The ABC has confirmed it will axe up to 250 jobs and cut certain programs in order to manage a budget shortage of $84 million, as reported on the ABC.
Managing director David Anderson said the funding would be reallocated to reflect a more diverse Australia, ensuring content is more relevant to the community.
Anderson said redundancies and cost-cutting measures will affect every division across the ABC, with changes to executive staff also to come.
He told ABC staff in a briefing: “We anticipate we may farewell as many as 250 colleagues through this process.”
Furthermore, ABC’s 7.45am radio news bulletins will end and be replaced by a 10-minute bulletin at 8am.
ABC Life will become ABC Local and have a “broader editorial direction”.
The ABC had already flagged the potential for job losses earlier in June, with the public broadcaster at the time asking staff to volunteer for redundancies in order to help it prepare to meet the government’s budget cut.
In an email to all staff earlier this month, Anderson said: “The budget challenge presented to us by the indexation pause remains and we will also need to finalise savings initiatives to meet this challenge.
“The budget gap of $41 million per annum means that despite our best efforts some of our services will be affected and, regrettably, there will be redundancies”.
