BBC plans to shrink its services to leave room for its rivals

LONDON - In an overhaul to be announced next month, BBC is set to close two radio stations, shut half its websites and cut spending heavily on imported American programmes.

BBC Director-General Mark Thompson is likely to admit that the corporation, which is funded by the 3.6 billion pounds annual licence fee, has become too large and must shrink to give its commercial rivals room to operate, The Times reports.

He will announce the closure of the digital radio stations 6 Music and Asian Network, and introduce a cap on spending on broadcast rights for sports events of 8.5 per cent of the licence fee, or about 300 million pounds.

While BBC Switch and Blast! are likely to be closed in order to leave the lucrative teenage market to ITV and Channel 4, BBC Three won’t be touched.

The corporation’s web pages are to be halved, backed by a 25 per cent cut in staff numbers. Its 112 million pound budget will also be cut by 25 per cent.

It is also pledging to include more links to newspaper articles to drive traffic to the websites of rival publishers.he report that will be made public next month was drawn up by the corporation’s director of policy and strategy, John Tate, a former head of the Conservative policy unit.

The report is being seen as an attempt to show a potential Tory government that the BBC understands the effect the deep advertising recession has had on commercial rivals and that it does not need outside intervention to get its house in order.

The proposals are based on the assumption that the licence fee will be frozen in 2013. All of the changes will be funded by closures and cutbacks in other services. (ANI)