BBC director-general Matt Brittin has warned that more television and radio services could be closed as the broadcaster pursues a new round of savings, putting BBC Three and BBC Scotland among the channels facing uncertainty.
Mr Brittin, who took charge of the corporation in May, also said the BBC was prepared to explore AI-generated presenters for some future programmes, provided the technology was used within clear safeguards.
The 58-year-old former Google executive discussed the BBC’s financial pressures during an interview for Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg. A preview of the conversation was broadcast on BBC News At One on Friday.
He said strained finances, combined with audiences increasingly choosing on-demand content, could mean that some radio stations and television channels are shut down so money can be redirected towards digital services.
The BBC plans to save £500 million over the next three years and is expected to eliminate about 2,000 jobs. As part of that effort, Mr Brittin said he could not promise that any particular programme or channel would operate indefinitely.
He said the corporation was hoping to make broader funding decisions after a new charter is agreed in around 18 months, but added that the current financial squeeze had brought some choices forward.
“If most of an audience is getting things on demand, we have to examine the cost and value of every service,” Mr Brittin said, arguing that the BBC needed to determine how best to respond to the changing media landscape.
BBC director-general Matt Brittin has warned that further channels could be closed as the corporation looks for savings
The BBC is targeting £500 million in savings over three years and is expected to cut roughly 2,000 jobs
The BBC has already cancelled several programmes in recent months, including Blankety Blank, Celebrity Mastermind, Live At The Apollo and Football Focus. The closure of BBC Three and BBC Scotland could be announced as soon as October.
The possible channel closures follow calls from senior BBC figures for more radical action, including the abolition of entire services such as the BBC News Channel, Radio 1, Radio 2 and the youth-focused BBC Three.
One senior BBC insider argued that making small reductions across every department would weaken the organisation overall. Instead, the source said, managers should consider cutting particular services in full rather than leaving the entire corporation operating below strength.
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Asked by Ms Kuenssberg whether he would permit a programme to be created and presented by artificial intelligence, Mr Brittin said he would consider it, but only within defined limits.
He said the BBC wanted to test the technology and establish where it could be useful, while stressing that the organisation’s work remained rooted in human creativity.
“I don’t think anything we do should be replaced by AI,” he said. The technology could help the BBC stretch licence fee funding further and support decision-making and creative work, he added, but it should not be viewed as a replacement for people.
Mr Brittin said the BBC could test AI-generated presenters for future programmes, provided suitable safeguards were in place
The corporation already uses artificial intelligence for services such as automated weather updates on its app and recommendations for viewers on iPlayer. However, Mr Brittin also voiced concern that a small number of technology companies could gain excessive influence over how information is created and accessed.
With AI entering a rapid expansion phase, he warned that as few as six companies could eventually control access to information, as well as the production of both reliable material and misinformation.
Mr Brittin said no platform should be trusted automatically. Instead, the BBC would need to monitor how major services operate and ensure its content continued to appear in the right places and serve the corporation’s public mission.
He said the BBC, along with its apps and online services, should act as “the antidote to the algorithm”, contrasting its public-service role with platforms shaped primarily by commercial interests.
Amid the new measures, the National Union of Journalists warned the broadcaster could enter a ‘doom spiral’ caused by planned cuts.
Laura Davison, the NUJ general secretary, said: ‘The BBC’s ongoing campaign of cuts is devastating and demoralising for our members and severely undermines the broadcaster’s ability to serve audiences across the UK. The latest wave of cuts piles on the misery already being felt.
‘Audiences deserve better, too. Millions of people across the UK now live in news deserts. The public wants original, quality and genuinely local news and programming – not more syndication and reruns.’