Recommendation 16

We asked whether the BBC considered £500 million would be enough for its investment plan. The BBC said that pressure on the £500 million had increased and it would have to “box very clever”.25 It said it had already taken some tough decisions, it would have to focus, and stop things that are less effective. For example, it was making 12,000 hours of content now compared to 13,000 a few years ago.26 But the BBC acknowledged that “we do not know if it is enough” and that it would be “incredibly difficult”. The BBC commented that it would have to find ways of attracting more capital from its commercial arm, and also agreed that it did not want to find savings by doing things that would be acts of self- harm, such as closing lots of radio stations. The BBC also said that the strategic technology review had enabled it to pull departments together, realising economies of scale and also improving performance.27