Mad Men is one of the expensive US shows which might face the axe

Cuts by the BBC will see the budget for foreign imports cut by a quarter, a report by the Times revealed today.

For some time the BBC have said that hard decisions will have to be made as it wants to fund a new programming strategy costing £600 million. The BBC report, which is due to be released to the public in a month, suggests that 25% of the foreign acquisitions budget will be cut, along with radio stations such as 6 Music and the BBC Asian Network, as well as 25% of its web presence and the publishing arm BBC magazines, will face the chop. Here’s what the cuts will mean for us :

Fewer US and other foreign Shows

If you were hoping to see some of the buzzed about US shows on the Beeb next year, think again, and don’t get your hopes up for the crop of new pilots either.  The BBC is likely to try to keep its solid performers like Family Guy on BBC 3, but they may cut loose a few shows which are losing viewers, like Heroes and Mad Men, and spend on films instead, as they come from the same pot of money.  

BBC Switch and Blast to go

It looks as if the BBC will end the Blast and Switch threads which catered for teenagers, and re-invest the money in commission more work from young producers and writers.

More original drama

BBC 2 will get a 50 % funding increase and the BBC will respond to viewer calls for more original drama series.

At one stage it appeared  that both BBC 3 and 4 were headed for the biggest shake-up since they were originally harvested from BBC Choice and BBC Knowledge in the early 2000s, but it looks like they have escaped for now. Critics have said that much of BBC 4’s content could be screened on BBC 2 in place of repeats and US imports.

The report, a strategic review by director general Mark Thompson, will be discussed in March or April, and was drawn up on the assumption  that the license fee would be frozen in 2013.