Informed 05 Update BBC batle continues BBC
Not so happy birthday…
Te NUJ is mobilising for a long fight over a raſt of proposals at the BBC which include closing channels, shuting radio stations and cuting about 1,000 jobs. Te government’s decision to freeze the licence fee for two years had cost the BBC £285million, said its director general, Tim Davie, and this would affect frontline output and cause reductions across the corporation. He has since slashed the existing television and radio services budget by £500m and invested the savings in new, digital-only services. He proposes to close the BBC News and BBC World channels and create a single BBC News channel, resulting in 143 journalism roles and 19 presenter positions being axed. Te BBC says the proposals will lead to the loss of around 70 UK posts as new roles will be created at the new channel. Te union is concerned that, while the BBC News channel has provided viewers with coverage of UK elections, party conferences, by- elections, local events and Covid-19 briefings, such coverage could be lost in a combined channel where global events are competing for airtime. Te World Service budget will be cut by £30m and many foreign language services will become online only.
More programme output is to be
shared between neighbouring local radio stations and regional TV news bulletins in Cambridge and Oxford cancelled. CBBC, BBC Four and Radio 4 Extra will become online-only services. Paul Siegert said: “Tese proposals
will have a huge effect on the breadth and quality of journalistic content and programming across the BBC and have an impact on members. Te NUJ will be fighting to seek solutions to maintain standards and resist the corporation’s plans which appear to be merely a management of decline.” We Are England, BBC England’s
weekly current affairs programme which started only a year ago, replacing the award-winning Inside Out, is to be axed and the BBC will create a new network of investigative journalists to chase local stories. Te NUJ says the BBC’s plan to reallocate funding to ensure growth in iPlayer viewership makes sense in terms of viewership trends, but it should not come at the cost of broadcast radio and television programmes being cast aside. Te BBC faces a review of the
future of the TV licence. A Lords’ commitee has published a report dismissing the introduction of subscriptions and adverts.
It was the BBC’s 100th birthday, but there has not been lot to celebrate this year. Te corporation’s annual report tried to put a gloss on it. It said the BBC continued to reach 90 per cent of UK adults on average each week, BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds atracted record audiences and BBC Studios, the corporation’s commercial arm, hit a record profit. Te BBC remains a cornerstone of the creative sector – every £1 of the BBC’s economic activity generates a total of £2.63 for the wider economy. But Tim Davie, director general, could not put a gloss on his budget which for UK services is 30 per cent lower than a decade ago in real terms. He said the BBC had saved more than £1bn over the past five years but, because of the frozen licence fee and rising inflation, he anticipated annual savings of £285m would be needed by 2027/28.
Te union has staved off compulsory redundancies, but those leſt struggle with high workloads. A Sunday Times report revealed the BBC had lost more than 2,500 years of experience in news and management, since January 2020. High-profile names to go include Jon Sopel, Emily Maitlis and Andrew Marr, plus specialist reporters Rory Cellan-Jones and Roger Harrabin. Te BBC said it was on track to meet
its workforce diversity targets for female and black, Asian and minority ethnic staff but behind on its disability goals. Its pay gap increased for women and disabled and black, Asian and minority ethnic staff. Te BBC said its gender pay gap [5.9 per cent] was lower than the national average median gap of 15.4 per cent.
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