The BBC plans to cut 2,000 jobs by 2016 in order to create a "smaller and radically reshaped BBC" and save roughly 670 million pounds ($1.05 billion), the broadcaster said in a plan unveiled Thursday.
The BBC, which is funded by the British public through a license fee that is frozen for the next five years, said it will need to save at least 16 percent annually through that period. The plan calls for 19 percent in cuts, and takes into account the possibility that cuts will need to be greater than 16 percent if inflation increases more than expected.
The jobs will "not be lost in one go but across the next five years," the plan said.
The broadcaster said it would undertake "the most far-reaching transformation in our history" to meet its savings target, by cutting jobs, taking up less property, flattening its management structure, reducing its proportion of senior leaders, and significantly shifting spending and activity from London to the Northern England as well as to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
