Category: ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½
Date: 10.03.2005
Printable version
The ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ today announced that the first round of plans to transform the organisation will release £139m a year by 2008 to reinvest in to programmes.
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The savings are part of Director-General Mark Thompson's vision to ensure the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ can meet rapidly changing audience expectations by developing a bold content strategy, transforming itself into a state-of-the-art digital broadcaster and becoming much simpler in its operations and business processes.
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The first changes have come from the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½'s Professional Services which include: Strategy & Distribution; Policy & Legal; Finance, Property & Business Affairs; ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ People (HR) and Marketing, Communications & Audiences.
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Overall, including savings from better procurement, these divisions will collectively be saving £139m a year by 2007/08 which will be reinvested in to programmes.
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There will be a 46% reduction in headcount - 980 posts will close, some through staff turnover, others through redundancy and 750 posts are planned to be outsourced.
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Mr Thompson told senior staff that the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Governors had endorsed the plans but would consider these and further savings plans from the content and output divisions as a whole at their meeting next week before giving final approvals.
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Overall, costs savings across the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ are higher than anticipated at £355m, compared to the £320m target.
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He said: "In December I talked about the creative prize for the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ and our audiences - but the cost is nothing short of transformation.
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"We have made a strong start, showing we are serious about change and ensuring we are maximising the value of our income for audiences' benefit.
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"We need to make the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ a simpler, more agile operation, ready to take the creative lead in a very different, very challenging digital future."
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