Colin Philpott: Long live the BBC – but make the right choices

Mark's list of priorities – journalism, music, culture, drama, comedy, children's programmes and events is similar – although not identical – to mine which was high quality news and factual programmes, high

quality UK-based drama and entertainment, arts and cultural programming and programmes for a range of minority interests.

So plans to strengthen the BBC's news service (including international coverage) are welcome. The continued existence of an internationally recognised, independent and impartial news provider on TV, radio and the web is of vital importance to all of us and to our democracy.

Further investment to improve the quality of history and science programmes on BBC1, of comedy and drama on BBC2 and of various things on radio all get the thumbs up from me and a general commitment – albeit a rather vague one – to improve quality and spend more on programmes and less on overheads is good news.

What's more, the BBC is also proposing to wield the axe in several ways suggested here last year – notably putting a cap on the amount it spends on sports rights (it cannot compete on all fronts in this area) and in reducing substantially the number of foreign imports.

I won't be losing too much sleep over the disappearance of some of the more remote corners of the BBC website. I don't think it needed to be the nation's broadcaster that provided me with a recipe for sticky toffee pudding when I Googled for one last weekend.

So far so good. However, the plans reveal some questionable choices and maybe a missed opportunity.

The closure of BBC6 Music and, more particularly, the BBC Asian Network plus a withdrawal from services for teenagers go against something which should be central to the BBC's mission – to provide something for groups which we cannot be certain will be provided for reliably by the commercial market.

Now the last thing the BBC should try to be is a sort of smrgsbord of minority interest programming – it can't try to serve every possible interest group.

Nevertheless, I reckon there's a pretty strong case for a speech-based radio station devoted to the sizeable and growing British Asian population. And I don't quite follow how the closure of a station devoted to the promotion of new music is compatible with music being one of the Director-General's key priorities. What's more, the closures of the two radio stations will only save just over 20m a year – a drop in the BBC's 3bn ocean.

The missed opportunity? I still don't see why it has to be the BBC which produces derivative, formulaic daytime fare and some of the bog-standard entertainment, including soaps, which clearly have a following but which the commercial market can and will provide.

Radios 1 and 2 – why do they have to be on the BBC? If it were to get out of all or some of these activities and leave them to others, the BBC would have even more to invest in the core activities it's identified.

Finally, there's something that doesn't quite add up about the numbers: 600m – the amount the BBC claims it will save – represents about 20 per cent of the total licence fee income. So it's a big number but I can't see how the cuts announced this week reach such a figure.

Nor can I see how the 600m is going to be spent. Even when I have added up all the published promises, I can't quite make it total 600m. Maybe, there's some deliberate leeway because the BBC is anticipating a reduced licence fee post the election. So it may not really be all about re-investment. Some of these savings will simply be cuts.

Let's be clear about one thing – the case for the continued existence of the BBC is an unanswerable one. Do we want quality programmes unadulterated by commercial or political influence for the whole UK population? Yes. Should we all pay towards it irrespective of how much we each use it and, by all paying, provide excellent quality

(generally) at low cost to each of us? At less than 3 a week, surely yes.

So, long live the BBC. Its instinct to concentrate on fewer things but to do them better is right but it needs to ensure that it really does make the right choices about which things it does.

Colin Philpott is director of the National Media Museum in Bradford.