The World Tonight, a Radio 4 fixture for 56 years, is to be axed as part of a sweeping cost-saving plan announced by the BBC on Wednesday that will also see the number of Today programme presenters cut from five to four and Sunday morning editions of BBC Breakfast dropped.
Newly appointed director-general Matt Brittin told staff in an email that the “scale of savings requires tough choices” as he unveiled measures to slash spending by £160 million. The cuts will result in 550 job losses across BBC News, TV and radio, with a total of 1,800 to 2,000 positions expected to go across the business.
“BBC axes Radio 4 Today presenter and Sunday Breakfast, cancels six shows in £160m cost-saving plan.”
“We are committed to let…”, Brittin wrote, saying the savings would not be ready all at once.
Among the most prominent casualties is The World Tonight, one of six Radio 4 programmes to be cancelled. The others are the Midnight News, Money Box Live, AntiSocial, The Law Show and Crossing Continents. The changes are part of a push to save money after the BBC warned in March that its funding model, reliant on the £180 annual licence fee — which has fallen by a quarter in real terms over the past decade — was “not sustainable and needs reform”.
On BBC One, the Sunday morning edition of BBC Breakfast will end in September. The BBC News Channel will be simulcast in its place.
The Today programme will operate with four permanent presenters instead of five, a change confirmed after Amol Rajan announced in January he would leave this summer. Rajan will not be replaced, reducing the roster that currently includes Anna Foster, Emma Barnett, Justin Webb, Nick Robinson and Rajan.
Acting BBC News CEO Jonathan Munro told staff that the cuts would also affect other shows. Five Live Weekend Breakfast will be reduced from three hours to two. The BBC is also proposing to cut correspondents, producers and reporters within its Story Teams and use fewer film crews, relying more on mobile technology.
The savings from these initial measures are estimated at around £25 million, less than half the £51 million target by next April. Further changes, including the reported merger of Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg and Newsnight production staff, are expected to follow as the corporation scrambles to close a funding gap that has prompted the deepest cuts in a generation.