Thousands of jobs to go at the BBC

Britain's public broadcaster, the BBC, announced one of the biggest shake-ups in its 82-year history yesterday, with plans to axe at least 2,900 jobs, or 10 per cent of its workforce, and trim £320 million in costs.

Director General Mark Thompson - who famously described the BBC as "basking in a Jacuzzi of spare public cash" when he ran rival broadcaster Channel Four - announced the cuts in a presentation to staff.

"There is an amazing creative prize for the BBC and our audiences - but it's a prize that comes at a price," Mr Thompson said. "To achieve all this, the BBC must undergo nothing short of transformation."

The BBC, one of the world's best-known media brands and home to shows like EastEnders and The Office, will cut at least 2,900 of its 28,000 jobs over two to three years.

The plan is part of Mr Thompson's strategy for safeguarding the licence fee - a tax on UK television-owning households that brings in some £2.8 billion per year for the BBC - after a year when the broadcaster's relationship with Tony Blair's government has come under extreme strain.

In January, a judge savaged a BBC report that the government "sexed up" evidence of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, forcing the resignation of Mr Thompson's predecessor Greg Dyke and Chairman Gavyn Davies.

The BBC's editorial controls took another hit last week, when the corporation's international TV channel was duped into airing an interview with a fake Dow Chemical spokesman over India's Bhopal disaster.

The government is now reviewing the BBC's charter, which determines how much money the BBC will receive from the licence fee. The current charter is set to expire in 2006.

About 2,500 of the job cuts will come from professional services such as human resources and marketing, and 400 will come from the factual & learning department that makes the popular nature documentary Blue Planet.

"Everyone else is going to be required to look at coming up with efficiency savings that will average about 15 per cent, though that doesn't mean 15 per cent job cuts," said a source briefed on the plans. "They are due to come up with plans by February that will then go to the (BBC board of) governors."

Most of the cost savings will be funnelled into new programming. A number of departments - including BBC Sport, Five Live, New Media and children's TV and radio, totalling about 1,800 employees - will be moved from London to Manchester.

"We want to invest in new content while also making productivity gains in existing output," Mr Thompson said. "It may mean fewer posts on existing tasks, but new posts for new tasks. But we need to save before we can spend."

BBC Worldwide, the broadcaster's commercial arm, will consider partnerships, joint ventures or the sale of its books and learning businesses. Worldwide will hold on to other assets such as BBC Americas and Radio Times magazine, but will be asked to double its profits over the next two years.

Mr Thompson also detailed plans to seek partnerships, joint ventures or the outright sale of BBC Broadcast, which provides technical services to the BBC and other broadcasters, and BBC Resources, which provides production facilities and staff.