ITV axes 430 regional jobs in bid to save £40m

ITV will axe 430 employees from its regional news service, it announced today.

The move is part of a sweeping economy drive and the company said the job losses - which it is hoped will save about £40million - would be implemented within the next few months.

Another 75 jobs in other parts of ITV will also be shed taking the total staffing cuts at ITV, which has already been losing posts, to nearly 1,000 during the year.

Unions reacted angrily and threatened strike action with Laura Davison, the assistant broadcasting officer of the National Union of Journalists, describing it as a "really bad day" for ITV News, estimating that the cuts amounted to 40 per cent of its total staff.

"We do not accept the level of cuts ITV News wants to make and it is difficult to see how we can avoid a fight over this," she said. Ms Davison added that the union could not rule out industrial action by staff as part of a campaign to try to reverse the planned job losses.

Staff were told of the cuts at meetings in ITV News offices across England and Wales this morning with the company warning that, although it would seek volunteers, compulsory redundancies could not be ruled out.

Today's announcement comes only days after media regulator Ofcom backed ITV's plans to restructure its regional news operations and unveiled its own proposals which will allow the company to drop some regional news bulletins and cut back on current affairs programming.

These changes will reduce the current total of 17 regional news programmesto just nine, which ITV argues will enable it to continue providing a strong news service but in a more cost-effective manner.

Announcing today's cuts, John Cresswell, ITV's chief operating officer, said: "We are committed to a selfhelp, self-funding, solution to securing ITV's future. In order to sustain our investment in UK content, we have to keep on top of our cost base.

" In September 2007 ITV plc announced that it would deliver £40million of annual savings in its regional news services, taking effect in 2009. We shall now begin consultation with employees over proposals to reduce the head-count."

ITV said in its interim results last month that by the end of the year it would deliver £41 million in cumulative annual savings and that in the face of "challenging market conditions", it intended to make further cost savings of £35 million across the company by 2010.

The company has already shed nearly 425 jobs this year through a restructuring of its finance, press and publicity, brand and commercial and ITV global content divisions and is now seeking to cut a further 75 posts in these areas.

In its second public broadcasting review published last week, Ofcom unveiled proposals which will be finalised next year allowing regional programmes on ITV to be slashed to help it to save £40 million a year.

ITV's economy drive has been prompted by the impact of an advertising slowdown which has increased pressure on the company, as well as the effect of increasing competition for viewers from other broadcasters.

If today's announcement is implemented, it will mean ITV will have shed around a fifth of its 5,500 staff.