The BBC World Service has outlined plans “to accelerate its digital offering and increase impact with audiences around the globe,” but also cut a net total of 382 jobs and select radio services, as part of a digital-first focus.
The international broadcaster, owned and operated by U.K. public broadcaster BBC, with funding from the British government, said Thursday that it would make seven more of its foreign-language services digital-only
The moves support the BBC’s strategy, unveiled earlier this year, “to create a modern, digital-led and streamlined organization that drives the most value from the license fee and delivers more for audiences,” the BBC said Thursday. “Changing audience needs around the world — with more people accessing news digitally — go alongside a challenging financial climate.”
The BBC license fee of 159 pounds ($173) per year, which U.K. taxpayers pay to help fund the BBC, has been a key topic of debate over the years. In late March, the BBC said that it would “need to find 285 million pounds ($309 million) in annual savings by 2027/28, requiring a reduction in the content and services we provide to audiences,” as a result of a recent license fee settlement with the British government. Under that, the fee will be frozen at its current price for two years from 2022/2023 and then rise in line with inflation for the following four years.
“High inflation, soaring costs and a cash-flat license fee settlement have led to tough choices across the BBC, and the BBC’s international services need to make a saving of 28.5 million pounds ($30.9 million), as part of the wider 500 million pounds ($543 million) of annual savings and reinvestment to make the BBC digital-led,” the broadcaster explained Thursday. “The proposals will see seven more language services moving to digital-only, modeling the success of others which are already offering purely digital services and performing well with audiences. This means that nearly half of all 41 language services will be digital only.”
The BBC highlighted though that the World Service would continue to operate in all the languages and countries where it is currently present, emphasizing: “No language services will close.”
However, “some TV and radio programs will stop under the new plans,” the BBC World Service acknowledged. “BBC Arabic radio and BBC Persian radio will also cease,” along with Chinese and other radio stations.
Language services that are already digital-only are BBC Azerbaijani, Brasil, Marathi, Mundo, Punjabi, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese. The language services that the BBC is now proposing to move to digital-only formats are Chinese, Gujarati, Igbo, Indonesian, Pidgin, Urdu and Yoruba.
The BBC World Service will in the future also rely more on journalists located outside of Britain. It said that it would be “moving some production out of London and closer to audiences to drive engagement, for example moving the Thai service from London to Bangkok, the Korean service to Seoul, the Bangla service to Dhaka and the Focus on Africa TV bulletin to broadcast from Nairobi.”