MediaArc announce cutbacks to ease financial problems

MediaArc, the BBC's graphics subsidiary, have announced staff cutbacks and staff transfers as part of a strategy to reduce financial overheads.
UP to 35 redundancies have been announced and a further 25 staff will be transferred from MediaArc, part of BBC Resources, into another subsidiary company, BBC Technology.
The overall staff reduction from 163 to 108 across the UK is intended to ease financial problems, which are expected to result in a trading loss of nearly £6 million in the financial year ending in April 2002.
MediaArc were set up at the end of 2000 as a brand name under which BBC Resources would sell graphic design and new media expertise to programme-makers inside and outside the BBC.
However, the operation have failed to cover their costs since then, due partly to a squeeze on graphics budgets for BBC productions, and the collapse of the dot.com bubble which killed demand for the high-tech new media services that MediaArc had geared up to provide.
Management's redundancy plans, which they say will ensure that MediaArc begins breaking even by the end of 2002, involve a major cut in the number of traditional television graphic designers in London, the handover of a loss-making multi-media centre in Belfast to BBC Technology, and, contrary to predictions, the preservation of a 3-D animation operation based in Birmingham.
Also spared from major cuts are the graphics department in Bristol, whose 34 MediaArc staff work closely with the BBC's Natural History Unit. Only one redundancy is planned there.
London fares worst, with 16 experienced Graphic Designers and 5 Project Managers facing redundancy. The MediaArc management team are also to be cut by 14 posts, including their Director.
Some of the threatened staff will stay in employment if they are selected for 10 new London-based jobs, which are to be created as part of the reorganisation. These are an Account Director, five Design Directors, three Production Assistants, and one Producer.
BECTU met senior management of MediaArc on January 24 and agreed that a department-wide trawl for redundancy volunteers would go ahead subject to approval by a meeting of members. The union also promised to indicate within 10 days whether the proposed new jobs are acceptable.
No agreement has been given to the cuts, and BECTU representatives warned that they would go into dispute if any of the redundancies were compulsory. Management confirmed that staff made redundant under the cuts plan would receive enhanced pensions under a temporary formula, which is due to end on March 31.
The union expects to meet management again on February 8 to continue negotiations on the job cuts. (GB)