The BBC World Service has announced plans to cut 130 employees. This measure will help the corporation save 6 million pounds (7.4 million USD) in the next financial year, Kazinform reports.
The BBC World Service announced that the cuts will affect both the corporation's staff in the UK and its bureaus around the world. There will also be cuts in BBC Monitoring, the corporation's division that monitors media reports in different countries and provides information to the BBC's news programs, the government and commercial clients.
In the autumn it became known that the British government planned to increase funding for the World Service, but the two-year freeze on the license fee and the general deterioration of the economic situation led to an increase in the corporation's budget deficit. Forecasts are that the budget deficit will grow to 492 million pounds ($610 million) in the 2024-2025 financial year.
The BBC, despite the cuts, intends to continue to cover world events in 42 languages.
BBC World Service director Jonathan Munro said that while increased funding for language services from the UK government would allow them to continue operating, the corporation could not delay making “difficult decisions“ to ensure the BBC remained competitive in the global media market while delivering on its cost-saving plan.
“These changes will allow us to use the resources we have effectively to have the greatest impact on audiences around the world“, Munro said.
The corporation's management also stressed that the BBC World Service “operates in a highly competitive global media environment“ in which governments are spending billions of dollars to fund international media. This, as the BBC's management notes, is leading to increased competition between outlets, who are fighting for writers, frequencies, platforms and audiences.
The BBC confirms that it will continue to fight disinformation and report from every corner of the world.
Last October, Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves announced that the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) had agreed an increase in funding for the BBC World Service in the next financial year to support the work of the corporation's language services in their mission to provide impartial coverage of world events.
The BBC World Service is largely funded by the licence fee paid by UK residents. In previous years, the corporation received a grant of £104.4 million. pounds ($129 million) from FCDO.
In October, the BBC announced a series of measures it would implement in an attempt to save money. Among other things, it was announced that the talk show HARDtalk would be closed and that over 100 positions in the news department would be closed. The last episode of the talk show HARDtalk, which has been on the air for nearly three decades, is scheduled for the end of March 2025.
The news was published on the basis of an information exchange agreement between Fakti.bg and Kazinform