The BBC faces a news blackout tomorrow across its main TV and radio news programmes, including Radio 4's Today, BBC1's 10pm bulletin and Newsnight, as star presenters including Fiona Bruce and Kirsty Wark join a 48-hour strike over pensions.
Some of the BBC's most familiar presenters, including Bruce and Nicky Campbell, are expected to take part in the walkout organised by the National Union of Journalists. The 1pm and 6pm bulletins on BBC1 will also be hit by the strike, which will begin at midnight, as will the TV network's Breakfast programme and the corporation's 24-hour news channel, BBC News.
Managers were scrambling today to put together sufficient resources to provide a "core news service" across TV, radio and online. One insider described the situation as "looking stretched".
Other Radio 4 news programmes expected to go off air are The World at One and PM, although The World Tonight has been pre-recorded. BBC2's Newsnight is expected to fall victim to the strike, and rolling sports and news station 5 Live will also suffer serious disruption. Live news coverage on the BBC News channel is expected to be restricted to an hourly update, possibly as short as two minutes. The rest of the news channel is likely to be filled by repeats. A brief news update will also replace the three main bulletins on BBC1. BBC news output in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the English regions is also expected to be hit.
The BBC director general, Mark Thompson, made an 11th hour appeal to staff before the strike, which he said would mean "significant loss of earnings" for NUJ members "without any advantage or benefit in return". Thompson warned the strikers that there would be little sympathy for the industrial action among viewers and listeners. He also told BBC members of other broadcasting unions that they would be expected to work. "The public – many of whom are facing difficult employment and economic pressures – will find it very hard to understand why the BBC's service to them should be impaired in this way," Thompson wrote in an email to BBC staff.
Describing the corporation's pension offer as a "fair one" that had changed "in significant and positive ways" following negotiations with staff and unions, Thompson added: "The BBC belongs to the British public and has a duty to deliver programmes and services of the highest quality to them every day of the year. They rely on us. We must not let them down."
Jeremy Dear, the NUJ general secretary, said he expected the strike to have a "significant impact" on the BBC's output. He added that the union was ready for talks but said there was "no appetite" for negotiation from the BBC.
"NUJ members across the BBC have consistently dubbed the proposals a pensions robbery. That hasn't changed. The BBC have now left members with no choice but to take action to defend their pensions," said Dear.
NUJ members voted to go on strike in protest at changes to the BBC's historically generous final salary pension scheme. Management said the changes, which included breaking the link between final salary and pension benefits, were required to tackle a pension deficit estimated at between £1.5bn and £2bn, but members of the union voted to reject what Thompson described as a final improved offer.
The NUJ, which represents about 4,100 BBC journalists, called tomorrow's strike last week. A second strike is due to take place from 15 November, with the threat of further industrial action over Christmas.
It is five years since the BBC suffered industrial action on a similar scale. Unions, including the NUJ and Bectu, staged a 24-hour stoppage in May 2005 in protest at plans to cut 4,000 jobs and slash 15% from budgets. Radio 4's Today was replaced by a repeat of Ken Clarke's Jazz Greats, while PM listeners heard a Glastonbury festival documentary. However, ratings for BBC1's 10pm bulletin, fronted by BBC World presenter Stephen Cole in the absence of Huw Edwards, went up, a phenomenon attributed to curiosity about how the BBC would cope.
One beneficiary of today's strike may be ITV1's breakfast programme, Daybreak. The replacement for GMTV, fronted by former BBC1 stars Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley, it has so far struggled in the ratings. With BBC1's Breakfast hobbled by the strike, the ITV show may finally have a chance to shine.
Newsnight chose last night to debate union power and whether it has "dissipated to the point where the threat of a winter of discontent no longer exists". For the BBC, it would appear not.
