Up to one in ten roles, including producer/directors and production managers, are set to go at the BBC Natural History Unit.
The BBC is closing up to 34 roles at the Bristol-based unit, which employs 350 people, to address “increasing downtime costs” between productions amid the ongoing contraction of the global natural history market.
Despite the move, which follows the closure of between 25 and 31 creative roles in March last year, the BBC said it will remain the world’s largest employer of programme-makers in the genre.
The NHU is seeking voluntary redundancies from people working permanently as producer/directors, production managers, junior production managers, production coordinators, development producers, assistant producers and digital producers.
The consultation kicks off as the NHU announces that BBC natural history head Sreya Biswas will take up the newly-create post of director of programmes this summer.
The unit’s upcoming slate includes BBC1 series Blue Planet III and Hidden Planet and Apple TV+ commission The Secret Lives of Animals.
