The hard reality of the licence fee freeze came to bare today as the BBC announced its intention to shed 2,000 staff by 2016.

In a bid to save £670m a year by 2017, less money will be spent on sports rights and entertainment shows, while repeats on BBC 2 will increase. BBC3 and “at least” 1,000 staff will join the 2,300 already heading for Salford.

Only Radio 4 will be protected amid wide-ranging cuts to the Corporation’s radio output.

The proposals, announced after a nine-month Delivering Quality First review, will mean a “smaller and radically reshaped BBC”.

The licence fee has been frozen at £145.50 until 2017, the equivalent of a 20 per cent cut. It also has to account for the the World Service, having lost funding from the Foreign Office.

BBC director general Mark Thompson warned “that this is the last time the BBC will be able to make this level of savings without a substantial loss of services or quality or both”.

Lord Patten, the chairman of the BBC Trust, added: “The BBC is far from perfect but it is a great institution and, at its best, a great broadcaster. We have a tough and challenging new licence fee settlement, but it should still be possible to run an outstanding broadcaster on £3.5bn a year.”

(Source: MediaGuardian)

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