EXCLUSIVE: The BBC has confirmed plans to save at least £100M ($132M) by radically reimagining its workforce to compete with tech giants.
BBC chief operating officer Leigh Tavaziva wrote to employees on Tuesday (full memo below) to address Deadline’s report over the weekend about secret internal work, known as Project Ada.
The transformation project, which is being pursued vigorously by outgoing director general Tim Davie, will shrink the BBC’s workforce so that the corporation can invest in digital resources and content.
Named after Ada Lovelace, the pioneering 19th-century British mathematician, the project could result in thousands of non-content jobs — including HR, finance, legal, and operations — being outsourced to private sector companies.
The BBC is also exploring spinning off a potential commercial unit housing the digital teams that power services including iPlayer and the BBC Sounds app.
Tavaziva told staff that the transformation plan aims to deliver “streamlined, efficient, and modern” back office processes so that resources are freed up for content. She said the BBC also wants to overhaul the “media supply chain” that gets content from the camera to the screen.
“The work will also help to address the financial challenges we face and we believe we can achieve savings of at least £100 million through this work,” Tavaziva explained. “But efficiency is not just about reducing costs – it is about enabling us to reinvest in content and deliver the exceptional value for all audiences.”
She acknowledged that the changes could provoke “anxiety” among employees, but said the BBC needed to transform to become a “creative and tech leader in an AI-driven world.”
One source said Tavaziva had emailed thousands of employees to tell them “right before Christmas, that your job is at risk in the New Year.” Her sprawling remit includes finance, operations, technology, legal, and HR.
Detractors have described Project Ada as “privatization by stealth.” Trade union Bectu called for the work to be halted as the BBC recruits a new director general and negotiates a new charter with the government. “The last thing the BBC should be doing is looking at outsourcing,” said Bectu head Philippa Childs.
Davie has already gone further than many of his predecessors in reducing the BBC’s public service workforce. He has cut 2,000 employees (roughly 10% of the workforce) over the past five years, with savings worth hundreds of millions being reinvested into higher-paid jobs with a digital focus. Davie’s allies said this was a notable part of his legacy, and Project Ada is another step in the same direction.
LEIGH TAVAZIVA EMAIL TO BBC STAFF
Dear all,
Over the last few weeks the BBC has been the focus of intense media coverage and I’d like to thank you all for your hard work and commitment to delivering business as usual in these difficult times.
You may have seen further press speculation in recent days about the work we’re doing to transform the BBC. I recognise the anxiety this causes around what this might mean for you and your role, so I wanted to write to give you more background.
The BBC has a unique role in the UK and globally. But the world is changing quickly, and technology and disruption will continue to have a profound impact in our sector. There is a real opportunity for the BBC to carve out a highly successfully place for itself in this competitive landscape, but we know we need to continuously transform to take it. Our goal is to be a creative and tech leader in an AI-driven world and this project is one of the ways we are exploring how to achieve that.
Our work to date
Since my note in July, we’ve continued to explore options to ensure we’re well positioned for future success. In September, we invited companies to share their experiences of navigating digital disruption and their use of technology to meet changing audience and workforce needs. And in the coming weeks we will go back out to the market to continue this work and further refine our thinking.We are exploring options in two main areas:
– How we deliver streamlined, efficient, and modern business processes that free up resources for content, deliver an improved employee experience and help everyone to focus on work that adds real value.
– How we transform our end-to-end media supply chain to reshape how the BBC creates, manages, and delivers content across every format and channel to enable creators to get their content to audiences more quickly and deliver greater impact.
The work will also help to address the financial challenges we face and we believe we can achieve savings of at least £100 million through this work. But efficiency is not just about reducing costs – it is about enabling us to reinvest in content and deliver the exceptional value for all audiences that will secure success for the BBC and set us apart in today’s world.
Keeping you updated and next steps
I promised to keep you updated as the work progressed. No final decisions have been made and we will share more as soon as we can in the New Year. We will work closely with the Unions and manage any change carefully and sensitively, keeping you informed and consulted at every stage.
I’ll be holding a call with COO Group Senior Leaders tomorrow, and if you have any concerns or questions, please do raise them with your senior leader.
For now, thank you for focusing on the important work ahead as we head into the Christmas period. October delivered the strongest performance of the financial year so far and it’s worth reminding ourselves of just how much audiences value what we’re delivering. Take a moment to watch Nick North’s latest Audiences video – it’s a great snapshot of why our work matters.
Thank you,
Leigh
