±«Óãtv

±«Óãtv Northern Ireland has announced proposals for the second phase of its savings and investment programme as part of the ±«Óãtv's overall efficiency targets over a five year period, up to 2012/13.

The second phase proposals, to be implemented during 2010/2011, would involve the projected closure of approximately 25 to 30 posts across the business.

To achieve this, ±«Óãtv Northern Ireland proposes to: reshape its in-house production capacity; refocus its priorities in drama to enable more productions to be made in Northern Ireland; deliver more news for local communities by moving some newsgathering out of Belfast; derive greater benefits from a stronger partnership between ±«Óãtv Radio Foyle and ±«Óãtv Radio Ulster; take advantage of new broadcast technologies.

To date, ±«Óãtv Northern Ireland has achieved around £5.8m in total annualised savings.

Since 2007, this has been achieved through the implementation of a new, more focused programme strategy to create content of greater impact for audiences, a simplification of business processes, the streamlining of management structures and additional benefits of new technologies.

A further £4.8 million is expected to be achieved between now and 2012/2013 through a voluntary redundancy trawl among staff in the affected areas; redeployment where new opportunities arise and through other financial savings across ±«Óãtv Northern Ireland.

The proposals are subject to staff consultation and ongoing union negotiations.

Peter Johnston, Director, ±«Óãtv Northern Ireland said: "We are part-way through our five-year savings and reinvestment programme and have explored further opportunities to refocus content and find efficiency across key areas of our business.

"The ±«Óãtv has not been immune from the current economic climate and we have had to look again and revise our plans to become an organisation that is lean, efficient and flexible enough to adapt to changes in both the economic and creative environment.

"Like any other business – financial constraints have impacted on the ±«Óãtv and we are again challenged to deliver value for money while remaining focused on delivering quality content to audiences.

"Inevitably that will bring additional challenges and some difficult choices but we remain committed to a programme of retraining and redeploying our staff where we can."

JM4