BBC announces 2000 job cuts across content and output divisions

2,050 jobs are to go at the BBC's content and output divisions, Director-General Mark Thompson announced today.

The cuts follow the 1,730 job cuts in the BBC's Professional Service divisions announced two weeks ago, bringing total job losses at the corporation to 3,780.

BBC Nations & Regions will be particularly badly hit, with the loss of 735 jobs, with Factual & Learning losing 424 posts and BBC News, 420.

Enraged at the "brutal" efficiency savings, Bectu, NUJ, and Amicus have pledged to fight against compulsory redundancies, and have questioned whether the BBC will be able to fulfil its digital switchover commitments, with expanded services, if cuts of this scale are implemented.

"This is the worst day in the BBC's history," said Bectu official Luke Crawley. "I can't see how the BBC will deliver all Thompson's promises about new services after ditching so many staff, and life for those who survive is going to be miserable.

"We're not against an efficient, productive BBC, but many of Thompson's proposals are going to make it worse, not better, and that's what we'll be fighting against."

Mr Thompson said the cuts would amount to savings of £221m a year in the organisation's content and output areas by 2008, which will be reinvested back in to programmes.

Speaking via a live TV link from Television Centre, Mr Thompson told all BBC staff: "This is all money we plan to spend on programmes and content, both to improve the services we deliver to audiences right now and to build strong BBC services in the future.

"All divisions are now finding ways of achieving these savings through genuine improvements rather than crude cuts."

He said that over the coming months there would be a lot of hard-edged activity across the BBC to make the changes real.

This would include revisiting the BBC's technology strategy, simpler processes, more prioritisation and rewarding people for excellent leadership.

Acknowledging that there were risks in undertaking change on such a large scale, Mr Thompson said: "We are going through the toughest period any of us can remember. It's a difficult and painful process but necessary.

"We need to free up money to start investing in our digital future, to end our current Charter in December 2006 on budget and to show we are serious about providing value for money."

Many of the job cuts revealed today are the result of programme departments scaling back their capacity to deal with an expected increase in the BBC's use of independent producers.

Mr Thompson plans to introduce a "window of creative competition" (WOCC), allowing independent companies to bid against in-house departments for commissions. In parallel with the WOCC, BBC production departments are cutting in-house capacity from 75% to 60%.

Union representatives from BBC sites across the UK are due to meet on Wednesday March 23 to discuss their response to the changes. Their policy of opposing compulsory redundancies and privatisation is likely to be reaffirmed, and the BBC could face severe industrial unrest later in the year.

(GB/KMcA)