Â鶹Éç

I'm the Â鶹Éç's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on in the industry.

The on its front page that the Â鶹Éç has been accused of planning "the death of local radio", as it "prepares to replace almost all its local programming with the national station Radio 5 Live". Quoting the NUJ, it claims that staff at the Â鶹Éç's 40 local radio stations will be briefed today on the plans. This was denied late last night by a Â鶹Éç spokesperson, who said the idea was one of many put forward at the Delivering Quality First sessions: "It is not true that any decisions have been made so there are no plans to inform staff of any changes tomorrow.... The Delivering Quality First sessions are designed to provoke discussion amongst staff about the way the Â鶹Éç works and any decisions coming out of the process would be subject to approval by the Â鶹Éç Trust."

The cost-cutting at the Â鶹Éç will provoke fierce protests when the public see programmes cancelled and channels closed, the incoming Chairman of the Â鶹Éç Trust has warned MPs. "In a dire assessment of the financial challenges", according to The Times, Lord Patten of Barnes said he and Mark Thompson, the Â鶹Éç's Director-General, would become hugely unpopular.

Lord Patten told MPs yesterday that if he was confirmed as the new chairman of the Â鶹Éç he would expect to be unpopular. The he and predicted that "there will be all hell let loose" as the corporation is forced to cut spending on programming.

Lord Patten would give up the Tory whip but remain a Conservative Party member if confirmed as Â鶹Éç Trust chairman. Questioned by culture, media and sport committee MPs, he said he would quit a BP advisory board only if it came to be seen as a conflict of interest, reports the Â鶹Éç.

Prospective Â鶹Éç chairman Lord Patten last night criticised the corporation's 'swagger' and its bosses' apparent belief that they should be earning as much as bankers. The the former Tory minister and governor of Hong Kong told MPs considering his appointment that it was wrong to pay executives 'as if they were at Barclays'.

"a fearful Â鶹Éç must regain its nerve" under its new chairman.

The Â鶹Éç's newspaper review says as Colonel Gaddafi's forces intensify their onslaught against Libyan rebels, Deborah Haynes of the Times reports from Zawiya, 30 miles from Tripoli.