Amol Rajan has said he expects the BBC and BBC News to shrink more rapidly in coming years, explaining that this helped motivate his move from the Today programme towards creator-led platforms such as YouTube and TikTok. His comments underline the pressure on public service broadcasters as audiences shift from scheduled television and radio to digital video, while the BBC confronts major financial constraints.

Rajan, 43, described Radio 4’s Today as the last major mass-market news programme, but said he wanted to avoid being “behind the curve” as media changes. The BBC is planning £500 million of cuts over two years amid falling licence-fee value and fewer payers, while it has also agreed a YouTube partnership aimed at younger audiences. At the Edinburgh TV Festival, YouTube’s regional chief opposed legal requirements to prioritise public-service content, whereas ITV’s Kevin Lygo contrasted YouTube’s £3 million creator-economy investment with ITV’s £1.2 billion annual content spend.