The ABC says more than 400 people are likely to be made redundant in coming months, accounting for around 10 per cent of the broadcaster’s workforce.
SBS Managing Director Michael Ebeid confirmed today there will be no redundancy program enforced at the public broadcaster, which is facing more than $53 million in cuts.
The cuts, to be enforced over five years, will force SBS to absorb more than $25 million in back office functions.
A further $28 million cut to revenue is expected to be countered by proposed changes to advertising, allowing an increase to ten minutes an hour during prime time.
Mr Ebeid said he was yet to see the proposal, but it would not increase the overall number of minutes of advertising on SBS.
“We do five minutes an hour at the moment, 120 minutes a day,” he said.
“The proposals to give us a little bit more flexibility from the current legislation which says we can only do five minutes an hour throughout the whole day.”
Mr Ebeid said the cuts should not impact on SBS viewers, with 2015 programming locked in.
Indigenous affairs would continue to receive in-depth coverage, with no major cuts to NITV.
“NITV will have a proportional cut on its back office expenses,” Mr Ebeid said.
“Where we’re able to save money on transmission, on delivery, on our operation areas, that will also come out of the savings… But from a content perspective, NITV won’t be impacted at all.”
Mr Ebeid described the cuts to SBS as “reasonable”.
More than 400 jobs to go from ABC
At the ABC, Managing Director Mark Scott said staff cuts would be significant as the public broadcaster faces $254 million in cuts over the next five years
In an address to staff, Mr Scott said redundancies were likely to exceed 400 positions, close to 10 per cent of ongoing staff numbers.
“We regard the changes as vital to securing the long-term health of the organisation but I acknowledge that is no comfort to those who will lose their positions,” he said.
State editions of the ABC's 7.30 program will be axed and replaced with a national show on Fridays.
Lateline will be moved to a new fixed timeslot on ABC News 24.
Foreign bureaus will be restructured "to create multi platform hubs" and a post opened in Beirut.
Mr Scott has also proposed changes to ABC Local programming, Radio National and ABC Classic FM.
ABC TV's sports coverage will also be scaled back, with a focus on national sporting events.
Among the other proposals is the sale of its Lanceley Place site in Sydney and the closure of five regional radio outposts.
The ABC plans to close its Adelaide television production studio and wind down other non-news TV production.
Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance federal secretary Christopher Warren said regional reporting would suffer.
"It is clear that the major impact of the programming changes will fall on regional, local reporting," he told ABC News 24.
"That's the inevitable result of any organisation that tries to do the same amount of programming with less money - you have to do it more national and less local and regional."
'More blood to flow'
Veteran ABC presenter Quentin Dempster today said he expected a "lot more blood to flow" following the announcement of cuts.
The frontman for 7.30 NSW, which is to be axed, described the timing as a bit of "bastardry from Tony Abbott".
"I feel very sorry that when we get the long white envelope it looks as though we won't be there for the 2015 (NSW) state election," he said.
"The devastation is in the 300 immediate redundancies. I think there's a fair bit more blood to flow that we don't know about."
With AAP.
