New BBC cost-cutting plans restrict presenters’ foreign travel
Presenters on some of the BBC’s most popular programmes are to be prevented from going abroad as part of the corporation’s cost-cutting plans.
They mean presenters from news programmes such as BBC Breakfast and Newsnight will not be permitted to travel abroad to cover breaking international news. Instead, reporters could stand in for presenters.
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The new rules, first reported by the Daily Telegraph, have been sent out to BBC editors and are due to come into effect after the US presidential election.
Under the rules, the BBC will only send one presenter to major international events who can work across different programmes.
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The BBC’s budget came under government scrutiny earlier this year ahead of the renewal of its royal charter.
Earlier this week, the BBC announced it would be cutting 300 jobs in its production arm as part of a restructuring.
A BBC source said:
The new deployment guidelines will stop duplication meaning more cost-effective foreign news coverage. If newsreaders are sent now it will be one per channel and they’ll be asked to enhance the journalism, not merely be a cosmetic presence.