BBC World Service to cut 130 roles to save £6m in the next year

BBC says additional Government funding not enough to avoid World Service cuts.

BBC World Service will cut a net 130 jobs, including in the UK, as it battles to save £6m in the year ahead.

Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced an extra £32.6m for the BBC World Service for 2025/26 in November.

But the BBC said that despite this “welcome uplift”, previous licence-fee freezes, global inflation “and the need for ongoing digital and technological upkeep have meant savings are necessary”.

It added that it is competing against international news organisations with much bigger budgets meaning “increased competition for staff, platforms and frequencies, and audiences”.

The £6m savings needed for the next financial year will largely be met by the net reduction of 130 roles.

The BBC said these will include closing posts across the BBC World Service in the UK and internationally and in BBC Monitoring, which reports and analyses news from around the world and will also see a reinvestment "in strategically important skills".

There will also be "changes to the commissioning mix" on World Service English and a reshaping of some World Service Language teams to become more digitally-focused.

According to the National Union of Journalists, the BBC aims to meet its targets for the cuts through voluntary redundancies wherever possible.

BBC World Service English controller John Zilkha wrote in an email to staff that as part of the changes the BBC would decommission eight podcasts and radio programmes: Africa Daily, The Forum, The Cultural Frontline, The Explanation, Business Matters, the 1530 World Business Report, Pick of The World and Over to You. Another show, Science in Action, will be closed and replaced with Inside Science. Zilkha said a new monthly audience feedback programme will be commissioned.

Jonathan Munro, global director and deputy chief executive of BBC News, said: “While the result of the latest grant-in-aid funding settlement means we are able to maintain all of our existing language services, we were clear it would not stave off difficult decisions in order to remain globally competitive and meet our savings requirements.

"These changes will ensure we operate effectively with the resource we have, creating the most impact for audiences internationally.”

The BBC said its commitment to high-quality journalism across its 42 language services is "undiminished".

NUJ general secretary Laura Davison said the plans are "yet another blow to journalists at the BBC. Proposals will see the loss of talented and experienced journalists committed to the unrivalled journalism produced by the World Service and relied upon by countries globally.

"The freezing of the licence fee has had a profound impact still felt acutely today; we need a commitment from government to provide long-term sustainable funding that allows the provision by teams including over 40 language services to thrive.

“It is wrong journalists are once more bearing the brunt of changes at a time when the BBC's journalism and soft power is needed more than ever. As we support members impacted by cuts, we urge the BBC to engage meaningfully with us to do all it can to protect jobs."

The BBC joins several UK and US broadcasters announcing job cuts in January including CNN, NBC News and London Live. Other news organisations cutting roles include the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Dotdash Meredith, Huffpost and DC Thomson.

The last round of cuts affecting journalists at the BBC was announced in October, with 185 jobs expected to go across the news and current affairs department including through the end of the interview programme Hardtalk, tech show Click and the Asian Network's bespoke news service.

Update: The BBC World Service branch of the National Union of Journalists passed a motion opposing the job cuts on Thursday (30 January). The motion said:

"NUJ members at the BBC World Service object to the BBC's decision to cut the World Service budget by £6m a year. This decision is bad for the BBC, bad for Britain, and bad for the world.

"Announcing this decision shortly after getting a £33m a year funding boost from the UK government shows how little belief the BBC senior executives have in the World Service mission.

"In an era of increasing polarisation, misinformation and disinformation, the world needs the trusted, impartial World Service more, not less.

"When authoritarian governments aggressively try to restrict press freedom at home and even abroad, including transnational repression of World Service journalists, the need for a high-quality, editorially-independent World Service is increasing, not decreasing.

"Losing journalists means lower quality content and programmes, and our audiences notice that. Yet the BBC is subjecting the World Service to death by a thousand cuts.

"We have seen that wherever the BBC has retreated, it has been replaced by media outlets funded by the likes of China, Russia and Saudi Arabia.

"We call on the BBC to reverse these shortsighted, damaging cuts, engage in meaningful discussions with the unions and outside stakeholders to find ways to secure sustainable, long-term funding of the World Service to make sure that it is capable of serving its audience around the globe.

"We also call on the NUJ and everyone in the civil society who understands the value of the World Service to publicly campaign against the cuts to the World Service."

In addition, three House of Commons Select Committees - the Culture, Media and Sport, Foreign Affairs and International Development Committees - have called on the Government to sufficiently resource the BBC World Service so it is less reliant on the licence fee.

The letter said the Treasury "should move away from short term funding cycles, and aim for funding rounds of at least three years, which would enable the World Service to plan confidently the digital services and prepare for challenges such as artificial intelligence".