GLASGOW, SCOTLAND - APRIL 25: BBC Sport Scotland microphone pictured ahead of a William Hill Championship match between Partick Thistle and Falkirk at Wyre Stadium at Firhill, on April 25, 2025, in Glasgow, Scotland. (Photo by Craig Foy/SNS Group via Getty Images)
The BBC has announced plans to cut around 2,000 jobs, around 10% of their workforce.
In Scotland the British Broadcasting Corporation directly employs around 2,100 people with many of them in the Sports Department at Pacific Quay.
The state broadcaster is entirely funded by the BBC License Fee. In an age of digital subscriptions there has been a massive drop off in people paying the £14 a month license fee.
Sport and in particular football is one of the biggest costs for BBC Scotland. Their expenditure dwarves that of commercial operators.
THE BBC SPORTS SALARY DRAIN
There are three main costs in BBC Scotland:
Employees like Tom English, Alasdair Lamont, Kenny Macintyre, Liam McLeod Chris McLaughlin, David Currie and Jonathan Sutherland. None of them would get a look in at any commercial set up.
Celebrity pundits like Steven Naismith, Andy Halliday, Billy Dodds, Leaanne Crichton, Richard Foster. James McFadden and Pat Nevin.
Behind the scenes, online there are dozens employed by BBC Scotland Sport. Just this week Ray Bradshaw launched This Is Fans Only on You Tube.
The budget for sport could be cut in half without any drop in quality.
This season BBC Scotland has won the rights to Scotland international football matches. Apart from that their only football is Friday Night Championship matches and second choice to Premier Sports on Scottish Cup matches.
Deadline website broke the news of the massive redundancies:
The BBC is planning to make up to 2,000 job cuts in one of its most brutal cost-cutting efforts to date.
Rhodri Talfan Davies, the BBC’s interim director general, announced the redundancy proposals in an all-staff call on Wednesday afternoon local time.
He said between 1,800 and 2,000 roles will go over the next two years, with more details to come from September, meaning staff face an anxious wait to find out where the axe will fall.
The BBC will open a voluntary redundancy scheme to avoid compulsory layoffs, Talfan Davies told staff, according to Deadline sources.
The job cuts represent roughly one in 10 members of staff across the BBC’s license fee-funded and commercial operations. The BBC had 21,508 employees last year.
The World Cup this summer will be the first sign of cut-backs and realism at the state broadcaster.
Across the USA, Canada and Mexico this tournament won’t be a never ending jolly for minimum content.
Most of the broadcasting time will be from Pacific Quay in Glasgow with limited broadcasting from the actual venues.
Tom English is expected to provide in-depth coverage from his man cave, draining a salary on the laughable title of ‘Chief Sports Writer’. After 30 years in the business English hasn’t got near to an exclusive story outside of Gorgie Road.
Don’t like to see people losing their jobs,but this is one place we can celebrate it.
Far to many LEECHES at Pacific Quay which is a dumping ground for ex-sevco and current players,some with some serious tax matters that should be addressed and nowhere near the BBC as pundits.
Just look at how many times ex-sevco players have left the BBC to take up a management post somewhere,only for a short time later to walk back into the post they left earlier at the BBC,yiu all know who I’m talking about.
So here’s hoping the cuts are massive and even to left with only half a dozen on those of the blue side still being left there is still a half dozen to much.
Ain’t that a shame.
Don’t watch
Don’t listen
Don’t pay
There is plenty of free propaganda out there.