\n<\/p>\n
\n\tThe BBC is planning to make up to 2,000 job cuts in one of its most brutal cost-cutting efforts to date.<\/p>\n
\n\tRhodri Talfan Davies, the BBC\u2019s interim director general, announced the redundancy proposals in an all-staff call on Wednesday afternoon local time.<\/p>\n
\n\tHe said between 1,800 and 2,000 roles will go, with more details to come in September, meaning staff face an anxious wait to find out where the axe will fall. <\/p>\n
\n\tThe BBC will open a voluntary redundancy scheme to avoid compulsory layoffs, Talfan Davies told staff, according to Deadline sources.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe job cuts represent roughly one in 10 members of staff across the BBC\u2019s license fee-funded and commercial operations. The BBC had 21,508 employees last year.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe BBC also said it was implementing \u201cimmediate cost control measures\u201d in areas including recruitment, travel and consultancy spend, and costs associated with awards and events.<\/p>\n
\n\tIn a graphic displayed during the internal call, the BBC said it would be \u201crecruiting only for essential roles with robust approvals,\u201d meaning a quasi-hiring freeze is now in place.<\/p>\n
\n\tIt comes after the BBC announced in February that it planned to\u00a0slash its cost base by \u00a3500M\u00a0($675M) over the next three years, expanding on an existing target worth \u00a31.5B.<\/p>\n
\n\tSources said Talfan Davies and BBC CFO B\u00e9rang\u00e8re Michel painted a bleak picture of the corporation\u2019s finances. They said it was unsustainable that 94% of the UK population use the BBC every month, but fewer than 80% pay the \u00a3180 annual licence fee.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cIf we had a funding model that mirrored our consumption, all of this [the cuts] would go away,\u201d he told staff, per one insider. \u201cOur funding model has reached end of life.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tOne BBC journalist said the job cuts were \u201cbonkers.\u201d A second BBC source said the corporation was getting some \u201cbad news out of the way\u201d before Matt Brittin, the former Google executive, joins as director general on May 18.<\/p>\n
\n\tPhilippa Childs, head of union Bectu, said: \u201cCuts of this magnitude will be devastating for the workforce and to the BBC as a whole. The BBC has faced funding cuts over the last decade with real terms income from the licence fee down \u00a31.3B \u2014 further cuts of this scale will inevitably damage its ability to deliver on its public mission.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cBBC staff are already under significant pressure after previous redundancy rounds and Bectu will be engaging with the BBC to understand the implications of these cuts. This will also inevitably impact the wider creative industries ecosystem, given the BBC\u2019s crucial anchor role in commissioning content and nurturing talent.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe BBC\u2019s annual plan, published last month, made clear that the corporation faces \u201cdifficult\u201d financial choices and that content would not be protected from cuts.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe BBC has been drawing up radical plans to save \u00a3100M through outsourcing thousands of non-content jobs \u2014 including HR, finance, legal, and operations \u2014 to private sector companies.\u00a0Deadline revealed details of the changes last year, with executives dubbing the plan Project Ada.<\/p>\n
\n\tBroadcast, the UK television industry trade title, first reported the 2,000 job cuts figure. Deadline revealed on Tuesday that the BBC was preparing to detail the savings plan today.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n