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The BBC is braced for a major round of job cuts to be revealed within days. The impending announcement will kick off a major cost-saving drive designed to save £500 million ($672 million) across the corporation.
According to a news article by the BBC News, the downsizing effort will ultimately reduce job numbers by up to 2,000 across the entire broadcaster over the next two years, out of an annual operating cost of £5 billion.
While departments across the British broadcaster have been instructed to reduce spending by about 10%, the news operation is braced for significantly larger cuts.
During a video meeting held with news personnel last month, staff members were told to expect deep cuts amounting to 15% of the division's income.
Richard Burgess, the director of news and content, explained to personnel that workforce reductions are inevitable because staffing expenses account for the majority of costs within the division, leaving fewer opportunities to achieve savings through non-staff spending reductions.
In contrast, other teams, such as content production, are expected to find savings more easily through non-staff spending reductions.
The news division employs about a quarter of the corporation's 21,500 employees, supplying content for television, radio, digital platforms, and regional outlets.
Insiders indicate that the upcoming reductions will affect radio shows, with the impact likely becoming noticeable to audiences across BBC services.
To supplement the staff cuts, the broadcaster has introduced group-wide spending controls, including tighter restrictions on recruitment, travel, and spending on management consultancy, conferences, awards, and events.
The implementation of the efficiency drive coincides with a leadership transition at the broadcaster.
The new director general, Matt Brittin, has indicated that there would not be a gradual "salami slicing" approach to savings, suggesting a preference for making more decisive decisions over cutting entire services or programs.
Although the former Google executive is now at the helm, the plans for these cuts, the biggest at the broadcaster in 15 years, were already being drawn up before his arrival.
Signs of the corporation's ongoing attempts to save money have already drawn public discussion during the World Cup.
The broadcaster opted to have its presenters and pundits cover the tournament, hosted in the US, Canada, and Mexico, from a new studio in Salford rather than traveling to the host nations.
The studio will then be used for Match of the Day once the tournament is over. This arrangement has drawn criticism from political figures, including Conservative chair Kevin Hollinrake, who criticized the BBC for damaging the viewer experience.
The aggressive fiscal measures show a willingness from the BBC's leadership to make tough calls as they negotiate over the future funding of the corporation with ministers, as part of the talks over its royal charter, the formal constitutional agreement that establishes the broadcaster's operations.
Both sides are examining whether the license fee would be extended to include anyone who watches private streaming services.
Under the current framework, a license fee is only needed if someone is watching live TV on any platform. Insiders argue that the streaming revolution has made that definition outdated.
Philippa Childs, the head of the Bectu union, expressed serious concern over the impending downsizing, stating that in the era of fake news, high-quality independent news programming is even more important and its integrity must be preserved against the homogenization of global media content.
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