THE BBC has denied jobs will be cut in Scotland after the broadcaster announced 1000 jobs will go from the public-funded part of the corporation as it aims to become “digital-first”.
Director-general Tim Davie made the announcement to staff on Thursday amid plans to move BBC Four and CBBC onto the iPlayer.
BBC World News and the BBC News Channel will also merge to create a single 24-hour TV news channel serving both UK and international audiences.
A source has now told The National the BBC has denied there are any plans to chop jobs north of the Border, with the broadcaster instead insisting investment in programming from the nations will be hiked.
The broadcaster told them: “The jobs will primarily come from UK network services and services in English regions.
“There will be increased investment in programming from the nations, but there is no detail on what that looks like.”
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Regional TV news programmes in Oxford and Cambridge are also among the services being scrapped – merging with the BBC’s Southampton and Norwich operations.
Radio 4 Extra could become available on the BBC Sounds service only.
The first phase of savings represents £500 million annual savings and reinvestment.
As part of this, £200m will contribute to the £285m annual funding gap by 2027/28 created by the licence fee freeze.
The remaining gap will be covered in the final three years of the charter period.
The news comes off the back of the BBC needing to save a further £285m in response to the Culture Secretary’s announcement in January that the licence fee will be frozen at £159 for the next two years
It has already undergone a series of rounds of redundancies and cuts over the past decade prompted by below-inflation increases in the licence fee.
Davie, who took over from Lord Tony Hall as BBC director-general in September 2020, has overseen a slimming down of the corporation since starting in the role, with the BBC losing some 1200 staff in the last 18 months.
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