The BBC said it plans to cut 650 jobs in its popular World Service as part of efforts to slash its annual spending by 46 million pounds ($73 million).
The figures announced Wednesday by the state-sponsored broadcaster come after the U.K. government announced large-scale public spending cuts to cope with Britain’s high budget deficit.
The BBC said the job losses come as part of preparation for the end of Foreign Office funding in April 2014. At that point, the corporation will be funded through television license fee, which is paid by TV users.
"This is a painful day for BBC World Service," said BBC Global News Director Peter Horrocks. "We are making cuts in services that we would rather not be making. But the scale of the cut in BBC World Service’s Grant-in-Aid funding is such that we couldn’t cope with this by efficiencies alone."
The BBC World Service, which started airing in 1932, costs 272 million pounds a year and boasts an audience of 241 million people worldwide across radio, television and online platforms. Its shortwave radio service has for decades provided a link between Britain and much of the developing world with services in 32 languages.
The cuts mean BBC will close its Macedonian, Albanian and Serbian language services as well as English for the Caribbean and Portuguese for Africa. BBC World Service will also scale back radio programming in seven languages: Azeri, Mandarin Chinese, Russian, Spanish for Cuba, Turkish, Vietnamese, and Ukrainian.
The broadcaster estimated its audience will fall by more than 30 million as a result of these changes.
The first 480 jobs will be cut in 2011, with that number rising to 650 in three years. At present, the BBC World Service has a staff of 2,400 working for 32 language services.
BBC World Service said it also expects to generate additional savings after the move to the BBC’s London headquarters at Broadcasting House in 2012.
