BBC responds to ‘neighbour from hell’ claims — but fails to mention local radio cuts
BBC bosses tonight hit back at claims from editors around the country that is was behaving like a neighbour from hell, insisting it knew it had to support partners.
In a lengthy statement posted on the BBC website, BBC Nations Director Rhodri Talfan Davies said commercial publishers who hit out at the BBC’s expansion into local news online, describing criticisms as ‘misplaced and misleading.’
But in setting out the BBC’s role in the local news sector, Mr Davies failed to mention the BBC’s decisions to axe many local radio shows, with most local radio stations in the UK sharing shows after 2pm every day and at weekends.
“If the BBC was a family and lived in the house next door to you it would be the neighbour from hell,” the editors said today , adding that the attack on local news media would be a “shameful legacy” for BBC Director-General Tim Davie.
“The BBC seems to be on a mission to be the only show in town — having taken an axe to its much- loved local radio stations so it can start writing news stories online which you can already get from local newspapers which are currently battling with tech platforms like Google, Meta and Apple.
“It could do so much more to link to local publishers, helping them to thrive, rather than trying to close them down. Even such a simple act, repeatedly asked for over the years, seems beyond the BBC.
Mr Davies said in a statement that Ofcom research had suggested publishers were wrong to say the BBC was distorting the local news market. Ofcom was also criticised by editors for failing to watch over the BBC with enough knowledge of the local news market.
Mr Davies said: “This criticism of the corporation is again misplaced and misleading.
“First, there is no evidence the BBC ‘crowds out’ local competition through its online activity. In fact, successive studies and reviews over the last decade show it’s the internet — not the BBC — that has radically challenged the business models of local news operators across the world.
“Second, the media regulator Ofcom has reviewed the BBC’s local online plans and determined that they are unlikely to have a significant impact on other local providers. In fact, Ofcom concluded that our plans to strengthen BBC local news provision across 43 areas in England are unlikely to impact more than 0.5–1% of existing local media revenues. In their own words: “We do not consider the change is one that may have a significant adverse impact on fair and effective competition”.
“What they [editors] pointedly failed to tell their readers is that the BBC is already investing millions of pounds every year to support high-quality news jobs within the local commercial sector.
“In fact, today, the BBC funds a unique network of 165 journalists — all employed by commercial newsrooms — to scrutinise the work of local authorities across the UK. The impact of the Local Democracy Reporter Scheme (LDRS) is clear. Since the scheme’s inception, it has produced more than 370,000 original stories for over 1,100 different news outlets.”
He added: “The truth is that the BBC has always recognised it has a unique responsibility to support our partners in the local community and — like all good neighbours — we are committed to deepening that collaboration in the years to come. But that won’t deter us from setting the record straight when our role in local journalism is misreported.”
Mr Davies failed to mention that publishers are also increasingly having to invest in the LDR scheme as funding has not kept up with inflation.
There was no mention of the axing of local radio shows across the country, which have been replaced by syndicated output, in the summary of the BBC’s plans for local journalism, although details of 130 new roles, funded by diverting cash from local radio, were set out.
