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BBC Shakes Up Product Teams, Puts 80+ Roles at Risk
18 Nov
Summary
- BBC plans to make delivery managers redundant in its "production group"
- Shift to "empowered, discovery-led teams" that are "outcome-focused"
- Changes aim to address "increased global competition, changing audience behavior, digital disruption"
As of November 18th, 2025, the BBC has announced plans to make significant changes to its product teams, putting more than 80 employees at risk of redundancy. The British broadcaster is shifting away from a "traditional delivery model" and embracing a new approach that mirrors processes seen in Silicon Valley.
The BBC is effectively doing away with a group of project managers, known as delivery managers, who have been responsible for helping engineering teams with workload forecasting and delivery. This move is part of the broadcaster's efforts to "transform how we build and ship products," as stated in an internal email sent by Kelly Kowal, the chief operating officer in the BBC's product and engineering group.
The email explains that the BBC needs to "transform to deliver outstanding value for our audiences" and "respond to the very real challenges of increased global competition, changing audience behaviour, digital disruption and increasing costs." To address these challenges, the BBC is transitioning to "empowered, discovery-led teams that are outcome-focused."
These proposed changes are a major shift for the BBC's product group, which provides the architecture and systems that power key digital services such as News, Sport, iPlayer, Sounds, and Bitesize apps, as well as bringing BBC content to web and smart TV platforms.
