{"id":4716,"date":"2012-10-19T11:10:49","date_gmt":"2012-10-19T15:10:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=4716"},"modified":"2012-10-19T11:24:58","modified_gmt":"2012-10-19T15:24:58","slug":"bbc-internal-memo-outlines-year-three-cuts-and-changes-to-the-bbc-world-service","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/bbc-internal-memo-outlines-year-three-cuts-and-changes-to-the-bbc-world-service\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC internal memo outlines year three cuts and changes to the BBC World Service"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This BBC internal memo, sent to employees by World Service Director,\u00a0Peter Horrocks, outlines the unfortunate pending cuts and changes in much greater detail than those presented by <a title=\"BBC World Service to make further cuts in third phase of \u201csavings\u201d\" href=\"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/bbc-world-service-to-make-further-cuts-in-third-phase-of-cost-cutting\/\">the press<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Here is the memo in its entirety&#8211;it concludes with further comments from internal sources:<\/p>\n<p><em><a href=\"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/BBC-World-Service-007.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-4717\" title=\"BBC-World-Service-007\" src=\"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/BBC-World-Service-007-300x180.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/BBC-World-Service-007-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/BBC-World-Service-007-100x60.jpg 100w, https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/BBC-World-Service-007.jpg 460w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>Dear colleagues\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Today we are announcing Year 3 Savings from the 2010 Comprehensive Spending Review settlement for the World Service.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>We took quick action last year to deliver the bulk of the required savings immediately after funding cuts were announced in 2010. As a result, we have already achieved nearly \u00a330m of our \u00a342m three-year savings target. However, this still leaves \u00a312m of savings for 2013\/14, the final year of Grant-in-Aid funding.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>We will be making changes to programming, staffing, scheduling and distribution. We have tried to avoid job losses wherever possible. Of the \u00a312m savings, a significant \u00a34.8m will be achieved via reductions in shortwave and medium wave distribution, details of which will be announced next week. However, it is impossible to make cuts of this scale without impacting on jobs and the plans announced today will result in 73 post closures. Affected teams and individuals have, of course, already been informed and we will work with them to help them through this.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The main changes today are as follows:<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>WS ENGLISH<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>We are simplifying the World Service English global schedule to have fewer regional variations, creating a more coherent offer which we can also promote and cross-trail more effectively. Being able to link together all the programmes in an hour will also make it easier to fit our content into partner stations\u2019 schedules.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>A new programme, The Newsroom, will replace World Briefing. This new programme will be live and reactive and it will showcase the best of our Newsgathering presence across English and WS Languages. There will be six editions of The Newsroom across the schedule, with World Have Your Say and The Newsroom coming together each day at 11:00 and 11:30 BST, a prime spot in the schedule.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Schedule changes mean fewer full hours of news output \u2013 down from about eighteen hours each weekday to about fourteen hours. As a result, there will be post closures in WS News. Further savings will be found in WS News through efficiencies and by integrating some functions across BBC News. In addition, there will be some reductions in Newsgathering, resulting in some post closures.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>World Service English is also creating a smaller single management team working across distribution, channel management and scheduling. There will be a reduction in the number of specialist announcers on WS English.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>From April, we will close our daily arts programme, The Strand, and at the same time extend Outlook to an hour long format, offering a new approach to covering Arts, Music and Humanities. A daily 10 minute section will look at the people behind the world of music, entertainment, film and the performance arts.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>Every Friday, The 5th Floor will run in the Outlook time slot. The move of this programme to a more prominent slot in the schedule is an indication of its success after less than a year on air and it is a great way of bringing the work of our Language Services to an English audience. The 5th Floor will include a 10 minute arts segment drawn from the Language services\u2019 coverage across the week.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>We are also making space in the schedule for The Slot: an hour long programme dedicated to arts and culture coverage across the BBC and the Language Services.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>These scheduling changes will enable a significant saving, but will ensure that arts coverage maintains prominence and relevance on the World Service, while making best use of our connections across Languages and the broader BBC.<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>There will be a reduction in the number of documentaries: instead of having four weekly documentary strands, we will now have three with Your World ending. There will be no post closures as a result of this change.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>Bottom Line will no longer be reversioned for the World Service. Again, this will not result in post closures.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>These changes in WS English will result in the closure of 25 posts.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>WS LANGUAGES<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Year 3 savings affect those Services which were not required to make changes in Years 1 and 2 of the Spending Review settlement.<\/em><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><em>There will be a change in the editorial purpose and remit for the English Language Teaching team. For the last four years, the team has been asked to earn revenue from commercial sources. In the future, the team will focus on public service provision. This change in remit will result in post closures.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>There will be post closures in BBC Afghan, BBC Burmese, BBC Bengali, and French for Africa. In some services, this will be mitigated by the creation of new posts in bureaux overseas driven by new editorial and operational considerations.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>A number of currently vacant posts in the Near East hub, African English, BBC Swahili and BBC Brasil will not be filled and will therefore close.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>In 2013, BBC Swahili morning radio production will move to Dar es Salaam, and the dawn transmission for BBC Somali will move to Nairobi. This will deliver savings for these two services. One vacant Swahili post will close. There will be no impact on Somali posts.<\/em><\/li>\n<li><em>BBC Hausa and Great Lakes will be making changes to their schedules to deliver savings. There will be no impact on posts.<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em>The changes to WS Languages, including a few extra post closures outside the UK to be announced at a later stage, will result in 44 post closures.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>In addition to the above, now that we have moved out of Bush House, we will be closing four posts in WS Property.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Despite financial pressures, we have continued to adapt our services in response to changes in our audiences and this strategy will continue. We have already seen the successful launch of new TV programmes, Focus on Africa in English for partners and on BBC World News, and Dira Ya Dunia in Swahili, carried by partner broadcasters across sub Saharan Africa. We plan to develop similar programmes in Hindi and Urdu and hope to be able soon to announce a successful conclusion of negotiations with our partners on this new programming.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>As we prepare to move to Licence Fee funding, we will be able to demonstrate that the World Service remains strong despite the funding cuts of recent years, is more efficient than ever, and remains a vital force in today\u2019s complex media world. As the new Director General stated in his opening address to staff, he is very supportive of the World Service, as is the BBC Chairman. No doubt, following two major reductions in two years to the size of the World Service, many of you will have questions about its future.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Before 2014, the BBC Trust will prepare a licence describing the purpose, remit, strategy and budget of the World Service in the Licence Fee. The Trust will consult and publish on this licence ahead of transfer to the Licence Fee. This licence will be the key document that will, from April 2014, govern the size, shape and character of the future World Service. All World Service staff will have the opportunity to share their views with the Trust and this will include opportunities to hear from and question individual Trustees.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>As I said above, the changes we are announcing today do impact on individuals and teams. We have notified the NUJ and BECTU of these proposals and will consult both them and staff affected so that we can look for ways to reduce the number of compulsory redundancies where possible. I know you will all be supportive of your colleagues through what will be a difficult time and I and the World Service management team will do all that we can to help them through this.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Peter<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>Internal sources also suggest:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>nearly all Arabic on shortwave is to end (apart from broadcasts targeting Sudan)<\/li>\n<li>the BBC Cyprus relay on SW is to close and English MW from Cyprus is also closing<\/li>\n<li>BBC English World Service to Africa, the Middle East, and Asia is to be cut from 18 hrs a day on SW to 7 hours a day<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It seems much of the monies are being diverted from shortwave to fund TV ventures, instead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This BBC internal memo, sent to employees by World Service Director,\u00a0Peter Horrocks, outlines the unfortunate pending cuts and changes in much greater detail than those presented by the press. Here is the memo in its entirety&#8211;it concludes with further comments from internal sources: Dear colleagues\u00a0 Today we are announcing Year 3 Savings from the 2010 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[56,3],"tags":[104,1438,1437,352,1436,420],"class_list":["post-4716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-broadcasters","category-news","tag-bbc","tag-bbc-cuts","tag-bbc-internal-memo","tag-bbc-world-service-cuts","tag-bbc-world-service-internal-memo","tag-bbc-ws"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-1e4","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4739,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/bbc-shortwave-hit-by-world-service-cuts\/","url_meta":{"origin":4716,"position":0},"title":"BBC: Shortwave hit by World Service cuts","author":"Thomas","date":"October 25, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"As we mentioned last week\u00a0in our post with the\u00a0internal memo from the BBC World Service, the BBC has now formally\u00a0announced\u00a0that World Service shortwave broadcasts in Arabic are to close by next April and the Cyprus shortwave relay station will close as well. (Source: BBC) Short wave broadcasts of World Service\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Broadcasters&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/medium_bbcarab_en.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4708,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/10\/bbc-world-service-to-make-further-cuts-in-third-phase-of-cost-cutting\/","url_meta":{"origin":4716,"position":1},"title":"BBC World Service to make further cuts in third phase of &#8220;savings&#8221;","author":"Thomas","date":"October 18, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Note that these cuts are a continuation of the overall\u00a0\u00a342m the BBC announced in January of 2011. Follow World Service cuts on the SWLing Post with the tag BBC World Service Cuts. (Source: The Guardian) A further 73 posts will be lost at the\u00a0BBC\u00a0World Service following its cut in funding\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Broadcasters&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/BBC-WorldService.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":8821,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/02\/bbc-world-service-to-further-reduce-shortwave\/","url_meta":{"origin":4716,"position":2},"title":"BBC World Service to further reduce shortwave","author":"Thomas","date":"February 19, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"I appears the BBC World Service is cutting shortwave broadcasts even further in an attempt to meet tighter budget numbers. Not many details, at the moment, in terms of what language programs will suffer the most. Many thanks to Richard Cuff for the tip: (Source: The Guardian) The BBC World\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Broadcasters&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"(Image source: BBC)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/BBC-Headquarters-300x168.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10285,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/abc-radio-staff-memo-outlines-cuts-to-external-service\/","url_meta":{"origin":4716,"position":3},"title":"ABC Radio staff memo outlines cuts to external service","author":"Thomas","date":"July 15, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post reader,\u00a0Jonathan Marks, who has posted a letter by Michael Mason (Acting Director of ABC Radio) to the staff of ABC. Mason's letter outlines changes\u00a0to Radio Australia's external service. His key points: Radio Australia will continue to broadcast a 24\/7 schedule built on a deeper collaboration\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Broadcasters&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ABC-Radio-Australia","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/ABC-Radio-Australia.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10301,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/07\/bbc-news-to-cut-415-jobs-but-add-5-to-world-service-budget\/","url_meta":{"origin":4716,"position":4},"title":"BBC News to cut 415 jobs, but add \u00a35M to World Service budget","author":"Thomas","date":"July 17, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Richard Cuff, for sharing: (Source: BBC News) The BBC's News department is to axe 415 jobs as cost-cutting measures continue, the BBC's director of news James Harding has announced. The move is part of \u00a3800m efficiency savings required after the licence fee was frozen\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Broadcasters&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Broadcasters","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/broadcasters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"(Image source: BBC)","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/BBC-Headquarters.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/BBC-Headquarters.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/BBC-Headquarters.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":54176,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2022\/09\/the-guardian-hundreds-of-jobs-to-go-as-bbc-announces-world-service-cutbacks\/","url_meta":{"origin":4716,"position":5},"title":"The Guardian: &#8220;Hundreds of jobs to go as BBC announces World Service cutbacks&#8221;","author":"Thomas","date":"September 29, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"(Source: The Guardian via Mark Hirst) Hundreds of jobs to go as BBC announces World Service cutbacks Corporation to end production of radio output in 10 languages, including Chinese, Hindi and Arabic, as it blames licence fee freeze The BBC has announced deep cuts to its World Service output that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/PL-680-BBC-Click-Frequency.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/PL-680-BBC-Click-Frequency.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/PL-680-BBC-Click-Frequency.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/PL-680-BBC-Click-Frequency.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4716"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4716\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}