BBC plots £600m of cuts with fears for jobs and programming

James Warrington

Fri, February 13, 2026 at 2:53 AM GMT+9 4 min read

The BBC has suffered from a steady decline in licence fee payers - Mike Kemp/In Pictures via Getty Images

The BBC plans to slash more than £500m from its annual budget in a move almost certain to involve job losses and programme cuts.

The public service broadcaster told staff it was aiming to strip out a tenth of its annual costs over the next three years. The BBC’s operating costs stood at just over £6bn last year, meaning the savings would amount to around £600m.

It is not yet clear exactly where the cost savings will be targeted but staff fear job cuts and further cutbacks to output.

Tim Davie, the outgoing director-general, said in a call with staff on Thursday that the cutbacks would affect all parts of the corporation including its licence fee-funded public service arm and its commercial BBC Studios division.

In a note to staff, Mr Davie wrote: “To stay competitive and relevant, we need to adapt and innovate with purpose and pace.

“Over the next three years, like everybody in our sector, we will need to continue to find savings and move money to where we need it to remain relevant for our audiences.”

It is the latest in a series of demoralising rounds of cuts at the BBC, which had already pledged to strip out £700m by 2028.

The BBC has already wielded the axe in areas including radio and news, with BBC Two’s flagship evening news programme Newsnight slashed to half an hour and the HardTalk interview show scrapped altogether.

The corporation last year said it would spend £150m less on making new shows as it warned rising production costs had left it with an “unprecedented” funding challenge. In 2023, the BBC sparked outrage after cancelling daytime medical drama Doctors after 23 years.

The corporation is trying to plug a £500m hole in its finances, triggered by a combination of rising costs and a reduction in the number of Britons paying the licence fee.

The BBC’s licence fee income dropped by 30pc in real terms between 2010 and 2020 after a series of freezes and cuts to the levy. It has also suffered from a steady decline in licence fee payers with a further 300,000 households ditching the fee last year.

The latest cut announcement came just a week after the Government confirmed that the cost of the licence fee will rise by £5.50 to £180 from April.

Tim Davie said the cutbacks would impact all parts of the corporation - Carl Court/Getty Images

The funding crisis comes as the BBC enters into negotiations over the future of the licence fee ahead of the end of the current Charter period next year.

Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, has said she is considering a range of possible reforms including funding the broadcaster through advertising or subscriptions.

BBC bosses have acknowledged the need for reform but have pushed back against the idea of subscriptions or advertising, arguing that the broadcaster should remain a universal service.

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The BBC is expected to submit its proposals for future funding in the coming weeks with other ideas reportedly under consideration including imposing a fee for its radio stations or extending the licence fee to include shows available to stream on services such as Netflix or ITVX.

In a further threat to the BBC’s fragile finances, the broadcaster is also facing a $10bn (£7.3bn) defamation lawsuit filed by Donald Trump, the US president. A Florida judge ruled on Thursday that the case will go to trial in February 2027, subject to the outcome of the BBC’s attempts to dismiss it.

The lawsuit is centred on a misleading edit of Mr Trump’s speech during the Jan 6 2021 riots in an episode of BBC One’s Panorama, which was first revealed by The Telegraph.

The scandal prompted the resignation of both Mr Davie and Deborah Turness, the BBC’s head of news. The BBC has named senior executive Rhodri Talfan Davies as interim director-general, beginning in April, while it searches for a permanent replacement.

A BBC spokesman said: “Over the last three years we have delivered more than a half a billion pounds worth of savings, much of which we’ve been able to reinvest into our output across the BBC.

“In a rapidly changing media market, we continue to face substantial financial pressures. As a result we expect to make further savings over the next three years of around 10pc of our costs.

“This is about the BBC becoming more productive and prioritising our offer to audiences to ensure we’re providing the best value for money, both now and in the future.”

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