ITV facing strikes after plans to slash 1,000 jobs in regional news

The UK's biggest commercial television network, ITV, is facing strike action after announcing redundancies of over 1,000 staff on account of a severe downturn in advertising. The downsizing represents almost a fifth of the broadcaster's workforce.

What's more, the downsizing is set to impact its English regional news operations, where the broadcaster plans to shave off 430 out of a total 1,075 jobs.

This decision by ITV has set it on a collision course with its unions. Media sources quoted assistant general secretary Luke Crawley of ITV's union BECTU as saying that he could not rule of the possibility of industrial action in the defence of its members.

Other media sources quoted Laura Davison, assistant broadcasting officer of the National Union of Journalists as saying that the level of cuts at ITV News were far from acceptable, and a ''fight over this'' was effectively unavoidable.

The downsizing come within a week of ITV having won permission from the broadcast regulator Ofcom to reduce its regional services. Amongst its regional operations, Plymouth, Bristol, Carlisle and Gateshead, are expected to see around 90 jobs go. ITV is also eliminating its West Country and Border regions, merging them with neighbouring operations. An additional 400 jobs will be axed in Manchester, Leeds and London, with more cuts coming from business disposals.

ITV's advertising dropped by a fifth last month, and is expected to drop around five per cent this year as compared to the last. The broadcaster says that savings tallying around £75 million a year will let it protect its £1 billion programmes budget.

The downsizing at ITV reduces its regional news staff by 40 per cent. In a letter to staff, ITV's managers said that of the current 1,075 full-time roles, 429 full-time roles were at ''risk of redundancy'', as the plan is to create 646 new full roles, making nine flagship programmes.