Cult Television section removed
Saturday, July 02, 2005, 0 comments

CultTv, previously adorned with the likes of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy" has now closed. Reasonings behind this decision are presented below in the BBC's response to many filed complaints. It seems that 700,000 users per month to the site was not a significant enough public resource with respect to maintenance and update costs.

The BBC's response

We recognise that the Cult website has attracted a large following. However, efficiency savings are needed to pay for new projects which will ensure that the BBC continues to offer distinctive and innovative services, so it is necessary to close this site.

As Ashley Highfield, Director of New Media, explained in December "..to meet the 10% target set out by the BBC Governors, we are announcing today a further 7.5% reduction to be achieved through lowering investment in areas where we feel this will not cause a reduction in public value... These changes build on the first steps we took in July to close those websites which we felt did not offer sufficient distinctive public value for the investment required. The savings we made in July represented 2.5% of our web output."

Furthermore, the BBC outlined in November its commitment to offer more distinctive content. We felt that many areas covered by the Cult site were already being replicated on other areas of the web. This meant there was very little distinction between the BBC and the commercial sector.

The exception to this is Dr Who, the largest of our Cult sites, which has now evolved into its own website, as an extension of the hugely successful BBC One TV series. We hope users will continue to visit and enjoy this site.

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