Category: Wales
Date: 21.03.2005
Printable version
BBC Wales today (Monday 21 March) unveiled a major restructuring in preparation for the new BBC Charter and the national switchover to digital television.
BBC Director-General Mark Thompson announced that the BBC plans to make savings across the UK of £355m over three years, cutting a total of 3,780 posts.
Today Menna Richards, Controller BBC Wales, announced job losses of up to 194 over three years from BBC Wales' content and output areas.
Menna Richards said: "Our intention is to restructure BBC Wales's production base to be less bureaucratic, more creative, more efficient, more flexible and to offer better value for money.
"Also, we must anticipate the changes that technology will bring.
"We were required to find financial savings of £9.6m over three years.
"I realise how deeply unsettling today's news will be to many staff. It is not an easy day for any of us.
"But Mark Thompson has said that, once savings are made, reinvestment will follow.
"By the end of the three years, we expect total reinvestment in our output in Wales of approximately £10m.
"I'm also confident that BBC Wales is extremely well-placed to become a significant producer of network output, building on our current success by winning new commissions worth many millions more.
"The total reinvestment in BBC Wales's local and network output could be in excess of £23m.
"So, there are many opportunities for us to be an even more important part of our audiences' lives both in Wales and on the BBC networks."
BBC Wales expects to finalise the detail of its restructuring plans by late April.
