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To: The BBC Director General
Save BBC Radio 4 Extra – A National Treasure for Just 12p a Year
Save BBC Radio 4 Extra – A National Treasure for Just 12p a Year
Why is this important?
The BBC plans to close Radio 4 Extra in spring 2027 as part of its latest round of budget cuts. The station costs the equivalent of just 12 pence per licence fee annually, yet provides entertainment and companionship to 1.55 million listeners every week. We believe this decision is short-sighted, culturally damaging and fundamentally at odds with the BBC’s public service mission.
Radio 4 Extra is unlike anything else on British radio. It is a treasure trove of comedy, drama, storytelling and entertainment, bringing together some of the finest programmes ever produced by the BBC alongside more recent productions.
From The Goon Show, Hancock’s Half Hour and Round the Horne to contemporary comedy, groundbreaking drama and adaptations of great literature, Radio 4 Extra preserves and celebrates a broadcasting heritage that belongs to all of us.
It introduces new generations to performers, writers and programmes they might otherwise never encounter, while providing familiar voices and much-loved entertainment to millions of listeners.
And it does all this at a remarkably modest cost.
According to the BBC’s own figures, Radio 4 Extra has an annual content budget of approximately £4 million. That’s just 0.067% of the corporation’s roughly £6 billion annual budget, equivalent to around 12 pence of a £180 television licence fee.
At just 0.6 pence per listener-hour, it is the BBC’s most economical national radio station.
Even more remarkably, the £4 million represents the station’s entire annual content budget, not the amount the BBC will necessarily save by closing it.
The BBC has yet to disclose the actual savings it expects to achieve. Since much of Radio 4 Extra’s programming will remain available through BBC Sounds, some costs will inevitably continue.
So how much money will the BBC actually save by depriving 1.55 million weekly listeners of a service that costs each licence fee payer the equivalent of just 12 pence a year?
We believe licence fee payers deserve an answer.
Radio 4 Extra also reminds us of something increasingly overlooked in the relentless pursuit of savings: public service broadcasting is about more than audience figures and balance sheets.
The station offers companionship to people living alone, comfort to those who are housebound, entertainment to those who cannot afford subscription services, and an accessible cultural resource for anyone with a radio.
The BBC argues that programmes will remain available through BBC Sounds. But a streaming library is not a substitute for a carefully curated radio station.
Listeners should not have to search for programmes they already know exist. One of Radio 4 Extra’s greatest pleasures is discovering something unexpected simply by switching on the radio.
And not everyone wants, or is able, to navigate an app or website to enjoy the BBC’s output.
Radio 4 Extra’s programmes represent decades of investment, creativity and talent, much of it already paid for by licence fee payers. Closing a dedicated channel that makes this extraordinary archive accessible seems a particularly perverse way to save money.
We recognise that the BBC faces serious financial pressures. Difficult decisions are inevitable. But there is a difference between making economies and dismantling the very services that make the BBC distinctive.
Once lost, a dedicated home for Britain’s radio comedy and drama heritage may never return.
We therefore call on the BBC Board and Director-General to:
- Reverse the decision to close Radio 4 Extra and preserve it as a dedicated broadcast radio station.
- Publish the actual projected savings from its closure, distinguishing between costs that will disappear and those that will continue.
- Explore alternative economies that would preserve this exceptionally cost-effective public service.
- Recognise the importance of accessible, curated broadcasting to listeners who cannot, or simply do not wish to, rely on streaming services.
Radio 4 Extra is more than another channel on the dial. It is a living archive of British broadcasting, a source of daily pleasure and companionship, and an important part of our shared cultural inheritance.
For the equivalent of just 12 pence a year, surely we can afford to keep it.
Please sign this petition and help ensure that Radio 4 Extra remains on the air for generations to come.
I’ve been listening to Radio 4 Extra since it first launched as BBC 7 in 2002. Over more than two decades, it has given me the opportunity not only to revisit much-loved classics from the BBC’s extraordinary archives, but also to discover countless programmes, writers and performers I might never otherwise have encountered.
And that, to me, is what makes the station so special. It isn’t simply a repository of old programmes. It’s a carefully curated service that continually introduces listeners to something new, even when that something was first broadcast decades ago.
There’s a particular pleasure in switching on the radio and discovering a programme you didn’t know existed, rather than having to search through an online catalogue for something you already know you want to hear.
BBC Sounds may preserve access to the programmes, but it cannot fully replicate the experience of Radio 4 Extra. An archive preserves the past. A radio station brings it to life.
