BBC to cut MORE jobs as BBC News and BBC World News channels merge to create a single 24-hour channel set to be launched in April next year – days after report revealed six of its top ten highest earners saw their wages rise
- BBC says it will merge BBC News and BBC World News to save more money
- Around 70 jobs will go in move, which it blames on Nadine Dorries fee freeze
- On Tuesday the BBC revealed it had paid Gary Lineker £1.3million a year
The BBC – which recently announced top earner Gary Lineker was paid £1.3million – will axe 70 jobs as part of a money saving merger of BBC News and BBC World News.
It is to create a single 24-hour TV channel as part of measures it says it needs to take to save money after Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries announced the licence fee will be frozen for the next two years.
The move comes after the corporation announced the end of BBC Four, Radio 4 Extra and CBBC as linear channels.
They are expected to move online to the iPlayer in the next few years as part of the broadcaster’s plans to become ‘digital first’.
But it comes after huge salaries of the channel’s biggest stars were revealed, attracting criticism the public was fed up of paying a high licence fee for them.
The BBC said today its new merged channel, which will be called BBC News, is expected to launch in April 2023.
BBC News’ digital director, Naja Nielsen, said: ‘Our aim is to create the best live and breaking video news service in the world – on our web pages, our apps, on iPlayer and on our new TV news channel.
The BBC said today its new merged channel, which will be called BBC News, will launch in April
BBC News’ digital director, Naja Nielsen said broadcaster wanted best news service in world
Gary Lineker is the BBC ‘s top earning on-air talent for the fifth consecutive year and the only name to earn over £1 million annually, new figures show. The 61-year-old pundit and former footballer was paid between £1,350,000 and £1,354,999 in 2021/2022 for work including Match Of The Day and Sports Personality Of The Year – a reduction of £10,000 on the previous year
‘The way audiences consume news is changing. In recent years, we’ve seen a huge surge in audiences coming to our live coverage, with 10s of millions following live pages when big stories and events unfold.
‘As the world’s most trusted source of news, with a huge depth and breadth of expertise, the BBC is uniquely placed to offer audiences the best analysis and explanation as these stories are unfolding.
‘So we are investing in new capability to cover breaking news stories, and our news channel and digital teams will work hand in hand to bring the best journalism to audiences both at home and abroad.’
The new channel will be broadcast from London during the day and Singapore and Washington DC overnight.
Around 70 BBC staff from across all areas in the UK will lose their jobs as a result of the merger. Around 20 jobs will be created in Washington.
The BBC said the changes will create a streamlined organisation that ‘drives the most value from the licence fee and delivers more for audiences’.
Many BBC stars are paid extraordinarily large amounts of money by the broadcaster
The channel will serve UK and international audiences, featuring flagship programmes built around high-profile journalists, it said.
UK viewers will receive specific content at certain times of the day and a live breaking news team will provide a domestic-only stream for specific news events, the broadcaster added.
Programming on the channel will be refreshed over time, with plans to air at least two new programmes in 2023, including a broadcast from Washington.
The broadcaster said it will also be investing in ‘visualising programmes’ of popular radio shows, starting with Nicky Campbell’s programme on BBC Radio 5 Live which will be broadcast on BBC Two on weekday mornings.
The BBC said the announced plans remain subject to a consultation with staff and trade unions.
The broadcaster has already undergone several rounds of redundancies and cuts over the past decade, prompted by below-inflation increases in the licence fee.
Tim Davie, who took over from Lord Tony Hall as director-general in September 2020, has overseen a slimming down of the corporation since starting in the role, with 1,200 staff leaving in the last 18 months.
The news comes on the back of the BBC needing to save a further £285 million in response to Ms Dorries’ announcement in January that the licence fee will be frozen at £159 for the next two years.
The corporation faces uncertainty over the future of the licence fee after Ms Dorries said a consultation over future BBC funding will soon begin.
She said she wants to find a new funding model before the current deal expires in 2027 because it is ‘completely outdated’.
BBC director-general Tim Davie says corporation is ‘showing incredible restraint’ over pay for biggest stars with Gary Lineker named as top earner for fifth consecutive year with £1.35m a year
The BBC’s director-general has defended pay figures of between £150,000 and £1.3m for the corporation’s top stars saying the national broadcaster has been ‘showing incredible restraint’.
Tim Davie said in light of ‘extreme hyper-inflation and competition that has increased pay for some stars – and Gary Lineker remaining the the BBC’s top earning on air-talent for the fifth consecutive year – it’s only a ‘fraction’ of its total spend on staff.
But the TaxPayers’ Alliance has argued that the Beeb’s huge salaries have ‘barely budged’ and instead hit pensioners and the ‘struggling’ public who are ‘fed up’ with the annual licence fee of £159 a year.
Lineker was paid between £1,350,000 and £1,354,999 in 2021/2022 for work including Match Of The Day and Sports Personality Of The Year – a reduction of £10,000 on the previous year.
The 61-year-old pundit and former footballer – who has been locked in a battle with HMRC over his employment status and £4.9m of tax it says he owes – first topped the list for 2017/18 with a pay bracket of £1,750,000 to £1,759,999, and in 2020 it was announced he had taken a voluntary pay cut.
Lineker is also the only name to earn over £1m annually Zoe Ball remains the broadcaster’s second highest paid talent, with a salary of £980,000 to £984,999, but figures show her salary falling for a second consecutive year.
BBC director-general Tim Davie has said that the corporation is ‘showing incredible restraint’ over pay for biggest stars
Her salary has now slipped to below £1 million and reflects approximately 210 editions of The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show on Radio 2.
Alan Shearer has seen a year-on-year increase of £60,000, bringing his salary to £450,000-£454,999, which puts him joint third with Steve Wright, whose salary this year reflects a £15,000 decrease.
The corporation’s annual report for 2021/22, which also marks its centenary, shows four out of the top 10 best paid names have seen their salaries fall.
Speaking at a press conference, BBC director-general Tim Davie said: ‘Critically, if you look at the overall spend for our top talent I think we are showing incredible restraint in a market that is being driven by extreme hyper-inflation and competition.
Zoe Ball remains the broadcaster’s second highest paid talent, with a salary of £980,000 to £984,999.
‘If you look at the value we get. And I know this is a source of a lot of understandable attention, actually if you step back the actual amount paid for that group of talent, which only represents a tiny fraction of the 200,000-odd people who come on our airwaves every year, the return we get in terms of audience value is very strong.
‘And actually our research (shows) people want to see the best people presenting and delivering for the BBC.’
The only new addition to the top 10 is Greg James, whose salary has increased by £80,000.
The 36-year-old earns between £390,000 and £394,999 for work including the Radio 1 Breakfast Show, Rewinder on Radio 4, Radio 1’s Big Weekend and Out Out! Live, with Sports Personality Of The Year also listed.
This year’s top 10 features fewer women that last year, dropping from four to three
Lauren Laverne does not feature in this year’s top 10, with figures showing her salary has fallen by £15,000 to the bracket of £380,000-£384,999.
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