BBC accused of cutting religious coverage (The Guardian)

[Up2Late]

(Wow, I wish we had a way to accuse the U.S. television networks of "... failing to find new ways to engage viewers!")

BBC accused of cutting religious coverage

Owen Gibson and Maggie Brown
Monday May 9, 2005
The Guardian

The BBC will today face renewed criticism from its own board of governors for continuing to cut the amount of religious programming on BBC1 and failing to find new ways to engage viewers.

Research to be published by the BBC governance unit ahead of a day-long debate on the topic to be headed by chairman Michael Grade on Friday, will give further ammunition to those who accuse the channel of sidelining religion.

A review of the impact of a previous edict from the governors in 2002 to beef up "high quality, wide impact" religious shows on BBC1 will say that the corporation has comprehensively failed to do so. "The strategy has not resulted in religious output with a wider impact on BBC1," it says. A strategy of screening one-off shows in high-profile slots has "failed to deliver greater impact on BBC1", adds the review.

Far from increasing the amount of religious programming on BBC1 as demanded by the governors, it finds that the channel has cut back on the number of shows.

(more at link above)