The BBC is to merge TV and audio commissioning teams across comedy, arts and classical music from next year.
The BBC Content Unit is tasked with delivering a fifth of the BBC’s overall £500m spending cuts, with redundancies expected.
Combining these three teams will enable “more opportunities for commissioners to collaborate, share ideas and develop the strongest possible content for audiences wherever they are,” said BBC content chief Kate Phillips.
Recently-installed BBC comedy chief Chris Sussman will oversee the genre across TV and radio, with Radio 4 commissioning editor for comedy and entertainment Julia McKenzie joining his team.
Head of arts and classical music TV Suzy Klein will head up audio and video commissioning for arts. Matthew Dodd, commissioning editor for arts on Radio 4 joins her team.
BBC3 and BBC Proms controller Sam Jackson will be responsible for all audio and video commissioning for classical music.
In an internal memo seen by Deadline, Phillips told colleagues: “Although staff costs are a relatively small proportion of our overall budgets, some headcount reduction will be required.
“We’ll prioritise voluntary redundancy and closing vacancies wherever possible, with the aim of keeping compulsory redundancies to a minimum.”
