While there are only a couple of shows on 6 Music, I think that the areas proposed for the chop were badly chosen.
It seems that audience figures for the Asian Network have declined a bit, and to be honest I don't know how popular the station is compared with other (local and regional) programmes, or whether satellite TV channels in different languages are more popular for news and entertainment.
Given the massive push to get people interested in DAB (with variable response, partly down to poorer quality audio than on FM for music stations like R1 and R2) they seem to have considered ditching them for limited savings.
I think the BBC Trust (which has a consultation out, but doesn't specifically cover these proposals) need to be bombarded with listener opinion that cutting these radio services is not the right way to go.
How can we, the public, comment on what is proposed (they first talked about 400 Million pounds in savings, then in another interview, indicated it was some sort of redistribution of the funding) when we don't have information about the budgets for each station.
I plan to set up a petition website to log requests for more openness from the BBC / BBC Trust.
I'd like them to release a spreadsheet which had headings for different sectors ( transmission costs, cost for presenters, cost for guests, cost for admin + technical staff, travel + accommodation costs, licencing / rights costs )
Clearly there are large costs for different TV channels, and lesser costs for radio, but it would bring some clarity.
Next, for each channel, there could be a breakdown based on headings of news, drama, comedy, education, sport, etc, with sub-headings under 'presenters', 'support staff', 'rights'. Clearly BBC 1 and BBC 2 have costs for getting the rights to show certain sports. By not breaking it down any further, it would not be clear what was spent on football, rugby, snooker, golf, tennis, etc (because those individual amounts might be too sensitive), but it would start to give some clarity over the total costs for sports, drama, films/entertainment, news, and comedy.
For radio, there'd need to be a similar breakdown, perhaps similar categories as for TV, perhaps slightly different.
As you can see, the idea would be to get an overall picture of how they 'slice the funding cake' rather than identifying specific programmes or individuals.
It might highlight the significant cost (on expenses) of some channel or station, and begins to shed light on just how high or low services like 6 Music come in the overall costs of the BBC.
I've not included the website, and there would be a need to break down the costs for the senior executives, managers, and producers/editors as their costs might well exceed the {support} staff that are involved (say on a Five Live phone in, answering the phones, who might come under 'technical staff' alongside people in engineering who are needed for a show to be on, but who are 'back room staff' rather than the presenters and guests we see/hear).
I wonder how much goes in costs for getting just the guests to radio studios, for Radio 4, for example.
I am curious about how much is spent on sending teams of staff abroad for different shows, whether they be to cover the US Elections, or some music awards, or just Radio 1 going to some seaside town, or even Ibiza....
I can think of lots of questions, and would love to get detailed answers, but know the BBC would be very defensive if too big a magnifying glass was held over them - if a group of shows are included, staff costs, expenses, etc, are not specific to an individual or programme alone, so might be possible.
What do you think ? Would some spreadsheets for each channel, each radio station, and breakdowns under different types of content make sense?
I am thinking now about what to call the domain name. I might get started on it this week, if I feel inspired!