BBC Savings Target Rockets By 40% To $500M With 1,000 Hours Per Year Set To Be Cut

deadline.com:

The BBC’s savings target has rocketed by 40% to £400M (£493M) and the corporation is responding by cutting 1,000 hours worth of shows per year.

Issued in the past few minutes, the BBC’s Annual Plan said there will be an “acceleration” of savings plans due to the freezing of the license fee, which should end next year, and the “economic environment.” Alongside its move to reinvest £300M into online and digital, which was announced last May, the corporation is therefore upping its savings target from £285M to £400M by 2027/28.

Painful decisions are to come, including an annual reduction of 1,000 hours in commissions “across the portfolio,” said the Annual Plan, which is delivered around Easter each year with a focus on the BBC’s priorities for the coming financial year.

The BBC pointed to other cost-saving measures including the controversial creation of a single, integrated BBC News channel, shifting World Service TV and radio broadcasts to digital and the “increased efficiency and effectiveness of our operations by changing the way we work across the BBC.” “There will be more of these difficult choices to come this year, but we will make them withaudience value at the forefront of our thinking, balancing the needs of those increasinglyconsuming content online with those who continue to consume primarily through broadcastservices,” added the Foreword to the Annual Plan.