The BBC has announced significant job losses in its news and corporate operations and will also axe entire shows and review its channel portfolio.
In April the broadcaster confirmed plans to cut around 2,000 jobs – 10% of the workforce – in its latest attempt to rein in spending and save £500m over the next three years.
Overheads have already been cut by around half a billion pounds over the past three years but falling levels of Licence Fee income mean further cuts are now necessary.
Outlining how the latest savings would be achieved, Director General Matt Brittin today revealed that 550 jobs are to be cut in the news and nations teams, and a further 700 lost from its corporate teams.
There’ll also be cuts to programme budgets across the content, news and nations divisions and a review of its TV and radio stations to reflect audiences’ growing move online.
Specific shows being axed include Radio 4’s The World Tonight, the Midnight News, Money Box Live and Crossing Continents, while BBC One will lose its Sunday morning edition of BBC Breakfast.
Additionally, from September Friday’s edition of Newsnight will move to a peak-time slot on BBC Two.
There’ll also be further sharing of production teams and resources on Laura Kuenssberg and Newsnight and across the News Channel and BBC One bulletins at weekends.
News will loose 200 jobs, saving around £25m, with additional announcements due over the next few months “detailing further post closures amounting to a level similar to that announced today.”
Cuts to TV budgets are expected to see a reduction of 100-150 hours of original programmes across all commissioning genres by the end of 2027/28, while in radio and podcasts there’ll be “a reduction of around 350-400 hours across stations and genres, while protecting many of our prime daily programmes.”
In the nations division initial cuts will include:
- Savings of £9m in Wales and a reduction in headcount of around 50 roles
- In Northern Ireland, £4m of savings and up to 50 roles
- In Scotland, over £10m of savings and up to 60 roles
- In BBC Local, £9m savings and around 90 roles
Brittin said he’d be guided by three principles:
- Sustain output with the highest audience value and impact
- Meet audiences where they are, reducing spend elsewhere
- Make the BBC simpler and faster
The last of these will involve “reducing senior leaders by at least 10%” and is expected to “reduce duplication, clarify accountability, and increase the speed of decision making” – all of which were meant to have been achieved in previous rounds of cuts by past BBC regimes which repeatedly insisted there were no further non-content savings to be made.
BBC’s Reliance on Licence Fee
UK households who watch live channels and content from any broadcaster or streaming service must pay the annual £180 Licence Fee, almost all of which goes to the BBC.
However watching on demand content from non-BBC services is exempt from the fee and the number of households paying declines each year.
Despite its reliance on the LF, which brings in around £3.8bn each year, the BBC has so far resisted making use of the iPlayer conditional on holding a valid licence.
Additionally, while streaming services offer simple, contract free sign-ups and ‘one-click’ cancellations, it’s impossible to buy a TV Licence to just cover a single month’s viewing.
Instead viewers must agree to buy a whole year’s licence and then, if they stop watching content covered by the fee before the year’s end, complete an online application to cancel it and request any refund they might be entitled to.
Such barriers potentially risk deterring people who might need a Licence for just part of the year, for example to watch the World Cup, from buying one.
Government ministers are currently considering how the BBC is funded as part of the Charter Review.