Radio services in Arabic, Persian, Kyrgyz, Hindi, Bengali, Chinese, Indonesian, Tamil and Urdu will stop, if the proposals are approved by staff and unions. Under the restructuring plans they will be joined by seven more: Chinese, Gujarati, Igbo, Indonesian, Pidgin, Urdu and Yoruba. 'Today's proposals entail a net total of around 382 post closures,' the public service broadcaster said in an online statement.Įleven language services - Azerbaijani, Brasil, Marathi, Mundo, Punjabi, Russian, Serbian, Sinhala, Thai, Turkish, and Vietnamese - are already digital only. In July the broadcaster detailed plans to merge BBC World News television and its domestic UK equivalent into a single channel to launch in April next year.īBC World Service - one of the UK's most recognizable global brands - currently operates in 41 languages around the world with a weekly audience of some 364 million people.īut the corporation said audience habits were changing and more people were accessing news online, which along with a freeze on BBC funding and increased operating costs meant a move to 'digital-first' made financial sense. Nearly 400 staff at BBC World Service will lose their jobs as part of a cost-cutting program and move to digital platforms, the broadcaster announced on Thursday, paring down its Iranian-language service among others. BBC has announced that it will close BBC Arabic radio after 84 years among other radios due to cost, inflation and licensing fees.

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