BBC Announces Second Wave Of Job Losses
The BBC’s board of governors have approved director general Mark Thompson’s proposal to cut a further 1,500 jobs at the Corporation in order to reduce costs and plough further investment into original programming.
The move, made certain at governors meetings over the past few days, could see the number of redundancies escalate to over 3,500, although the Corporation declined to comment on exact numbers, stating instead that an official announcement would be made on Monday.
The latest round of job cuts follow cuts of over 1,700 staff announced earlier this month, in order to free up £139 million a year by 2008. The extra cash will be reinvested in the broadcaster’s programmes, enabling it to meet the requirements of its new charter (see BBC Cuts 1,700 Jobs To Reinvest In Programmes).
The first round of cuts will lead to job losses across the Corporation’s professional services departments, including strategy and distribution, policy and legal, finance, property and business affairs and BBC People; the Corporation’s HR department. However, it is not known where the latest round of redundancies will be made.
Thompson announced in December 2004 that annual savings of around £320 million would be made at the Corporation within three years, stating that almost 3,000 jobs would face the axe, while a further 1,800 staff would be moved to Manchester (see Thompson Spells Out His BBC Vision). However, reports this morning suggest that up to 6,000 jobs could be lost in total, with the BBC eager to raise money to improve its performance in line with the Government’s charter proposals (see Governors Axed As BBC Charter Renewed For 10 Years).
In approving the latest round of cuts the BBC’s board of governors issued a statement, saying: “The BBC’s transformational plan has three main objectives: A bold new programme and content strategy based, above all, around the idea of excellence. A transformation of the BBC into a state-of-the-art digital broadcaster. An irreversible shift in the culture of the BBC towards greater creativity, opportunity and simplicity.”
The statement continued: “We considered management’s recommendations for efficiency savings in the content and output divisions, alongside plans for implementation of the overall value-for-money strategy including the professional services we endorsed in February. The Board has approved management’s value-for-money plans.”
The proposals for the future running of the BBC have been widely welcomed by rival broadcasters, with many revelling in the Government’s recommendation that the Corporation cease its current ‘copy cat’ output and concentrate more on quality programming at the expense of ratings-winners (see Broadcasters Welcome BBC Green Paper Proposals).
The proposals were also welcomed internally at the BBC at the highest level, with the Corporation’s chairman, Michael Grade, pledging that the BBC would be a good neighbour to its commercial rivals in the wake of the proposals. According to Grade, the proposals broadly met his own criteria for any forthcoming management reform, with requirements for independence and accountability of paramount importance. The chairman also welcomed the decision that the Corporation should refrain from airing excessive head-to-head competitive programming, a tactic which has long angered rival broadcasters (see Grade Promises Neighbourly Relations With Rivals).
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