BBC Scotland is braced for its share of brutal cuts announced by new director general Matt Brittin as he tackles a funding crisis at the corporation.
The broadcaster needs to save £500 million from its £5 billion annual budget over the next three years by cutting up to 2,000 jobs, in its biggest round of redundancies since 2011.
The changes include spending £80m less on programmes next year while 550 jobs will go across TV and radio.
Early casualties at network level include Radio 4’s The World Tonight, Money Box Live and Crossing Continents.
There will be one fewer presenters on the flagship Today news programme, with Amol Rajan not being replaced when he leaves his £320,000 a year job in September. There will be a single anchor on Saturdays.
BBC One’s Breakfast will no longer be shown on Sunday morning from September and the production teams making Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg and Newsnight will merge.
Friday’s edition of Newsnight will move to a peak-time slot of 7pm on BBC Two, following an earlier refresh of its format.
There were no details on how the cuts will affect the regions and nations, but there will be further scrutiny of the Scotland channel and its 7pm news programme.
Mr Brittin said: “All divisions will be making significant savings. Reductions of this scale inevitably mean some compulsory redundancies, though we will work hard to avoid this wherever we can.”
He said there would be a 10% reduction in the number of senior leaders across the BBC and more savings will be set out in the months ahead, including in corporate divisions where it was expected about 700 roles will close.
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