BBC Four & CBBC to close

[Matrix]

In some ways, I can see why the rhetoric around closing BBC Four would crop up. It’s largely become an archive channel and in many ways you *could* provide the same offer via iPlayer or focused strands on BBC Two, for example.

That said - and this is now just my perspective - I think it would be incredibly short sighted. Scuppering the ship to save a penny on tar springs to mind.

BBC Four has a genuine public service remit and above all else acts as a fantastic ‘shop window’ for the world of factual and doc productions we have. I fear in the race to save a few pennies to appease the ever more bizarre rambles of DCMS we’re heading down a path which ties off a very clear statement of the Beeb’s qualities.

Of course, whether it comes to pass is an entirely different matter but I fear this isn’t a BBC Three pause type situation - once gone it’ll be very hard to replace.