Who doesn’t love Eurovision? All that razzmatazz. The ghastly frocks and gloopy pop songs, the false bonhomie and bare-faced bias when the voting comes around. It’s an irresistible annual event, guaranteed to put a smile on your face and provide the pretence that we are all one happy European family.
But all that showbiz comes at a cost (€6.2 million, and rising), with the host country’s broadcaster expected to cough up about one-third of that. What might have to be lost by the cash-strapped Corporation in the next year, or curtailed, to ensure that we put on the biggest and best show ever next year?
The BBC budget has become a hot topic in recent weeks. Cuts are in the air, with the forthcoming review into the licence fee still not announced because of the current parliamentary hiatus. At the same time formidable commercial rivals such as Netflix, Disney, Amazon, Audible and HBO are nipping at the Corporation’s heels, if not tearing at its collar, forcing it to compete on unfair terms as a publicly owned broadcaster without commercial funding.
Radio 3’s ambition is not to reach as broad an audience as possible but to be as broad-ranging as possible
We should never take for granted what the BBC provides for its audiences in the UK. Nor should we forget how significant its cultural role is abroad, helping to sustain that idea of a free-thinking, balanced nation which can encompass TV adaptations of Shakespeare and the Proms, as well as Downton and Strictly Come Dancing.
BBC Radio has always been television’s poor relation, required to fight harder each year to justify itself, and none more so than its signature highbrow station Radio 3. It is more expensive than some of the other stations because of its emphasis on live performances of the classical repertoire, but also of world music, jazz and folk, as well as its willingness to spend money on developing experimental programmes such as Between the Ears.
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