The Stage

Indie producers call for government to protect BBC radio drama

Published Tuesday 16 October 2007 at 13:35 by Matthew Hemley

Independent producers are to lobby MPs in a bid to secure the long term future of radio drama, as the sector fears for its survival in the face of sweeping BBC budget cuts.

The news comes as the industry awaits a statement by BBC director general Mark Thompson outlining how he intends to stem a £2 billion shortfall caused by the government’s smaller than anticipated licence fee settlement earlier this year.

Radio production companies have expressed concern that there will be cuts to the Corporation’s spend on independent radio shows at a time when they are already working to small budgets, particularly on drama productions.

They argue that the government should be protecting BBC Radio and the amount it has to spend on programmes when ordering the Corporation to achieve value for money in the future.

Neil Gardner, chairman of representative body the Radio Independents Group, said: “We will be lobbying the Treasury to get it to recognise that BBC Radio needs to be protected and encouraged. If budgets keep getting cut, then programmes suffer. We want to re-educate members of government about the role radio producers play.”

He said the licence fee settlement would have been fine for the Corporation were there not “so many calls on that money for non-programme making”, such as funding new BBC buildings.

Gardner complained about the amount spent on television dramas compared with radio and said taking a show like Casualty out of the BBC’s schedule for a month could save enough money to “regenerate the Radio 4 schedule for a year”.

Radio dramas currently discover new writing talent and attract big names, but Gardner warned this would not be possible with smaller budgets.

He said the UK government did not formally recognise the independent radio production sector as it does the independent TV production industry and added: “Even though we may only be a few thousand people spread across the country, we are integral. Those few thousand people are UK citizens and have worked long and hard on an industry that makes a mammoth impact on the rest of the country. That is what we want to get across, if nothing else.”