The drumbeat of BBC cuts continues, with Deadline hearing that roughly 4% of the British broadcaster’s technology unit is expected to take voluntary redundancy.
Around 151 employees are set to exit BBC Media Tech, the unit that helps power online services including iPlayer and BBC Sounds. The voluntary redundancies are expected to deliver savings of £14.5 million ($19.8M) over the coming years.
UPDATE
Inevitable. The whole media landscape is vastly different today than what it was 20 years ago.
“However, at a time of constrained resources, the BBC should not be paying over the odds for overseas content, particularly when it’s bidding against other commercial UK broadcasters to do so. We do not believe that this provides value for money for the licence fee payer.”
ITV has consistently raised the issue in recent years. In a written submission to the committee, ITV said: “We can see no reason for the BBC to use public funds to compete for content that would otherwise find a home on free-to-access commercial services.
Well, this is inevitable…
Outlining the plans, the corporation confirmed:
BBC Scotland will remain a channel on iPlayer, with some content also broadcast on BBC One and BBC Two in Scotland
BBC Three commissions, supported by increased investment in content for younger audiences, will be available on BBC iPlayer and on other platforms including YouTube
Programmes from Radio 4 Extra will be available on BBC Sounds - while its religious programme The Daily Service will be on BBC Sounds and local radio
Even more consolidation.
This new team would work eight-hour shifts across seven days to produce the output for the World Service bulletins, The Newsroom and the 0600 Global News Podcast.
This is a significant change. However, we believe it would allow us to build a resilient model to continue to provide the output produced by both these teams for the long term. The proposal would allow us to retain the current staffing levels on the UK daytime shifts – the early+late – and their existing rota pattern. This new model would also mean we can continue to produce a 24/7 World Service news service – a vote of confidence in what we do.
The current night shift model has many challenges, including financial, operational and health and wellbeing concerns. This proposal would end night working in our World Service teams as part of a wider effort to reduce it across News. Our new Sydney team would work alongside the online operation in Sydney, developing a wider multimedia newsroom where staff can develop their careers working for the BBC across a range of output.
In summary, the proposal would close 26 posts in London across World Service bulletins and The Newsroom programme teams and open 19 posts in the new team in Sydney, a net closure of seven posts.
In addition, the proposal would lead to a significant saving on night payments, taxis and freelance costs. We recognise the impact this proposal will have on freelance colleagues, but the level of freelance spending on nights is unsustainable.
In terms of technical operations, the output from the Sydney team would be routed through our London studios with Media Operations staffing here. The Sydney team would produce all the output..read+present it, but playout would remain in London [giving us] operational resilience.
This is an interesting move. I wonder if some of the current World Service staff is willing to move to Sydney, or will the BBC recruit people working on radio here in Australia?
I’ve always thought that BBC Scotland as it was setup was a bit of a wate of space.
I’m guessing that because it’s a cost reduction measure most places will be filled by locals (probably with a preference for expats or those with High Australian accents).
