The BBC World Service was commissioned David Lowe to write some new music ident which will be used alongside the original theme. Lowe is best known for.
The BBC World Service is ditching regular drama output after more than 75 years and axing dedicated Proms and Wimbledon highlights programmes as part of a new round of cost cutting, MediaGuardian.co.uk can reveal.
From April 2011, the World Service will no longer have a contract with the BBC's Audio & Music department to produce about 14 radio plays per year.
The World Service is also ditching its weekly 60-minute BBC Proms season programme, the World of Music series, and a daily hour-long Wimbledon highlights show that runs during the tennis tournament from next year.
Coverage of the Proms will continue in the World Service arts programme The Strand and other output, while sports bulletins will carry on covering Wimbledon.
In an email sent to staff seen by MediaGuardian.co.uk, the controller of English Global News, Craig Oliver, said a senior editorial team had been forced to make some 'difficult' decisions in response to an 'increasingly tough financial climate'.
A BBC spokesman said: 'Like all of the public sector, BBC World Service is having to respond to the challenges of an increasingly difficult financial climate at home and abroad. These are tough decisions, taken carefully and with great thought. We acknowledge that they will not be popular with some of our audiences and we share their disappointment.'
These latest cost savings to the World Service's English-language radio output foreshadow what are expected to be even deeper cuts when current negotiations over its £272m annual grant from the Foreign Office are concluded.
The Foreign Office has told BBC executives to prepare for a possible budget cut of 25% from April 2011 as part of the public sector cutbacks. BBC insiders fear this could force the World Service to axe some of its foreign-language operations.
The World Service has already cut £10.9m from the £272m annual budget agreed with the government in 2007 as part of a three-year deal.
This figure includes £7.6m from the £6bn of savings announced by the coalition government earlier this year, and £3.3m from former chancellor Alistair Darling's 2009 budget, which included £5bn of public sector savings.
The programming cuts announced today will also go some way to meeting the 25% cut the World Service is likely to face as part of the spending review.
Sir Michael Lyons, the outgoing BBC Trust chairman, admitted to MPs on the House of Commons culture select committee earlier this month that the corporation is in 'robust' discussions with the government about cuts to the World Service grant.
Lyons said the World Service needs more money, not less. 'Far from spending less, it's an area where you could really get that [influence] by spending more.'
The foreign secretary, William Hague, earlier this month confirmed that the World Service is facing cuts as part of the government's spending review, set to be announced next month.
However, the likelihood of cuts to the World Service operation in countries such as Burma would be 'correspondingly small', Hague said, adding that it would be up to BBC executives to decide how to achieve the cuts imposed by the spending review.
Lyons told the culture select committee: 'The parameters of the conversation [about cuts to the World Service grant] are the same as the rest of the [Foreign Office] and the rest of the government.'
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