BBC Four & CBBC to close

[DTV]

One thing I am surprised about is no mention of local radio which at 40 stations in England I've always felt is far too much, especially when there is now so much choice not just with other stations but also music streaming and podcasts. You could slim these down into much larger areas such as BBC North West, BBC North East etc where surely they'd have more impact.

Reducing the number of local radio stations - particularly merging them to cover the same areas as TV regions - is such an obvious cut that there is presumably a reason that it hasn't seriously been suggested at any round of cutbacks. I've always attributed it to MPs being frequent guests on a lot of local radio stations and they typically kick up a fuss at any proposed cuts to a service they use.

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I do wonder if BBC Parliament will possibly end up being online only within this decade.

I don't know why the BBC haven't suggested it being taken over by the parliamentary authorities or a consortium of the BBC, ITN and Sky. Many similar channels in other countries are run by parliaments themselves and there is no real reason that it has to be broadcast under the BBC label, especially as the BBC don't even produce the coverage.