EXCLUSIVE: The BBC has spent Wednesday informing staff about chastening content cuts across its TV, radio, and news services. Now, the corporation’s content chief has written to independent producers to shed more light on how they will be impacted by the changes.
In an email seen by Deadline (published in full below), Kate Phillips told suppliers that “difficult choices” were being made about prioritizing resources, meaning existing shows will be canceled, and there will be fewer opportunities to win new commissions.
Phillips revealed the BBC’s TV development budget will be slashed by 15% annually. This is in addition to the announcement earlier on Wednesday that commissioning spend will be reduced by £80M ($107M) by March 2028. Up to 150 hours of original network TV content will vanish, while up to 400 hours of audio content will also disappear.
The efforts form part of wider BBC plans to slash costs by £500M ($670M) over the next three years, expanding on an existing target worth £1.5B. The bigger picture behind the cuts is that 94% of the UK population use the BBC every month, but fewer than 80% pay the £180 annual licence fee. The BBC is attempting to bridge this gap.
“We don’t underestimate the impact [difficult choices] will have on companies, freelancers and the wider industry. London is likely to feel this the most, but there will be unavoidable impacts across the nations and English regions too,” wrote Phillips, who co-signed the email with BBC nations boss Rhuanedd Richards. “We will work carefully with you and other partners to manage programme changes in a timely, respectful way.”
Hello
Like many organisations the BBC is facing significant financial pressures, and we need to make £500m of savings over the next three years. Whilst we don’t have all the information, we wanted to write to you as the producers we work with, to share what we know now and when you can expect to hear more.
We always seek to protect spend on content and services for audiences, but unfortunately the scale of our challenge means we will have to make reductions in our commissioning budgets which will impact all parts of our portfolio. Plans are still being finalised, but these changes will mean decommissioning some existing shows as well as fewer opportunities for new commissions.
Across the BBC, we will be reducing our spend on commissioning by around £80 million a year by the end of 2027/28. We expect this to result in a reduction of around 100–150 hours of originated Network TV content and 350–400 hours of originated Network audio content per annum. There will also be some reductions in Nations’ TV commissioning too.
In TV, we will also reduce our development spend by around 15% annually, to ensure we focus on developing ideas which have the strongest chance of success.
These will mean difficult choices, and we don’t underestimate the impact they will have on companies, freelancers and the wider industry. London is likely to feel this the most, but there will be unavoidable impacts across the Nations and English regions too. We will work carefully with you and other partners to manage programme changes in a timely, respectful way.
To be clear, we’ll continue to commission across all genres and invest in distinctive UK content from a wide range of independent production companies of all sizes across the UK. While focusing on protecting current brands that our audiences love, we won’t stop building new ones, as well as prioritising growth in digital innovation.
We are planning a webinar next month to provide a further update on our plans, as well as other updates on our commissioning strategy. Briefings with our commissioners will follow in the autumn where we will communicate clearly where opportunities do remain for new ideas.
We fully appreciate the impact this news will have, and we will continue to be as transparent and supportive as possible.
Best wishes,
Kate Phillips, BBC Chief Content Officer
Rhuanedd Richards, Director BBC Nations
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