The British Broadcasting Commission (World Services) on Thursday announced that it will be relieving no fewer than 400 of its workers of their jobs as it moves to digital platforms.
According to BBC, the move is also part of a cost-cutting programme as its international services needed to make savings of £28.5 million ($31 million) as part of wider reductions of £500 million.
The media outlet had earlier in July revealed detailed plans to merge BBC World News television and its domestic UK equivalent into a single channel which would be launched in April, 2023.
BBC World Service currently operates in 40 languages around the world with a weekly audience of some 364 million people.
further explaining the rationale behind its move, the corporation said audience habits were changing and more people were accessing news online, which along with a freeze on BBC funding and increased operating costs meant a move to “digital-first” made financial sense.
In an online statement, BBC had said that, “Today’s proposals entail a net total of around 382 post closures,”
Eleven language services — Azerbaijani, Brasil, Marathi, Mundo, Punjabi, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Thai, Turkish, and Vietnamese — are already digital only.
Similarly, at least seven more languages including: Chinese, Gujarati, Igbo, Indonesian, Pidgin, Urdu and Yoruba will be added under the new restructuring plans.
Radio services in Arabic, Persian, Kyrgyz, Hindi, Bengali, Chinese, Indonesian, Tamil and Urdu will stop, if the proposals are approved by staff and unions.
No language services will close, the broadcaster insisted, although some production will move out of London.
The Thai service will move to Bangkok, the Korean service to Seoul and the Bangla service to Dhaka.
Meanwhile, BBC World Service director Liliane Landor disclosed that there was a “compelling case” for expanding digital services, as audiences had more than doubled since 2018.
“The way audiences are accessing news and content is changing and the challenge of reaching and engaging people around the world with quality, trusted journalism is growing,” she added.
BBC World Service is funded out of the UK licence fee — currently £159 for a colour TV and payable by every household with a television set.
The BBC has faced increasing claims from right-wingers since the UK’s divisive Brexit referendum in 2016 of political bias, and pushing a “woke”, London-centric liberal agenda. But it has faced similar accusations of political bias in favour of the right from the left.
Earlier this year, the government announced a freeze on the licence fee in what was seen as a brazen attack on a cherished British institution.
However, ministers claimed the funding model needed to be revised because of technological changes, including the uptake of streaming services.
On their part, rival commercial broadcasters have long complained that the guaranteed funding is unfair.
