The tax-financed public broadcaster SVT has already been forced to make cuts amounting to 200 million kronor – and now needs to save an additional similar amount.
In practice, this means that 70 to 80 positions will be eliminated, with the majority of the staff reductions taking place in Stockholm.
The cuts are being driven by “increased cost pressures”. Previously, 200 million kronor were saved by “reducing office spaces in various locations around the country and decreasing management units by 10 percent”.
However, this hasn’t been sufficient, and an additional 200 million kronor needs to be saved, resulting in numerous employees being laid off.
– All media houses are pressured by large cost increases, and this naturally also applies to SVT, Hanna Stjärne tells the state channel.
– In total, we are looking at the disappearance of 70 – 80 positions, with the largest savings occurring in Stockholm. We have tried to spare news and programming. We will not be able to continue doing that. There will be cuts in editorial teams and editorial staff. We won’t get through this without layoffs, she continues.
“Heavy News”
The Chairperson of the Swedish Union of Journalists, Rebecka Mårtensson, describes the announcement as “heavy news”, stating that they did not expect so many positions to be cut.
For viewers, one noticeable change will be that live text captioning of TV programs will be fully automated in the future, with no human involvement. Hanna Stjärne also notes that the significant cuts are due to sharply increased production costs, “elevated readiness due to the security situation”, and inflation.
– SVT hasn’t received any compensation for these increased costs. The economic situation is tough in society, so we can’t count on that. We have to save, she says.
In 2022, SVT received 5.3 billion kronor (about $500 million) which is over half a billion more than what they received in 2020.
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