Cost containment and the sale of the London TV station (scheduled for 2012) prompted Mark Thompson, the BBC’s general manager, to announce that the company will lay off 2,500 workers over the next six years. For now, the layoff plan covers about 1,800 employees who have already threatened the television station with the call for labor strikes if the plans go ahead.
With this measure, the BBC expects to save around 2.7 billion euros by 2013, a radical strategy that aims to establish a company «smaller but of higher quality in the digital age», explained the official stressing that the cut will affect especially the wording and informative production of the station.
The BBC will further reduce 10 percent of all original program production for the 2012/2013 season and will start merging several regional stations of the station as well as different newsrooms – television, radio and Internet – which, to all indicates, they should come together in one.
These plans coincide with a series of production problems that the station has been facing, including the recent dismissal of BBC One director, Peter Fincham, after the publication of a report that questioned some images about Queen Isabel II transmitted by season.
Related News:
2007-07-27 – BBC launches television service on-demand
