BBC cuts hit the mark
Talks between Beeb, guilds break down; union warns of strikes
Unsurprisingly, he thought the pubcaster suffered from "institutional bloat."
The remarks may have been taken to heart. What is astonishing the British TV industry is the determination and speed with which the pubcaster's new director general, Mark Thompson, is pushing through an efficiency program aimed at pink-slipping up to 6,000 of its workforce -- one in five staff -- with an eye toward saving the BBC $639 million a year.
Thompson's strategy -- apparently the price of guaranteeing the future of the BBC license fee levied on all U.K. homes -- faces a bloody battle with angry staff.
Last week, as talks with management broke down, furious BBC unions warned of a summer of strikes that could hit coverage of flagship sports events such as live broadcasts of the Wimbledon tennis tournament.
They claim the cutbacks, which will hit production as well as the back office, including marketing and human resources, threaten to "rip the heart out of BBC program making" and damage the pubcaster's worldwide reputation for quality fare.
Insiders, while not welcoming the cutbacks, disagree.
Head of drama commissioning Jane Tranter intends to keep producing high-end pieces, yet acknowledges the need to be more cost conscious.
"We will still provide audiences with big, extravagant-looking dramas," she says. "But the new drama commissions will have to be made for less money."
One former BBC program chief who was encouraged to hire plenty of new staff under Thompson's predecessor, Greg Dyke, is confident the cutbacks can be made without compromising program quality.
"Without doubt you can make the cuts," he says. "Arguably too many people were hired in the past when a lot of the work could have been contracted out to independents."
Adds one of Thompson's advisors: "Dyke's priority was not financial discipline. You can see there is already an effect on staff morale, but I don't think the cuts will damage the BBC's ability to be a world class broadcaster.
"The BBC is still going to attract great people. It is just not true that the cuts will fundamentally weaken the BBC. This had to happen because the money was running out."
Thompson's reforms are designed to prove to Prime Minister Tony Blair's government that the organization is being run efficiently. Under the terms of a recently published pre-legislative Green Paper, the government effectively guaranteed the BBC's license fee until 2016.
Thompson, who ran Channel 4 before taking over at the BBC nine months ago, calls his cost cutting painful but essential. "In the end, the Green Paper, which is an important milestone, wouldn't have happened in the way it happened if we hadn't embarked on this reform program."
He adds: "I love the BBC but I've also got the perspective of an outsider from my time at Channel 4 during the 2001 ad downturn. The reality of having to think about where every penny went, means I have got some clarity about what we need to do. "I hope that mixture of internal knowledge and external perspective means I've got more chance than some of my predecessors," he says.
