BBC to cut up to 2,000 jobs in biggest downsize in 15 years

The BBC is to cut as many as 2,000 jobs in the biggest downsizing of the public service broadcaster in 15 years.Staff were informed of the cuts, which will affect about 10% of the BBC’s 21,500 employees, at an all-staff meeting on Wednesday afternoon.The round of job losses, the biggest at the BBC since 2011, is being set in motion before the former top Google executive Matt Brittin takes over as director general next month.The corporation announced a £600m cost-cutting plan in February, saying that it would involve a reduction in headcount and the end of some programming. Tim Davie, the outgoing director general, said at the time that the BBC would need to cut 10% of its approximately £6bn annual cost base over the next three years.Davie left the BBC on 2 April, having announced his resignation in November after controversy over coverage of issues including Donald Trump, Gaza and trans rights.Rhodri Talfan Davies, the BBC’s interim director general, led the all-staff meeting, news of which was first reported by the Financial Times. Davies will continue to head the corporation until Brittin arrives on 18 May.After the meeting, Talfan Davies said in an email to staff: “As you know, the BBC is facing significant financial pressures, which we need to respond to with pace.“Put simply, the gap between our costs and our income is growing. This is being driven by a number of factors: production inflation remains very high; our licence fee and commercial income is under pressure; and the global economy remains turbulent.“To address this, we need to save an additional £500m from our total annual operating costs of £5bn over the next two years, with the bulk of the new savings required in 2027-28.“Inevitably, these plans will also mean reducing the number of jobs in the BBC. While we still have to work through the detail, we anticipate that the overall number of jobs will fall by 1,800-2,000. I know this creates real uncertainty, but we wanted to be open about the challenge.”Talfan Davies added that, in the short term, the broadcaster would introduce “additional group‑wide cost controls” with immediate effect in an attempt to improve its financial situation.“A lot of good practice is already in place,” Talfan Davies said. “But we need to go further and introduce tighter controls on recruitment and travel; cut spending on management consultancies; and reduce expenditure on attendance at conferences, awards, and events.”He added that BBC divisions were now looking at “how they can reduce areas of duplication” and “what activity they might be able to stop”. Spending plans for each division in the 2027-28 financial year will be shared with staff in September.“In parallel, we’re also looking at our ways of working across the organisation to identify areas where we can reduce costs together – by harnessing new technology and developing more consistent or simpler processes,” he said.The BBC is negotiating with the government over the renewal of its royal charter, which expires at the end of next year, including the licence fee funding mechanism.Philippa Childs, the head of the union Bectu, said: “Cuts of this magnitude will be devastating for the workforce and to the BBC as a whole.“BBC staff are already under significant pressure after previous redundancy rounds … further cuts of this scale will inevitably damage its ability to deliver on its public mission. The government must ensure that charter renewal puts the BBC’s funding on a more secure, long-term pathway and prevent our national broadcaster facing death by a thousand cuts.”The licence fee increased in line with inflation on 1 April, from £174.50 to £180 annually. The corporation made £3.8bn from the collection of the licence fee last year from 23.8 million households, plus a further £2bn from commercial activities and grants.However, licence fee paying households decreased by 300,000 year-on-year amid an increase in evasion and a rise in audiences only watching rival digital platforms, such as Netflix and Disney.In February, Davie said the BBC was “holding our own” despite the challenges posed by the rise of streaming services and the impact of YouTube.Last year, Ofcom, the media regulator, warned that public service television – made by the BBC, ITV and Channels 4 and 5 – was becoming an “endangered species” in the streaming era.The BBC is seeking to expand its iPlayer service, including announcing a content deal with YouTube in January.