Angry staff questioned whether the licence fee would be worth paying after the BBC axed Radio 4 news shows and warned that channels could close in a rolling series of brutal cuts.
Star news presenters will undergo a “value for money” assessment under the cost-saving plans set out by new Director-General Matt Brittin designed to close a £500m funding gap as more people stop paying the £180 licence fee .
Radio 4 programmes including The World Tonight , the 10pm show which has run for 56 years delivering “in-depth reporting, intelligent analysis and major breaking news from a global perspective”, will be axed.
Shorts
The departing Amol Rajan will not be replaced on the Today programme, which will have four permanent presenters instead of five. Suggestions that the format will change to a magazine-style discussion with a single host on Saturdays was pure speculation, the BBC said.
Familiar faces could disappear from TV news bulletins, with all chief presenter roles to be reviewed on a value-for-money basis, “to ensure we have the right number of presenters”.
Specialist on-air editors, covering areas such as health, education and sport, will have their roles reviewed too.
‘Loyal viewers will question licence fee’
One news staffer said: “It’s devastating, everyone is fearing for their jobs. How can the BBC produce the quality of journalism licence fee payers expect when funding is being gutted? Loyal viewers will ask whether it’s still worth paying.”
A Today programme insider said: “There could be an exodus now. It’s the flagship show and it’s already lost its dedicated reporting team.”
Veteran Today presenter Justin Webb reportedly met Bari Weiss, the CBS News chief who is on a hiring spree and last week poached Sky News Sunday politics presenter Trevor Phillips. It is understood no offer has yet been made to Webb.
The rolling BBC News channel survives but will be “tailoring its agenda more to an international focus,” according to an internal memo to staff sent by interim BBC News CEO Jonathan Munro, seen by The i Paper.
“It will of course continue to reflect UK stories which are of interest to the rest of the world. These changes will allow us to pursue opportunities to raise more revenue from the news channel’s global footprint.”
Sunday’s BBC Breakfast scrapped
The Sunday TV edition of Breakfast will be scrapped with BBC One simulcasting the News channel.
Newsnight , reinvented as a discussion show in a previous round of cuts, escapes the axe and will have an earlier primetime BBC Two slot on Fridays. But its production team will be merged with the team that makes Laura Kuenssberg’s Sunday morning show.
Former The World Tonight presenter Ritula Shah said she was ‘very sad’ that the BBC had axed the global news show (Photo: BBC)
Radio 4 bore the brunt of the cuts, which will see 550 jobs go across news, TV and radio in a bid to deliver £160m in cost savings this year.
As well as The World Tonight, Money Box Live, the Midnight News bulletin, Crossing Continents, The Law Show and AntiSocial will disappear.
Simulcasts of World Service programmes, including Newshour , will cover some of the late evening gaps. “They’ve ripped the heart out of Radio 4,” said one staffer.
A BBC source said: “Those are tough decisions but cutting those late-evening shows means budgets are protected where the biggest audiences are like Today , World at One and the 6pm bulletin.”
Munro warned there was even more pain to come. “The plans we’re outlining today will save around £25m, and in this phase we expect a net reduction of around 200 roles,” he wrote in his email.
“However, we need to reduce our costs by at least £51m by next April. We therefore expect to make more announcements over the next few months involving further post closures amounting to a level similar to today’s.”
Munro acknowledged that viewers would notice changes such as the BBC Breakfast edition on Sunday being replaced by the News channel.
Shellshocked staff
Roger Mosey, former head of BBC TV News said: “It’s clear that the BBC has to make cuts. The questions are whether they’re the right ones – and slashing news is a bad start. And how can the Government say the BBC is a vital national service and see it steadily defunded in this way?”
Ritula Shah, a former The World Tonight presenter, said she was “very sad but not surprised” that the BBC had axed the programme.
She told the Radio 4 Media Show that she felt the programme was “underappreciated within the organisation” and had already faced a series of cuts which prompted her departure in 2023 after 35 years at the BBC.
In a message to shellshocked staff, Brittin announced a cost-saving review of all the BBC’s TV and radio stations “as audiences move online” and warned “we will have to close some programmes”. Only shows with the highest “value and impact” will be protected.
The £66m-a-year BBC Three youth channel could close with its content moved online.
The £25m archive arts and history…
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