Posted Sep 29, 2022, 6:34 PMUpdated on Sep 29, 2022 at 6:35 PM
BBC World Service is tightening its belt. The international service of the British public broadcasting group has announced the loss of 382 positions within the BBC World Service, which affects almost 365 million people worldwide each week and is a tool of British “soft power”. This should allow him to save 28.5 million pounds (around 30 million euros).
In a statement, the BBC stresses that high inflation and soaring costs have led him to “difficult choices”. Specifically, BBC World Service – which is comparable to Deutsche Welle or France Médias Monde (France 24, RFI) etc. – will switch several of its foreign-language channels, hitherto broadcast on radio and television, to a digital version. The project will result in the closure of radio stations in Arabic, Persian and Chinese, as well as the cessation of certain television programs in Africa or Asia.
“Crown Jewels”
At the same time, some teams have to move outside of England and locally (the Thai team in Bangkok, the Korean team in Seoul, etc.). “World Service Group”, described as one of the “crown jewels” in the BBC’s annual report, has a total of 1,433 employees.
The audiovisual group specifies, however, that none of its 41 foreign language services will be completely closed. But, about half will now be digital. “Hundreds of millions of people trust the BBC for fair and unbiased information, especially in countries where it is scarce,” said Liliane Landor, director of the BBC World Service, in a statement. “There is a compelling case for expanding our digital services within the World Service, to better serve our audiences,” she added.
Savings across the group
This austerity cure on the BBC international service is part of a larger savings plan, announced last May. The group then indicated that it was going to cut 1,000 jobs, but also, and among other things, to transfer two channels (one cultural, the other for children) in 2025 to digital.
It must save 500 million each year, taking into account both the freezing of the license fee and the necessary investments in digital technology.
“BBC World an expensive service which is difficult to make profitable. The BBC may have less vocation to be international, in a context of savings,” observes Alice Enders, of the firm Enders Analysis.
The BBC had escaped the worst at the start of the year in the face of pressure to end the license fee and stop indexing it to inflation, which is particularly strong in the United Kingdom. But when the group has to deal with the temporary freezing of the fee and an increase in its costs, given the economic context. The “Beeb” must also adapt to competition from digital giants.
As the “Guardian” points out, the BBC World Service was before 2010 financed by the Foreign Office and not by the license fee. Later integrated into the perimeter financed by the license fee, it continued to benefit from direct government funding. Some 400 million pounds have been paid since 2016. But there were fears about the future of this funding.
