{"id":904663,"date":"2026-11-03T17:50:10","date_gmt":"2026-11-03T17:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/904663\/"},"modified":"2026-11-03T17:50:10","modified_gmt":"2026-11-03T17:50:10","slug":"bbcs-talfan-davies-on-more-cuts-savings-donald-trump-lawsuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/904663\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC’s Talfan Davies On More Cuts, Savings & Donald Trump Lawsuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe BBC<\/a>\u2019s top brass is in the process of \u201clooking at options for the next stage of savings,\u201d according to the Deputy Director General, which will total another \u00a3300M ($400M).<\/p>\n

\n\tRhodri Talfan Davies<\/a> said it is very unlikely another big savings announcement will come before Christmas but stressed that the \u201clion\u2019s share\u201d of the cash has to be found before the end of the current BBC charter in 2027\/28.<\/p>\n

\n\tHe said these conversations are currently taking place at the very upper echelons of the broadcaster.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe executive senior team is now looking at options for the next stage of savings,\u201d Talfan Davies told journalists at a Broadcasting Press Guild lunch. \u201cWe haven\u2019t yet shared those with the [wider] team because we\u2019re still working through them. There are lots of ideas on the table, but until the Executive Committee reaches a decision, there\u2019s nothing to announce.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTalfan Davies was interim Director General in April when the BBC announced it was laying off <\/a>2,000 people. Since then, his new boss Matt Brittin, the permanent DG, has been busily enacting the \u00a3500M savings plan, a tricky task in the funding climate. Around \u00a3200M has been found so far.<\/p>\n

\n\tLast month, the BBC made the long-awaited announcement<\/a> that it would be shutting youth-skewing linear network BBC Three<\/a> along with the BBC Scotland channel and Radio 4 Extra. <\/p>\n

\n\tOur analysis spotlighted how <\/a>the worst is to come and floated that speculation internally has turned to the future of radio and podcast streamer BBC Sounds.<\/p>\n

\n\tToday, Talfan Davies gave press a window into the corporation\u2019s thinking around Sounds and VoD platform BBC iPlayer, which is in the process of being transformed. \u201cThe real question \u2013 and I don\u2019t know the answer \u2013 is whether iPlayer will be more and more the home for some of our biggest audio brands,\u201d he speculated. \u201cBut you\u2019ll still need a strongly creative collection of all your services. Brands come and go, but there will be a home for BBC audio content and its listeners.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe BBC remains unsure over its future funding model as charter negotiations with the government continue and Talfan Davies said the corporation is in the meantime having to \u201cride two horses in terms of financial outcomes, which is not ideal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe main funding solution to have emerged so far appears to be the so-called \u201cNetflix<\/a> tax,\u201d which would force streaming service subs to pay the \u00a3180 annual license fee as it desperately tries to get more audiences to pay the fee. <\/p>\n

\n\tWith Netflix in a tight spot having just laid off 1,000 staff itself, Talfan Davies acknowledged that the streamers \u201cmight not be supportive\u201d of the proposal but said \u201cin some ways it\u2019s not a million miles\u201d from yesteryear. He was referring to a time when audiences in the UK had to pay the fee even if they only watched other linear TV channels.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThere are echoes of that reform in what has been suggested,\u201d said Talfan Davies.<\/p>\n

\n\tCase against Donald Trump<\/a> \u201cvery strong\u201d<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tDonald Trump<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto by Roberto Schmidt\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the day of the U.S. midterms, and with Republicans expected to be inflicted with heavy defeats, Talfan Davies addressed the $10B defamation lawsuit the BBC faces from Donald Trump.<\/p>\n

\n\tWhile saying he is \u201cnot in the business of second-guessing judges,\u201d Talfan Davies said the BBC\u2019s case to have the defamation suit thrown out of a Florida court over jurisdiction is \u201cvery strong.\u201d \u201cWe\u2019ve put our best foot forward in setting out the arguments about why we don\u2019t think it should be heard in the U.S. at all,\u201d he said. \u201cI would like the judge to agree.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe situation emerged when a BBC Panorama show made a botched edit of Trump\u2019s Jan. 6 speech that appeared to show him inciting insurrection. <\/p>\n

\n\tTalfan Davies, who as Deputy DG now oversees the editorial standards and legal teams, said \u201ca lot has changed\u201d internally since the error was made and the \u201csluggishness\u201d of the BBC\u2019s response was \u201cprobably more profound\u201d than the error with the package itself. <\/p>\n

\n\tHe stressed the BBC has introduced \u201c\u2018before final gate\u2019 processes for our most contentious programmes\u201d that sees key people involved \u201cgo through a programme line by line.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tHe caveatted by saying \u201canyone in my job who says there won\u2019t be future issues in an organization is being naive.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe BBC does big investigations,\u201d he added. \u201cI\u2019m not naive about that. But I do think the processes and controls we\u2019ve put in place have made us much stronger.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The BBC\u2019s top brass is in the process of \u201clooking at options for the next stage of savings,\u201d…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":904664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[8827,378573,12,88,378574,217,205918,92],"class_list":["post-904663","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-bbc","tag-bbc-three","tag-donald-trump","tag-entertainment","tag-licence-fee","tag-netflix","tag-rhodri-talfan-davies","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=904663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/904663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/904664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=904663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=904663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=904663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}