BBC World Service to cut 130 roles to save £6m in the next year
BBC World Service will cut a net 130 jobs, including in the UK, as it battles to save £6m in the year ahead.
Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced an extra £32.6m for the BBC World Service for 2025/26 in November.
But the BBC said that despite this “welcome uplift”, previous licence-fee freezes, global inflation “and the need for ongoing digital and technological upkeep have meant savings are necessary”.
It added that it is competing against international news organisations with much bigger budgets meaning “increased competition for staff, platforms and frequencies, and audiences”.
The £6m savings needed for the next financial year will largely be met by the net reduction of 130 roles.
The BBC said these will include closing posts across the BBC World Service in the UK and internationally and in BBC Monitoring, which reports and analyses news from around the world and will also see a reinvestment “in strategically important skills”.
There will also be “changes to the commissioning mix” on World Service English and a reshaping of some World Service Language teams to become more digitally-focused.
Jonathan Munro, global director and deputy chief executive of BBC News, said: “While the result of the latest grant-in-aid funding settlement means we are able to maintain all of our existing language services, we were clear it would not stave off difficult decisions in order to remain globally competitive and meet our savings requirements.
“These changes will ensure we operate effectively with the resource we have, creating the most impact for audiences internationally.”
The BBC said its commitment to high-quality journalism across its 42 language services is “undiminished”.
The BBC joins several UK and US broadcasters announcing job cuts in January including CNN, NBC News and London Live. Other news organisations cutting roles include the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Dotdash Meredith, Huffpost and DC Thomson.
The last round of cuts affecting journalists at the BBC was announced in October, with 185 jobs expected to go across the news and current affairs department including through the end of the interview programme Hardtalk, tech show Click and the Asian Network’s bespoke news service.
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