LONDON: The BBC would have to cut budget by 20% over the next five years, its director general said yesterday, warning that some services might have to shut.
"The BBC faces a very tough financial challenge... We will inevitably have to either close or reduce some services," Tony Hall said in a speech in London.
The corporation is being forced to adapt to a growing online audience and government reform plans ahead of the renewal of its royal charter due next year.
The BBC announced 1,000 job cuts in July and said it would pay for free television licences for over-65s which have previously been funded by the government.
The public broadcaster is currently funded through an annual licence fee of £145.50 ($222) which all British households with a television have to pay.
This raises over £3.7 billion per year.
"Having already saved 40% of the BBC's revenues in this charter period, we must save close to another 20% over the next five years," Hall said.
He stressed the importance of the BBC World Service, saying: "My own strong views is that this is one area where this country's voice could be much stronger -- especially in the Middle East, India and Russia and the states that used to make up the Soviet Union."
The BBC would aim to expand its digital presence in Russia, either via YouTube or its Russian equivalent RuTube, and would look at the feasibility of a Russian satellite TV channel.
It also plans a daily news service for North Korea, whose citizens are largely cut off from news of the world outside, having no access to the internet and being unable to make calls outside their country.
Currently the US-funded Voice of America (VOA) and Radio Free Asia (RFA) both make short-wave broadcasts in Korean to the communist state, where those who listen to unauthorised foreign broadcasts can face severe punishment.
But unlike South Korea and the United States, Britain is not seen by Pyongyang as an enemy state, and the BBC plans might not evoke as harsh a reaction.
The BBC is also planning a British local news service that would be made available to other media outlets. afp/reuters
