BBC MOVES TO ‘SLIM CORPORATE BELLY’

The British Broadcasting Corp., which received a smaller increase in subscription fees than it sought, says it will lay off up to 4,000 workers over the next three years. Unions called the plan a recipe for unrest.

The television and radio giant, which has two national channels and broadcasts 700 hours of programming a week in 37 languages outside of England, said most of the cuts would be in auxiliary jobs such as catering, cleaning and security personnel.

One BBC official called the move an effort “to slim down the corporate belly.”

Tony Hearn, joint secretary of the two biggest broadcasting unions at the BBC, said “the whole position of the BBC as the premier broadcasting organization in Britain” was at stake.

The BBC, which is funded primarily by compulsory annual subscriptions from subscribers, had sought an increase in the fee from $64.86 to $91 this year. But the government approved a hike to $81.78, or 10.7% less than requested.

BBC officials said that this forced the company to cut its planned budget by about $490 million.

“Clearly, with the license fee we’re never going to have as much money as we want and it’s high time that we recognized that the sort of license fee settlements we’ve had for years are always too little too late and we had better drive the place in a different direction,” said Alisdair Milne, BBC director-general.

The BBC said it would fire about 4,000 of its 29,000 employees and divert more money to quality TV programs and improvement of its local radio network.

The BBC plans to spend $1.3 billion a year over the next three years. A small portion comes from sales abroad of its highly acclaimed drama, comedy and documentary series, but the overwhelming majority of its funds come from subscriptions.