Nearly 400 job cuts announced at BBC World Service

LONDON: Some 382 jobs at BBC World Service will be cut as part of plans to move to a digital-led service.

The broadcaster will also close its BBC Arabic and BBC Persian radios in a move it says will help “accelerate its digital offering and increase impact with audiences around the globe”.

The cuts follow the BBC’s announcement of a new digital-first “blueprint” in May, which included the news that BBC Four and CBBC will end as linear channels in the coming years. Announcing the new cuts, the BBC said: “High inflation, soaring costs, and a cash-flat licence fee settlement have led to tough choices across the BBC, and the BBC’s international services need to make a saving of £28.5m as part of the wider £500m of annual savings and reinvestment to make the BBC digital-led.”

It insisted the World Service will continue to “serve audiences during moments of jeopardy” and “ensure audiences in countries such as Russia, Ukraine and Afghanistan have access to vital news services, using appropriate broadcast and distribution platforms”.

The broadcaster is also proposing to stop its Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Hindi, Bengali, Chinese, Indonesian, Tamil and Urdu radio services. Language services the BBC is proposing to move to digital-only include those in Chinese, Gujarati, Igbo, Indonesian, Pidgin, Urdu and Yoruba. The proposals would also see some production units move out of London – relocating the Thai service to Bangkok, the Korean service to Seoul, the Bangla service to Dhaka and the Focus On Africa TV bulletin to broadcast from Nairobi.

World Service English will continue to operate globally as 24-hour broadcast radio, with new scheduling, programmes and podcasts to be set out in due course. The BBC said: “High inflation, soaring costs, and a cash-flat licence fee settlement have led to tough choices across the BBC, and the BBC’s international services need to make a saving of £28.5m as part of the wider £500m of annual savings and reinvestment to make the BBC digital-led.”