BBC to cut extra 1,500 jobs as Thompson swings axe again

by Sam Matthews, Brand Republic 18-Mar-05, 09:00

LONDON - The BBC is to axe a further 1,500 jobs in news and other programmes on top of the 2,900 outlined by director-general Mark Thompson's in December's review.

The news came as the BBC board of governors approved the second round of cuts at a meeting held yesterday, with savings to come from "content and output" divisions, a governors' statement read.

The BBC declined to comment on numbers of jobs to go and said an official announcement will be made on Monday.

The corporation is reportedly looking to save an additional £200m from the cuts, which would affect every BBC department, including news, sport, new media and children's programming.

The move is likely to provoke action from broadcasting union Bectu, which staged demonstrations at BBC across the UK earlier this month when the government unveiled its Green Paper, announcing the BBC had secured its licence fee for a further 10 years.

Bectu will meet on Wednesday to discuss its next step and is considering holding a ballot to decide whether to take industrial action.

Last week, the BBC revealed more than 1,700 jobs will be going in the first round of cuts in the far-reaching shake-up.

Around 980 jobs will go from the BBC's professional services division -- which includes strategy and distribution, legal, finance, property, BBC people and marketing -- with a further 750 being outsourced.

In December, Thompson confirmed that 2,900 jobs were to go at the broadcaster and 1,800 staff are to be moved north to Manchester as part of a far-reaching restructure of the corporation.
It is believed that up to 6,000 jobs could be axed in total.

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