The BBC is planning to cut approximately 2,000 jobs over the next two years. Does that add pressure to find a Doctor Who production partner?
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To add some perspective, the BBC had 21,508 employees in 2025 – the cuts would equate to losing one in every 10 employees across the multimedia company (and also the largest number of layoffs by the BBC in 15 years).
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We know that the BBC, BBC Studios, and Bad Wolf have gone on the record to reassure fans that the series isn’t going anywhere, but does today’s news of layoffs add more fuel to the fire when it comes to a new production partner? The previous debate was whether the show needed to have a big budget and big effects to succeed. Now, is it more about bringing on another producer to keep it at the level it was at when the show returned.
But the BBC is a lot more programming and news than just Dr Who.
To understand why BBC is losing money, you have to understand that it’s mostly funded by annoying “television license fees” paid by UK residents.
In the last 20+ years, the number of televisions and radios taxed by the UK government has decreased as more video and audio entertainment has moved to computers and mobile devices.
This is while living and production costs have risen.
Yeah, I can’t say I’m a big economics nerd, but there have been signs for years that the BBC has struggled financially. And although some prefer to see that in isolation from specific programmes (or just ignore it), it’s clear with the shift toward co-productions that the license fees alone can’t carry big costume or effects-laden productions.
Also, the relative freedom of production within a public funded broadcaster has given us the rich and weird Doctor Who lore that we have —and that’s even disregarding the extended universe of Big Finish and novel ranges. I couldn’t imagine quite the same emerging within a fully commercial framework… even though we are posting this to a startrek.website community 🙂