It is being reported that the BBC is considering proposals to “slim-down” the BBC News channel, concentrating on “developing news and headlines”. Plans are also being discussed which include increasing commercial income from its journalism as part of drives to cut costs by 20%.

The details were revealed in a leaked document; Director General Mark Thompson’s “Delivering Quality First” (DQF) initiative. The paper outlines savings have to be made in the BBC’s News output totalling “£89m in overall savings between 2013/14 and 2016/17″.

There are also ongoing discussions about the future of BBC Parliament, which include talks to bring it even closer to the award winning “Democracy Live” website, to make the channel “more cost effective and accessible”. The channel is already streamed on the website along with video archives of proceedings in all the UK’s democratic institutions, as well as the European Parliament in Brussels and Strasbourg.

The cuts are a result of the six-year licence fee freeze the BBC agreed with the government in October and Thompson has asked staff to come up with ideas as to how they can be achieved while maintaining the quality of the corporation’s content and services.

There have been a number of leaks of ideas spouted from the DQF proposals, including merging local radio and BBC Radio 5 Live akin to commercial broadcasters, simulcasting the BBC News Channel on BBC2 during the daytime as well as cutting children’s programming on BBC One and cutting BBC One’s budget as a whole. However, which of these (if any) will actually happen and to what extent, is unknown.

A BBC News spokeswoman said: “No decisions have been taken and any decisions coming out of the Delivering Quality First process would be subject to approval by the BBC Trust.”

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