All eight of the ABC’s state-based 7.30 current affairs shows, 10 specialist Radio National programs, radio news bulletins, radio current affairs and Lateline are to be targeted in a major cull of traditional ABC programming to fund new digital projects.

While Leigh Sales hosts a national 7.30 program Monday to Thursday, on Fridays each state and territory broadcasts its own 7.30 program, previously known as Stateline, with a host and a team covering local issues.

Abolishing the Friday 7.30 would provoke a huge backlash from the states, as the ABC has already centralised television production in Sydney and Melbourne and the current affairs programs represent the only remaining productions in some states.

On Tuesday the ABC board will consider a plan that would save millions by reducing the news and current affairs programs the broadcaster produces – on top of a radical restructure of back-end functions outlined by the Lewis review.

Guardian Australia understands that the ABC managing director, Mark Scott, will ask the board to push ahead with cuts to programming ahead of confirmation from the Coalition’s expenditure review committee of the final amount of funding the broadcaster could lose.

The communications minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said last week the ABC could still maintain quality while cutting as much as $200m from its budget.

As he signalled in a speech last month, Scott is determined to find savings to fund the ABC’s expansion online which he sees as vital if the ABC is to thrive in the digital future. The bulk of the ABC’s $1.1bn budget is spent on television and radio rather than on digital.

Scott said in August that “the projected funding cut and demands of operating in a digital media environment” required urgent change in the way the ABC operates.

“To meet the future, we will need to contemplate and embrace measures that extend beyond operational efficiencies, forcing real content choices,” he said in the speech at the Queensland University of Technology.

However, an increased ABC online presence will antagonise commercial media, much of which see the public broadcaster as taxpayer-funded competition.

On the chopping board is the length of ABC radio news bulletins, which would be cut from 10 minutes to just five, as well as current affairs staples such as The World Today, which may be cut in half.

But the highest-profile casualty would be Lateline, which has an independent reporting staff of about 12. The argument for axing it is that the ABC cannot sustain two daily current affairs programs, something even the BBC doesn’t do, one source said.

If these plans are approved dozens of journalists and program-makers would be made redundant on top of the hundreds of production staff already in the firing line. Broadcasters Jim Middleton, Sean Dorney and Catherine McGrath have already left after they lost their jobs when the Australia Network closed, along with 85 other staff.

After the Lewis review, which has not been made public, Scott brought in consultants from PricewaterhouseCoopers to work on the restructure and to find savings. The plan to go to the board on Tuesday is the result of their work, with options drawn up by various divisional heads.

“Why Lateline?” one news executive asked. “There is no rationale for it. Is the ABC doing the government’s bidding? Isn’t it brainless to reduce content in preparation for a digital future?”

Scott has argued that he was able to innovate by making savings through automation and outsourcing production, enabling services like iView. However, with the government demanding more cuts, he will have to cut programs to continue to innovate.

“In many respects, we have an analogue structure, an organisational inheritance that sits uneasily in a digital world,” Scott said last month. “We need to think more in terms of genres and audiences, rather than platforms – make sure we focus on the ABC’s content strengths, genres in which it already leads the way.”

The ABC gave Guardian Australia the following statement on Monday night: “Keeping staff informed is our priority. As soon as there is something definite to say our commitment is that we will tell them first. However such discussions would be premature. No decisions have been made.”

Proposed ABC cuts

• Lateline: axed or stripped to just an interview and headlines and moved to ABCNews24

• State-based 7.30 current affairs TV shows: axed

• Radio news bulletins on all networks: cut from 10 minutes to 5

• The World Today radio program: cut in half

• Radio National: 10 programs including Bush Telegraph, Rear Vision, 360, Hindsight, Encounter and By Design