Thousands of BBC Jobs at Risk in Major Outsourcing Push

The BBC has launched Project Ada, a radical outsourcing plan that could put thousands of back-office jobs at risk by handing HR, finance, legal, and digital operations to private contractors, including potential U.S. tech giants, as part of a £100 million-a-year cost-cutting drive.

Staff were warned in an internal email that compulsory redundancies are now likely, with unions condemning the move as “high-risk” and accusing the corporation of offshoring jobs funded by the UK licence fee.

The plan, pushed by outgoing Director-General Tim Davie, targets non-content roles across the BBC’s digital product group (iPlayer, BBC Sounds, News and Sport online) and support functions in hubs such as Salford, Glasgow, and Cardiff. It comes on top of hundreds of recent cuts, including 84 delivery-manager roles announced in November 2025 and 130 net jobs lost at the World Service earlier in the year.

The BBC says the savings are essential to compete with Netflix, YouTube, and AI-driven platforms in an “AI-driven world,” especially after posting a £263 million deficit in 2023-24 that is forecast to nearly double. Critics, including Bectu and the NUJ, argue outsourcing will erode in-house expertise and lock the corporation into inflexible contracts at a time when the license fee model is already under political scrutiny.

With Davie stepping down and charter renewal looming in 2027, unions have called for the plan to be paused until a new Director-General is in place. Staff consultations are expected to run into 2026.