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Radical overhaul in the BBC

LONDON: The BBC Trust on Wednesday unanimously approved plans to cut thousands of jobs within the corporation, sell off its west London headquarters and reduce the number of programmes it makes by a tenth. The radical overhaul immediately sparked a furious backlash from staff likely to strike within weeks, with feelings running particularly high in the news and factual divisions where job losses will run into four figures. Chairman of the Trust, Sir Michael Lyons, said he was satisfied the package put forward by the director general, Mark Thompson, during a four-hour meeting would “safeguard the core values of the BBC at a time of radical change in technology, markets and audience expectations”.

At the BBC, broadcasting unions claimed letters asking for voluntary redundancies had already been written and are due to be sent out on Friday. The unions accused managers of failing to enter into meaningful consultation. Adding to the dark mood, MPs criticised the BBC for not involving the public in the debate over its future while others criticised the new regulatory structure. Among the ideas approved by the trust were an undertaking to commission 10 per cent fewer programmes as part the “fewer, bigger, better” strategy.

Meanwhile, 480 km away in Whitehaven viewers were waking up to find the analogue BBC2 signal had disappeared for good in the first step towards switching the whole country to digital TV by 2012. The two events are not unrelated. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2007

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