The BBC was accused last night of threatening to axe valued programmes and services – while protecting its bloated management from the worst spending cuts.

Bosses confirmed that the Red Button service which provides access to teletext pages and interactive programming is likely to shut as part of £150million savings the Corporation will have to make by 2017.

Spending on sport and popular shows will also face drastic cuts – but only a third of the savings will come from cutting bureaucracy and reducing the number of highly-paid managers.

BBC bosses plan to give up the broadcast rights to some of Britain's favourite sporting events in the hope of making £30million in savings. Live coverage of snooker, darts and Formula 1 (pictured, hosted by David Coulthard, English television presenter Suzi Perry and Eddie Jordan) could go

This is even though the BBC’s back office costs have been soaring – by £100million last year. For instance, it has 129 press officers, compared with 35 at ITV and 27 at Channel 4.

A report last year revealed it had 305 staff in finance, 2,034 in technology, and 2,089 other ‘support function staff’.

Although it has axed mid-level managers, the BBC has added 31 senior managers on six-figure salaries – so that it now employs at least 74 bosses who earn more than the Prime Minister’s salary of £142,500.

The cuts are being forced by a drop in income due to what is called the ‘iPlayer loophole’ which means people can watch catch-up services online without paying the annual licence fee.

Critics attacked the BBC for holding a gun to its content, when it could cut top-heavy management and bloated back office costs.

It is believed that axing the trio of sports would put a significant dent in £150million of cuts channel chiefs are aiming to find. However, it would mean fans could not follow the likes of Lewis Hamilton (front right) closely

‘It is a deliberate tactic, and one they have employed before,’ said Tory MP Andrew Bridgen.

‘It’s using its emotive channels to scare people into support, which is a manipulative and disingenuous approach. The BBC have got their priorities wrong.

‘I am not surprised they are clinging to the licence fee because I don’t think the management would last two minutes in the private sector with that sort of structure.’

Labour MP Helen Goodman said the BBC had not fully addressed the problems with its management, and that ‘the approach to cuts is playing that out in practice’.

The BBC, which has an annual wage bill of nearly £1billion, says it plans to save only £50million of the £150million from its back office costs.

This graphic shows exactly where funds will be pulled from the broadcaster's budget as they look to make £150million of savings before spring 2017

Some £35million would go from its sports budget – putting coverage of Formula 1, snooker and darts under threat.

Comedies, entertainment shows and factual series also face the axe as a result of a proposed £12million cut to the TV budget.

The Red Button service – which allows a choice of viewing during major events such as the Olympics and Glastonbury – is also set to be scrapped.

Yesterday, strategy chief James Purnell warned the cuts are the start of £700million savings the BBC will have to find by 2022, with an announcement due next spring on how that will be achieved.

‘This is only really the first phase,’ he said. ‘[So far] it is lots of individual cuts. You could describe it as salami slicing, but it is more damaging because these are services that people do genuinely value.

Director General Lord Hall (pictured) is expected to announce the plans later today as he aims to streamline the broadcaster's licence-fee funded output. In total, savings of £550million have been demanded from across the company by Spring

‘This is starting to cut into services [like] Red Button. If it weren’t for the money going down, these are things we would never want to do.’

Mr Purnell, who earns £295,000 a year, admitted that the BBC has more room to make back office cuts. But he said it was ‘unfair’ to suggest that the BBC is targeting content in order to influence public opinion about the cuts it faces.

‘To find the savings that we are having to find without looking at content – it’s just not mathematically possible,’ he said.