BBC to cut 2,000 jobs

Reporting from London — The BBC announced that 2,000 jobs, including 300 senior management staff, would be axed as part of the company’s aim to cut its annual budget by more than $1 billion in the next six years.

Director General Mark Thompson unveiled details Thursday of a program titled Delivering Quality First announced earlier this year that expects to shave 20% off the corporation’s budget by April 2017.

No services would be canceled, but there would be more repeats on some TV stations, a reduction in broadcasting rights to sports events and fewer entertainment programs outside of Saturday night favorites, the plans revealed.

The BBC said that TV and radio flagship stations such as BBC 1 and Radio 4 would be the least affected and that the news budget would be largely protected. The cuts would include budgets for imports like the AMC series “Mad Men” and the Danish drama “The Killing.”

It is unclear whether they would affect the operations of BBC America.

The BBC is publicly funded by a license fee set up by the government.

Summing up the new budget, Thompson told a BBC interviewer that “we need to come up with a BBC which is smaller … but really focused on giving the public the things they want most, above all quality and creativity.”

The job cuts would come over the next six years, he said. Some savings would be reinvested in other areas such as dramas and new services such as BBC iPlayer to make the corporation relevant “in this very different world of iPhones and iPads.”

But the media and entertainment union BECTU slammed the budget plans in a news release, saying that the proposals should be overhauled if the BBC wanted to achieve its aim.

“The proposed salami-slicing cuts to services will destroy quality, destroy jobs and ultimately destroy the BBC,” said BECTU General Secretary Gerry Morrissey.

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