Tuesday, March 22 2005 11:43 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: The BBC yesterday (Mar 21, 2005) announced plans to cut almost 4,000 jobs to save hundreds of millions of Pounds, as the world's biggest public broadcaster undergoes a major shake-up.

The BBC said it would slash 2,050 posts in the wake of 1,730 job losses confirmed earlier this month, or a total of 3,780 jobs.

The cuts combined would bring total cost savings of 355 million Pounds ($ 674 million) a year to reinvest in programmes - 35 million Pounds more than first targeted by the BBC December 2004.

Among the redundancies announced yesterday would be 420 posts in news, 66 in sport, 150 in drama, entertainment and children's programmes, 735 in the regions, 58 in new media and 424 in factual and learning.

The BBC said that the latest job cuts would make annual savings of 221 million Pounds in programming and services by March 2008.

"This is all money we plan to spend on programmes and content, both to improve the services we deliver to audiences right now and to build strong BBC services in the future," Thompson told staff.

"We want all divisions to figure out ways of achieving these savings through genuine improvements rather than crude cuts."

"We are going through the toughest period any of us can remember. It's a difficult and painful process but necessary," he added.