The BBC plans to cut up to 2,000 jobs to save 10 percent of its annual budget — 500 million pounds ($677 million) — over the next two years.
The layoffs announced on April 15 are the biggest in more than a decade at the U.K. national broadcaster.
"I know this creates real uncertainty, but we wanted to be open about the challenge,” interim Director-General Rhodri Talfan Davies said in a staff email.
Davies said that the reductions were driven by inflation, pressures to license fee and commercial income and a turbulent global economy.
The BBC said earlier this year that it faced “substantial financial pressures” and wanted to cut about a tenth of its budget by 2029. The bulk of the cuts are to be made in the next fiscal year beginning April 1, 2027.
The cuts come as former Google executive Matt Brittin is scheduled to take over as director-general next month.
The BBC is both a beloved and oft-criticized cultural institution funded by an annual license fee, which recently rose to 180 pounds ($244), paid by all U.K. households who watch live television or any BBC content.
Opponents of the fee, including rival commercial broadcasters, have grown louder in an era of digital streaming, when many people no longer have television sets or follow traditional television schedules.
The center-left Labour government has vowed to ensure that the BBC has “sustainable and fair” funding, but hasn't ruled out replacing the license fee with another funding model.
