San Francisco Frontiers - BBC slashes 100 jobs, closes two channels

BBC News announced the "net closure of just over 100 roles" according to an internal note by director Rachel Jupp, part of some 2,000 job cuts the broader organisation is eyeing to achieve its planned savings.

The job cuts represent 5.5 million pounds in savings, said Jupp, in the note sent to AFP.

She was appointed BBC News's director this month, after her predecessor stepped down amid a row over a misleading edit of US President Donald Trump in a BBC documentary last year.

The BBC also said it would end the broadcast of BBC Scotland and BBC Three -- a youth-oriented channel -- which will be available on its online iPlayer streaming platform instead.

It also announced the closure of Radio 4 Extra, with its mainly archive-based programmes made available on BBC Sounds, an audio-streaming platform.

"We need to make every pound work harder for audiences as we respond to the immediate cost pressures and reinvent the BBC for a changing world. We all know that means tough choices," BBC Director General Matt Brittin said in a note to staff.

"Much of the great content they currently carry will still be found where audiences already enjoy it on iPlayer and Sounds," the former Google executive, who took the helm of the BBC earlier this year, added.

Scottish culture minister Mairi McAllan said moving BBC Scotland online was "wholly unacceptable".

The BBC in June announced plans to axe another 550 roles in its news, nations and content teams by the end of this financial year to deliver 160 million pounds in savings.

It comes amid severe cost pressures after income from a licence fee used to fund the corporation in large part fell by around a quarter in real terms since 2017.

The broadcaster -- which claims 94 percent of UK adults use its services monthly -- has also been plagued by a series of controversies and scandals in recent years that have rocked public confidence in it.

"The way people consume news is changing rapidly, and too many audiences, particularly younger audiences, are not finding us," Jupp said in her message.

Jupp added the BBC's news service could be required to save more than anticipated: "Given the BBC's financial pressures, the savings requirement for News could increase."

The BBC revealed earlier this year it planned to save 500 million pounds from its roughly 5-billion-pound annual budget over the next three years by cutting up to 2,000 jobs, in its biggest round of redundancies since 2011.

L.Nguyen--SFF