It's being reported that the BBC's Director General, Mark Thompson, will soon announce a drastic cutback of the corporation's public offerings. It's set to include the closure of DAB stations 6music and Asian Network, a halving of web output, a cap on spending on sports rights and foreign film and TV acquisitions and selling off BBC magazines. It'll also include the closure of BBC Switch and BBC Blast - brands aimed at teenagers.

While the BBC maintains that no final decisions have been taken, many are already up in arms about the announcement - particularly with regards to BBC 6music, which the Guardian calls "alone in playlisting intelligent, experimental rock music" in a lengthy love letter to the station on its music blog. The #saveBBC6music hashtag is climbing the trending topics chart on Twitter rapidly.

Commercial rivals will welcome the moves to cut back the output of the Big British Castle. Many have long complained about the difficulty of competing against the publicly-funded offering. However, others argue that its publicly-funded status allowed it to serve demographics that aren't lucrative enough to advertisers for commercial rivals to touch.

How do you feel about Mark Thompson's rumoured plans? Are they long-overdue cutbacks of expensive white elephants? Or are they pointless sacrificial lambs to what could be an incoming Conservative government? Share your view in the comments.