// BBC ENTERTAINMENT & ARTS — MODA & SOCIETÀ
BBC director-general says he was not aware of 'severity' of cuts needed
BBC director-general Matt Brittin says he wasn't aware of the "severity" of cuts needed at the corporation
BBC director-general Matt Brittin has said he was not aware of the severity of the cuts the corporation needed to make when he took on his role.
Savings targets were announced in June, with planned cuts across news, nations and content divisions to deliver £160m of £500m in savings by the 2028-29 financial year.
Speaking at the Edinburgh TV Festival on Thursday, Brittin said: "On the financial side, I knew that cuts had been announced and that savings had been announced, but I hadn't really understood the severity."
There are expected to be around 2,000 jobs cut as part of the process.
Matt Brittin used to work at Google and says he wants to bring what he learnt at the tech giant to the BBC
During the conversation with Kirsty Wark, his first major industry appearance, Brittin also said he had been "impressed" by the "creativity and talent" at the BBC, but added "every media organisation is struggling with rapidly changing consumer behaviour and the power of the AI revolution".
Describing the corporation as "inward looking", he also criticised the organisation for this leading to "an aversion to risk".
"You've got very loud critics, many of whom are the commercial rivals of the corporation and you've got political pressure on everything that you do journalistically," he said.
Brittin, who previously worked at Google, took over from Tim Davie earlier this year.