The BBC has announced plans to hand over control of Desert Islands Discs to its for-profit division, with the aim of making more money from the show by targeting listeners outside the UK.
The long-running interview programme, presented by Lauren Laverne, is currently made by the BBC’s public service division, which focuses on producing shows for British licence fee payers.
In the future Desert Island Discs, along with other popular Radio 4 shows such as Melvin Bragg’s In Our Time and The Life Scientific, will be made by the commercially focused BBC Studios, which aims to boost profits by attracting listeners around the world and seeing if shows could also work as television formats.
As part of proposals announced on Tuesday, many of the BBC’s existing in-house teams working on drama, entertainment and documentary radio programmes will have their jobs transferred to BBC Studios. The BBC said it wanted to capitalise on the global boom in podcast consumption by attracting external investment in shows, making shows for other broadcasters, and selling adverts targeted at non-UK audiences.
One staff member whose job could be affected said the plans risked creating a “ghettoisation of traditional public service radio”.
They said BBC bosses increasingly wanted hit podcasts, rather than unusual or quirky one-off programmes: “It’s a muddy and confused idea of what public service broadcasting is. If you imagine radio as a soundgarden, then all those little flowers won’t get planted. They just want to tarmac it over and have the decking out.”
Earlier this month official listening figures showed a substantial drop in the audience for Radio 4, with the BBC suggesting it is responding to consumer behaviour by prioritising investment in podcasts and on-demand listening rather than traditional radio stations.
One side-effect of moving programmes to BBC Studios is that the division does not have to declare the salaries it pays to leading presenters and producers. The for-profit division also has more freedom to pay extra money to retain top talent, which has previously led to prominent podcasters leaving the BBC.
The BBC’s radio news and current affairs output, as well as current affairs podcasts such as Newscast and long-running dramas such as The Archers, will be unaffected by the move and still be made in-house.
Charlotte Moore, the BBC’s director of content, said the plan would help subsidise the UK licence fee operation, which has been hit by more than a decade of Conservative government cuts: “Our plan allows the BBC to benefit from the fast-growing global audio market, enabling our distinctive audio content to reach wider audiences, open up more creative opportunities and bring more investment back into the BBC.”
