BBC - how does it fight back?

[Blobs]

But they would be incredibly watered down versions of what those audiences had and liked. 6 Music as it is could not exist in the private sector. Or the Asian Network or even Radio 1. They would all be pale imitations of what they are now with the added bonus of 12 minutes worth of ads every hour and the generic non breakfast/drive hosts reminding you every link of how you can win 20 grand on the big name signing breakfast show with T Mobile tomorrow morning.

Perhaps they would or perhaps they would raise the standards for other commercial stations.

If a commercial operator drew a larger share of advertising cash from the market by providing these services to at or near the standards of the BBC, their rivals would react to this by changing their own offerings because that's what the market wants.

Who knows?

This is Global and Bauer we're talking about. Think of what they could have done for local radio but chose not to. I get what you're thinking and in an ideal world would be workable but imo it's an overly optimistic and rosy view of how the commercial sector works.

The issue with privatising Radio 2 in particular is it doesn't solve an existing issue, that it's shafting the commercial sector.

Right now IMHO Radio 2 is not distinctive enough to justify public money. Like Radio 1 30 years previously, it's too successful to justify public money.

So, to sum up the last 6 pages, we're getting rid of Radio's 1 & 2 because they're too popular and getting rid of Asian Network and 6 Music because they're too niche. Logical thinking, lads.