Presenter Amol Rajan has urged Prime Minister Andy Burnham’s Government to “stop dithering” and sort out the BBC’s funding structure.
Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Thursday, the Radio 4 Today programme anchor urged Mr Burnham and his ministers to “make a strong decision” about the future of the corporation.
The BBC announced earlier this summer that it plans to make 550 job cuts in news, nations and TV and radio content as part of a plan to save £500 million across the corporation over the next two years.
Speaking just a week before officially stepping down from his role on Today, Rajan said: “These cuts are just the beginning – there is worse to come.
“The [BBC’s] finances are much worse than people realise. What we need is political leadership, and this country has new political leadership, and I happen to know they’re listening.
“I have a message for them: make a decision. Stop dithering. This could not be more urgent and this could be a great legacy for you.”
Rajan criticised the current licence fee structure and urged leaders to consider the mutualisation of the BBC – a proposed reform model that would turn the broadcaster into a co-operative or mutual organisation owned and controlled by the British public rather than managed directly through Government oversight.
His wide-ranging keynote speech at the festival offered bold perspectives on the future of television, news, and more.
He said the BBC should be seen as a “deep well” bridging the past to the future and bringing the nation together.
“The BBC isn’t the only bridge, but it’s one of the best, and we’ll be stranded without it,” Rajan said.
“This is the patriotic case for a modern BBC, but what do we have instead? Well, the phrase managed decline is far too generous when it comes to the actions of British governments in recent years.”
He said it is not possible to “cut your way to growth”, and he described the BBC as “screwed” as income from the licence fee is in steep decline.
Rajan described the BBC as standing over a “vast chasm called the internet” and said it is time for a “bold step forward”.
He said: “I think my message to the BBC would be that if the money is sorted, you can still be the best in the world.
“The job of the journalists and people who make the programmes seems to be just to have faith, that [it can be sorted…]
“If they can [sort the finances], and if we can staunch the flow… We’ve got something in this country that is the envy of the world.”
