The BBC director general, Tim Davie, made the announcement yesterday in response to the decision by the culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, to freeze the licence fee at £159 for the next two years. He added that many of the World Service's foreign language services would go online-only, while the existing UK-focused BBC News channel would merge with BBC World to form a single global rolling TV news service.
Radio 4's longwave service, known as the crackly home of Test Match Special and the shipping forecast, will lose its dedicated programming before being shut down altogether.
There will also be cuts to local television and radio services in England, although the BBC insisted the overall budget for local journalism would be maintained, with spending instead redistributed to hiring journalists to produce online content.
The vast majority of the BBC's spending is currently focused on its broadcast television and radio channels while audiences are shifting online. The BBC said about 1,000 jobs would be lost at the corporation over the next few years, with the latest announcement coming after years of redundancies and cuts.
This story is from the May 27, 2022 edition of The Guardian.
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This story is from the May 27, 2022 edition of The Guardian.
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