BBC announces it will cut more than 1,000 jobs

The BBC said Thursday that it is cutting more than 1,000 jobs, mostly in management, as part of a long-term drive to reduce costs that has been accelerated by changing viewing habits.

More people are watching programmes online, leading to a sharper than expected decline in the numbers paying the BBC licence fee levied on all households with a television, the British broadcaster said.

The income from the fee, frozen by the government at £145.50 a year, is now forecast to be £150 million (211 million euros, $234 million) less in 2016/17 than it was expected to be four years ago.

As a result, the BBC has proposed merging divisions, cutting up to three layers of management in some areas and "simplifying" support services such as marketing, finance, human resources and IT.

"More than 1,000 posts will be lost as a result," saving £50 million, the broadcaster said in a statement.

The latest annual report from in July 2014 put the total BBC staff at 16,672, up from 16,534 the previous year but down from 17,242 two years before that.

The income from the licence fee in 2013/14 stood at £3.72 billion, up from £3.71 billion the previous year.

A BBC spokeswoman could not say what proportion of the jobs cut would be redundancies, or in which departments the axe would fall heaviest.

In July last year, BBC News said it would cut 415 jobs from its news department as part of a restructuring plan.

The BBC also announced 2,000 job cuts in November 2011, although a review subsequently reduced that number to about 580.

"A simpler, leaner, BBC is the right thing to do and it can also help us meet the financial challenges we face," said the organisation's director general, Tony Hall.

"We've already significantly cut the costs of running the BBC, but in times of very tough choices we need to focus on what really matters -- delivering outstanding programmes and content for all our audiences."