The Media Show

The programme began with the BBC after further cuts were announced, including the closure of BBC Three, BBC Scotland and Radio 4 Extra, alongside earlier programme and staffing cuts in news, radio and sport. The corporation is seeking to save £500m by 2028 and is negotiating future funding. Deputy Director-General Rhodri Talfan Davies said the licence fee was out of time and called for funding reform, defended difficult choices across the portfolio, and said the new director of news would set out plans in the new year, with no further news announcements before then. He also discussed closer cooperation between local, regional and national news and said the BBC hoped the World Service would be funded directly by government, while funding talks continued and a household levy was not favoured.

A studio panel then discussed the cuts and funding options. Labour MP Patrick Hurley raised concerns about cuts to local, regional and national news and about the BBC's management approach; former BBC executive Roger Mosey questioned the funding timetable, argued for an iPlayer-led BBC and said he would protect news; and former culture secretary Nicky Morgan said the BBC needed sustainable funding and might be smaller but not worse, while expressing scepticism about a streaming levy.

The programme then examined the Channel 4 documentary The Experiment, in which members of the public toured a fictional care facility for disabled people, staffed by actors, whose ideology was drawn from Nazi policies. Producer Nick Parnes said it aimed to explore the Nazis' treatment and propaganda about disabled people and echoes in current language, while presenter Sophie Morgan said it asked whether similar attitudes could recur. They discussed the ethical issues of filming unsuspecting members of the public, with Parnes saying participants were told what had happened and brought back the next day.