Outrage at NHU cuts
- Published: 24 October 2007 17:23
- Author: Rob Shepherd
- More by this Author
- Last Updated: 25 October 2007 08:29
The BBC's plan to cut almost a third of jobs at the NHU has prompted outrage among wildlife programme makers.
As part of director general Mark Thompson’s post-licence fee cuts the NHU will lose 57 out of 180 posts, with casualties including 10 out of 25 producers, nine out of 17 assistant producers, 23 out of 33 researchers and 11 out of 37 production management jobs. One exec producer role and two series producer positions will also go.
The NHU is behind major shows such as Galapagos, The British Isles: a Natural History and the Sir David Attenborough hit Planet Earth - which comes second in Broadcast’s Creative Report 2007. A BBC spokeswoman insisted the unit would still make high-end flagship series. However, smaller series, such as BBC2’s Wild, will be dropped.
The spokeswoman told Broadcast: “Over the last couple of years, the unit has provided exceptional levels of programming, but it can’t expect those levels in the future. The reductions will affect the lower-cost programmes and not the Attenborough-style programmes.”
However, John Downer, producer/director at John Downer Productions, said cuts aimed at lower-end, early evening programming would affect the “bread and butter of the unit”.
“It is these programmes that protect the skills base and allow for experimentation in formats and techniques,” he said.
Stuart Carter, managing director of factual specialist Pioneer Productions, said he was shocked at the level of job losses. “Whatever cuts the BBC needs to make, it needs to make in other areas. The NHU and its programming is core to what the BBC does, and makes it different from any other broadcaster in the world.”
Life in the Undergrowth series producer Mike Salisbury said the mood at the NHU was “fairly depressed”. “The NHU is getting a big dollop of cuts compared to other genres when its programmes are getting audiences and are pretty popular,” he said.
Separately, it has emerged that the 267 job losses at the BBC’s in-house London factual department will be heavily weighted towards junior roles. More than half of its assistant producers and researchers will lose their jobs, compared with fewer than a third of series producers and fewer than one in seven in management (see table). The spokeswoman said “managers” included anyone not attached to programme budgets and all grades of staff.
Bectu general secretary Gerry Morrissey said: “The axe is falling on programming grades. More indians are losing their jobs than chiefs.”
Factual London proposed headcount changes
Category Current Redundancy Future
Management 64 9 55
Exec producers & editors 38 17 21
Series producers 37 11 26
Producers 107 54 53
Assistant producers 100 53 47
Researchers 110 68 42
Prod management 134 55 79
Runners 21 0 21
Other roles 27 0 27
Total 638 267 371
BBC cuts at a glance
Net job losses of 1,800, including 660 from Vision, 370 from News, and 550 from Nations and Regions.
Most cuts to be made in first two years. Additional month’s compensation given to those who apply quickly for redundancy.
TV production will be reduced by 10% by 2013, saving Ł300m in total.
London multimedia newsroom will be created under BBC News head Peter Horrocks to promote collaboration and reduce duplication.
Meetings planned with unions over ‘unpredict-ability allowances’ for staff who work unsociable hours. The BBC had proposed to withdraw this for new staff from 1 January 2008.
Adverts to be introduced on international-facing website www.bbc.com, generating £70m a year.
BBC2 and BBC4 to share some commissioning and work more closely together. Teen service Switch to align with BBC3.
