The BBC is to cut more than 1,000 jobs in a cost-saving push that is set to save the Corporation £50 million.
In an all-staff email, director general Tony Hall explained that the cuts – which are most likely to affect marketing and communications – are needed to make up for a licence fee funding shortfall of £150 million in 2016-17, which is a direct result of the rapid move to online viewing.
“A simpler, leaner, BBC is the right thing to do and it can also help us meet the financial challenges we face,” Hall said.
“We’ve already significantly cut the costs of running the BBC, but in times of very tough choices we need to focus on what really matters – delivering outstanding programmes and content for all our audiences.”
The proposed steps to be taken include:
– To reduce the number of divisions – first by joining up technology teams across digital, engineering and worldwide.
– To reduce the number of layers from the top to the bottom of the organisation. In some places there are currently 10 layers of people and management and this will be cut to a maximum of seven in the future.
– To reduce management roles in all areas of the BBC.
– To simplify and standardise procedures across the BBC, particularly looking at how professional and support areas such as marketing and communications, finance, HR, IT support and legal are structured and can be simplified.
The news comes as the BBC Trust approves plans to axe BBC Three as a television channel and move it wholly online, which is set to save the BBC £30 million a year.
In a statement issued on Tuesday (30 June), the Trust said that it had identified “clear long-term potential” in a new online service that would save a significant amount of money a year and that it thinks will be more distinctive than the existing BBC Three channel, whose audience is currently falling.
