// BBC ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS — MODA & SOCIETÀ
Some BBC channels and radio stations may well have to close, director general says
'We can't guarantee any programme or channel forever' - BBC Director General Matt Brittin
The BBC's financial situation and changing audience habits "may well mean" some channels and radio stations have to close so resources can be invested in on-demand services, its director general has said.
As the BBC seeks £500m savings, Matt Brittin told BBC One's Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that "we wouldn't guarantee any programme or any channel will exist forever".
He said: "The tight financial situation means that we're having to look at some of those decisions a bit sooner than we might like."
Audience behaviour is also rapidly changing, he said. "If most of an audience is getting things on demand, we have to look at the value and the cost of all of those different services."
Brittin said his focus when making savings was to "minimise the impact on audience".
He explained: "We might have some channels and services where maybe 100,000 people are watching the broadcast service but 500,000 are getting those programmes on iPlayer.
"When's the right time to migrate that service fully to being on-demand? And part of my job is to safeguard value for money for the licence fee payer."
The BBC should go "in different ways to reach audiences and we're locked into yesterday's model of how people consume content, and actually the audience is always already living in tomorrow's world", he said.
In recent months, the BBC has announced a series of closures of jobs and programmes including Blankety Blank, Celebrity Mastermind, Live At The Apollo and Football Focus, and further cuts are expected.