Broadcaster needs to make huge savings as it picks up tab for over-75s licence fee

Victoria Derbyshire’s award-winning BBC 2 programme is to be taken off air as part of a cost-cutting drive.

Sources said the decision was announced to staff “out of the blue” on Wednesday, but that management had been unable to give them a date for the final broadcast, nor offer clear details of possible redundancies.

“An organisation that values original journalism and underserved audiences should not be doing this. It’s madness,” the programme’s former editor Louisa Compton tweeted after the news broke.

She added that the show “consistently breaks huge stories, has won countless awards including a Bafta and has broken new ground. Plus it has an outstanding team and presenter”.

According to the BBC’s own news coverage, the cost of continuing to run the programme in its current form “when savings are needed” has been “deemed too high”. The report hinted Derbyshire’s programme would continue in some guise, with the BBC media editor, Amol Rajan, saying the show had built a stronger following online than on television.

One well-placed source accused the BBC of being “short-sighted”, adding: “I think it’s classic BBC lack-of-planning.”

Another said the production team was one of the most diverse at the BBC; “including female deputy editor, editor, director and presenter – all female management at the top – and one of the most diverse on air too”.

The source added that the show, which has also won an RTS award, regularly produced original journalism and was able to reach large audiences. “[We are] multi-award winning and we’re what they’ve chosen to cut.”

They said some journalists from BAME backgrounds had decided to work with the programme because it catered for “underserved audiences that nowhere else in the BBC does”. They added: “Telling the bosses that the message they’re giving us is that that’s not valued and they don’t feel there is a space for them here.

“We’re massively cheap, compared to other shows; always been on a shoestring. But they haven’t taken online impact of our stories into account in terms of our reach.”

Another person with knowledge of the show said: “A programme run by women, for women and underserved audiences being cut flies in the face of the public service broadcast commitments and also diversity. BAME, female and LGBTQ staff members are decrying it saying there is nowhere for those stories to be funded from in the rest of the BBC.”

It is thought BBC’s news division needs to make tens of millions in savings over the next four years and the broadcaster’s overall finances have been further complicated by the decision to make it pick up the bill for free television licences for some over-75s.

The Times has also reported that BBC Radio Four’s flagship news programme Today was in the firing line as part of reforms to be pushed through before the next director general takes up their post in the summer.

The BBC’s outgoing director general, Tony Hall, announced on Monday that he would leave the role this year to give his successor time to settle before the mid-term review of the BBC’s charter takes place in 2022.

While the existence of the licence fee is more or less guaranteed until at least 2027, the rate at which it will be set for the final five years will be determined in the review. Boris Johnson’s government has made repeated veiled threats about the licence fee as part of an ongoing battle with the broadcaster.

The BBC declined to comment on the reports on Wednesday.