BBC’s Web Presence Cut Angers Unions

The BBC’s decision to slash its online budget by 25 percent, and cut hundreds of jobs has been greeted angrily by unions.

The Broadcasting, Entertainment, Cinematograph and Theatre Union (BECTU) and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) have both issued statements condemning the BBC for making such sweeping cuts, which threaten to damage the quality of service at a time when the public relies increasingly on online media.

‘Contempt’

“The BBC proposals fly in the face of public support for the online service,” stated Jeremy Dear, general secretary for the NUJ. “The attack on BBC jobs and online services shows the BBC’s contempt for hard working staff. It makes no sense to cut back the BBC website as increasing numbers of people rely on the Internet.”

The NUJ recently led strikes against BBC pay cuts and said it may take fresh industrial action. “The NUJ will not stand by idly if members are forced out of their jobs,” stated Dear.

The BBC has long been a political punchbag, but the tension has increased since the arrival of the coalition government. Fiunding for free online news has been criticised by commercial news providers, and its moves to extend its Internve video on demand service with Project Canvas, launched last year as YouView have met with criticism also. The corporation has also seen some of its licence money taken away to pay for broadband.

While the BBC initially estimated it would cut staff by 360, BECTA noted that the cuts would probably affect about 200 staff once unfilled vacancies and contract staff were taken into account.

BECTU is planning formal talks with the BBC management to discuss the cuts but said staff must make their voices heard during the re-organisation.

“Whilst we expect the BBC to respond positively to our concerns that absolutely every effort should be made to avoid compulsory redundancies, the fact that several departments are affected, and to different degrees, means that staff will need to work with their union to get the best outcomes from this reorganisation,” said supervisory official Helen Ryan in a statement.

Outlining the cuts on Monday, BBC director general Mark Thompson said the BBC’s online properties had been a “huge success” but argued a smaller stable of web properties would increase quality.

“Our vast portfolio of websites means we sometimes fall short of expectation,” he said.

Budget cuts

The BBC’s online budget will be reduced by 25 percent to £103m by 2013, with a number of shifts made to the areas the BBC focuses on.

Some political websites will have their sites reduced to an automated feed, with only Radio 4’s Today programme, Radio 1’s Newsbeat and BBC Two’s Newsnight retaining full-fledged websites.

A total of 173 of the 400 individual BBC sites will be closed by the end of this year with another 30 to follow. Online news will see its budget cut by 13 percent, from £26m to £22.6m.

The BBC said its stable of web properties will in future be centred on 10 ‘products’: news, sport, weather, CBeebies, CBBC, knowledge and learning, radio & music, TV & iPlayer, homepage and search.