BBC to slash 2,000 jobs to reduce budget by more than $1 bn

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) says it would axe around 2,000 jobs as part of plans to reduce costs to help the UK government in its efforts to reduce a record deficit.

London-based The BBC, which employs 22,899 people, yesterday said that it would cut 2,000 jobs, including 300 senior management staff, as part of its plan to reduce more than $1 billion in the next six years of its annual $5.4-billion budget.

Mark Thompson, BBC's director-general, said that the cut, which is 20 per cent reduction in spending over five years, would lead to a ''smaller, radically reshaped BBC.''

Publicly-funded BBC's budget was allocated by the government last year as part of the deepest public spending cuts in decades.

Under the new plans, the broadcaster will also reduce the budget for buying sports and other rights, and share more content.

The proposals follow the licence fee settlement agreed with the government in October 2010, which sees the licence fee frozen to 2017, and the BBC assuming new funding responsibilities, including for the World Service, S4C, BBC Monitoring and local TV and broadband.