The BBC's director general has revealed plans to cut the number of shows it makes, following the end of Holby City earlier this year.
Fans said an emotional goodbye to Holby City, where the final episode saw the death of much loved Jac Naylor (Rosie Marcel), and her organs donated to those in need of transplants. And it looks like more big shows could also be consigned to history soon as the BBC looks to change its service and cut costs.
According to The Guardian, director general Tim Davie is preparing to announce deep cuts to BBC output over the coming weeks, due to budget cuts, which could have a lasting effect on some programmes and channels.
In addition to this, Davie said that the era of the BBC trying to do "everything with every service" was no longer viable because it ended up spreading itself "too thin", but stressed they don't want to axe entire channels.
Speaking to attendees at the Voice of the Listener & Viewer conference, he said via Deadline: "By doing everything on every service you spread yourself too thin. People love publicly saying ‘let’s kill a channel’ but the truth is you can reduce content without doing that."
Davie also revealed plans to focus on digital and on-demand services, adding: "How much we are doing on linear, news, broadcast and then how much works well on iPlayer is the biggest decision for the BBC.
"How are we going to deliver public service media in the digital age so that people primarily consuming on-demand can get to it?."
But despite the digital-first focus, he stressed that the BBC isn't trying to mirror Netflix, saying: "We’re not trying to be Netflix, we’re going to be highly distinctive and of the highest quality."
The BBC has recently seen big numbers tuning in via iPlayer, especially when it came to the sixth and final season of Peaky Blinders, as almost half of its 8.7 million viewers watched the last season on-demand, and not when it was broadcast on BBC One.
Currently, it has not been confirmed which programmes will be affected by the proposed cuts or why, but difficult decisions could be made over the coming months due to the affected budget.
It's fair to say though that Holby won't be the last big-name show to end. But it does appear that channels like BBC Four are safe.
