearing degraded coverage of events like the annual Trooping the Colour.
- Ingrid Seward, editor-in-chief of Majesty Magazine, warned the decision will 'really irritate a lot of people,' following the corporation's recent drop of Commonwealth Day coverage at Westminster Abbey due to budget cuts.
- Since Queen Elizabeth's coronation in 1953, the unit has captured major state ceremonies, including the late Queen's state funeral, establishing decades of institutional expertise now at risk from the redundancies.
8 Articles
8 Articles
BBC responds to reports it is dismantling 'crown jewel' of live British broadcasting
The BBC is making cuts to the team that produces the broadcaster's coverage of major national events, including the Remembrance Day service and state funerals.The BBC Studios Events team is behind some of these moments, but they will reportedly now be reduced to a team of just one and freelancers.A source told The Times: "They are literally the crown jewel of live British broadcasting. They would never do this for Premiership football events, so…
I’m a former BBC royal correspondent – please don’t touch the ‘crown jewels’
At a time when shared national events are in ever-shorter supply, for the broadcaster to reduce its world-class coverage of Buckingham Palace flypasts and other such ceremonial occasions risks undermining its own mission, says Jennie Bond
I'm a former BBC boss. Here's why the latest cuts are the riskiest yet
If you’ve watched a national event on television at any point in your life, the chances are it will have been produced for broadcasting by BBC Events. Charles III’s coronation, the funeral of Elizabeth II, the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the annual Festival of Remembrance and many more were all put on our screens by a talented BBC team. That is why there is alarm about the proposed cuts to BBC Events which could, it’s claimed, leave just one full…
The department that covers the royal and state acts on the BBC, considered by many the jewel of the crown of the British live broadcast, has made a historic cut within its staff. Continue reading...
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