Staff at BBC Newsnight are worried the flagship programme could be axed as the broadcaster pushes ahead with extensive cost-saving measures, reports claim.
The BBC needs to save £500 million over the next two years and cut up to 2,000 jobs, and significant changes are being made across the organisation. Staff at Newsnight have now shared concerns that their show could be next for the chop entirely, according to The Sun.
Concerns over budget reductions
A source told the publication: “Everyone is concerned for Newsnight and how it will fare in the next cuts.
“We’ve been warned there are likely budget reductions and revisions next year. It’s a worrying time.”
The programme, which was responsible for landmark features such as Emily Maitlis’s 2019 interview with Prince Andrew, has already faced significant cuts. In 2023, the number of staff was more than halved from 57 to 23, with the special investigations team cut entirely and the show reduced in length to half an hour. The BBC merged the production teams on Newsnight and Sunday with Laura Kunessberg in June.
Focus on clicks and iPlayer
Amid the BBC’s widely publicised need to save costs and a shift to focus on social media clips and BBC iPlayer, staff are said to be concerned that the show won’t make it. The insider added that the BBC’s new director general, former Google boss Matt Brittin, “has made it clear that success is down to clicks”.
However, it’s not all doom and gloom at Newsnight. Come September, the show, which first launched in 1980, will be moving its Friday edition to a peak-time slot on BBC, which the BBC said would build on “the success of its refreshed format”.
BBC response and wider cuts
A BBC spokesperson said: “We’re very proud of Newsnight’s success; since its reformat, it has significantly increased its audiences, won an RTS (Royal Television Society) award and is now being moved to a peak-time slot on Friday evenings.
“As we have said, the BBC needs to save £500m over the next three years and BBC News will play its part in contributing to those savings.”
The BBC’s radio services were worst hit in the first round of savings, with Radio 4’s The World Tonight, the Midnight News, Money Box Live, AntiSocial, The Law Show and Crossing Continents all being cut. On the World Service, The Inquiry, The Conversation and The Fifth Floor will all close by the end of 2026. The BBC is aiming to reduce costs by 10 per cent over the next three years.
