Rumours that BBC Asian Network is going to be shut down have grown stronger today after a report leaked to the The Times newspaper.

The corporation is due to announce an overhaul of services next month.

The newspaper reported this morning that BBC director-general Mark Thompson will signal that ‘an era of expansion’ would be over. One of the drastic cuts to be recommended would be shutting down BBC Asian Network entirely.

Other changes to be mooted include a cap on spending on broadcast rights for sports events to around £300 million.

The paper added that:

It will be seen as an attempt to show a potential Tory government that the BBC understands the effect the deep advertising recession has had on commercial rivals and that it does not need outside intervention to get its house in order.

The BBC is already under pressure to decrease its online presence, and the report is said to have made recommendations on that area too.

The Asian Network has come under intense pressure recently to improve its audience ratings and improve value for money. An internal survey last year found the station was the most expensive among all BBC radio stations.

Over at the Guardian, Momtaz Begum-Hossain wrote in the station’s defence:

And how am I going to learn about Asian life? We are sadly not yet living in a time where minority voices, Asian and non-Asian alike, are completely assimilated into the mainstream media. Which of the BBC stations is going to meet that big gap that Love Bollywood fills? And what about the community language programmes?

When I was growing up, our household came to a standstill when there was Bengali programming on the radio. I can’t even turn to the commercial Asian radio stations any more to hear what’s happening in Asian news, sport and entertainment, because last year saw the closure of Club Asia and Zee radio. The Asian Network is my only source of information on these subjects.

More coverage on AIM Magazine soon.