BBC ordered to carry 3 hours of news on Radio 2

MUSIC station Radio 2 will be forced to broadcast at least three hours of news and current affairs every day at peak time under a crackdown by the BBC’s new regulator.

It could lead to a major shakeup of the schedules as executives try to ensure that Jeremy Vine’s popular current affairs show counts towards the new quota.

If the broadcaster falls short, it could be fined up to £250,000 a time by Ofcom, which will replace the BBC Trust next week to become the corporation’s first ever external regulator.

BBC director of radio Bob Shennan said yesterday he thought his channels already carried enough news and current affairs.

He highlighted Mr Vine’s show each weekday at noon, which takes an accessible approach to the heavyweight issues of the day.

But while Ofcom insiders agreed that it qualified as a meaty current affairs show, its timing may exclude it from the new requirement.

The chat show falls outside peak time on radio, which is 6am to 10am, and 4pm to 7pm on week days.

The demand is just one of a series Ofcom will impose on the BBC next year, after a public consultation.

The corporation also faces stiff targets for news and current affairs programming on TV and Radio 1, as well as for shows about art, music and religion. The watchdog could also penalise the BBC if it does not make enough children’s programmes in the UK, put enough music on in peaktime slots, cover a wide enough range of sports.

Ofcom also warned the BBC to make sure news and current affairs were at the heart of its TV schedules, with more between the peak hours of 6pm and 10.30pm.

Bosses will also have to ensure they spend the same amount per head on programming in Scotland and Northern Ireland as it does in england and Wales.

In 2015, 16.6 per cent of the money that the BBC put into network program-

‘We’ll hold its feet to the fire’

ming was spent in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland.

Ofcom chief executive Sharon White warned that it would ‘ hold the BBC’s feet to the fire’ if the broadcaster did not do more to reflect the UK, and ensure it ‘shapes and reflects’ Britain’s society and values.

She added: ‘We promise to hold the corporation rigorously to account. Audiences want to see UK stories, and those stories that authentically represent them.

‘The BBC spends 30 per cent less on original UK programmes, in real terms, than it did in 2004.’

The broadcaster already beats the target of ensuring that at least three quarters of TV programmes on BBC1 and BBC2 are original and made in the UK. But it will now have to guarantee that a minimum of 400 hours of programming on its CBBC children’s channel are made in Britain, and 100 hours of its pre-school programming on CBeebies.

Targets for classical music programmes and religion and art shows will ensure they are shown in prime time, rather than relegated to the back of the schedule.

Miss White said they were ‘totemic to distinctive public service broadcasting’, adding: ‘In recent years, public-service broadcasters have shown fewer arts, classical music and religious programmes. The BBC can help arrest that decline.’

The corporation has been criticised for failing to show all its annual Proms concerts on the main TV channels, and has been accused of treating religion as the ‘fag end’ of its priorities. At the moment, it depends on Songs Of Praise as the linchpin of its coverage.