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BBC director-general says he was not aware of 'severity' of cuts needed

Annabel RackhamCulture reporter
News imageGetty Images Close up of Matt Brittin's faceGetty Images
BBC director-general Matt Brittin says he wasn't aware of the "severity" of cuts needed at the corporation

BBC director-general Matt Brittin has said he was not aware of the severity of the cuts the corporation needed to make when he took on his role.

Savings targets were announced in June, with planned cuts across news, nations and content divisions to deliver £160m of £500m in savings by the 2028-29 financial year.

Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Thursday, Brittin said: "On the financial side, I knew that cuts had been announced and that savings had been announced, but I hadn't really understood the severity."

There are expected to be around 2,000 jobs cut as part of the process.

News imageGetty Images Picture of Matt Brittin stood outside the BBC, with cameras facing him. He wears a dark suit jacket with an open shirt and no tie.Getty Images
Matt Brittin used to work at Google and says he wants to bring what he learnt at the tech giant to the BBC

During the conversation with Kirsty Wark, his first major industry appearance, Brittin also said he had been "impressed" by the "creativity and talent" at the BBC, but added "every media organisation is struggling with rapidly changing consumer behaviour and the power of the AI revolution".

Describing the corporation as "inward looking", he also criticised the organisation for this leading to "an aversion to risk".

"You've got very loud critics, many of whom are the commercial rivals of the corporation and you've got political pressure on everything that you do journalistically," he said.

Brittin, who previously worked at Google, took over from Tim Davie earlier this year.

He is the first director-general since Greg Dyke in 2000 to take on the role having not been a former BBC employee.

The former regional policy manager for the tech giant said he wanted to use those skills to "move faster through experimenting and learning" at the organisation and work with colleagues to "find a way to the future together".

Brittin also spoke about the BBC's need to "defend its integrity" as it challenges Donald Trump's defamation case.

The US president is seeking $10bn (£7.4bn) in damages in a Florida court over the editing of a Panorama documentary from 2024 about the US Capitol riots.

Legal representatives for the BBC are looking to have the case thrown out, and the corporation has previously apologised for an "error of judgement" in the editing of the programme.

"We moved to dismiss the case on the grounds of jurisdiction in that nobody in the US actually saw the show with the bad edits, and it was a bad edit, and he won the election, and he's got richer," Brittin said during the conversation.