The BBC will be forced to cut jobs after its regulator blocked its proposal to add video bulletins to its local websites. BBC Wales controller Menna Richards (via BBC News): “What we were hoping, because we have to meet very testing savings targets, is the creation of new jobs would allow us to redeploy some staff to BBC Local… that will not now be available to us; we are going to have to look at it (redundancies).”

Richards’ memo to staff (via Western Mail): “The decision, I’m afraid, raises serious questions about the level of reinvestment we were hoping to receive. The investment would have helped the process of delivering efficiency savings and would have offered redeployment opportunities. Inevitably that process will now be much harder.”

BBC Wales has the largest BBC news department outside London, but cuts are unlikely to come in Wales alone. BBC nations and regions director Pat Loughrey (via Western Mail): “The implications of this decision could be extremely challenging for the nations and English regions as it was central to our reinvestment of savings strategy. It is now my task, and that of my colleagues, to win sufficient investment to maintain and enhance existing services on both linear and online. Despite this disappointment we should all be mindful that we receive, and will continue to receive, some £500m a year to produce the UK’s best local, regional and nations’ services.”

The BBC Trust has a history of making online rulings that lead to job cuts - last year, it ordered the BBC Jam education site to be closed, with around 200 staff either leaving, being redeployed or being made redundant.

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