The British Broadcasting Corp announced Thursday it will cut 1,800 jobs, broadcast fewer programmes and require staff to create content for television, radio and the Internet, creating a showdown with journalists and other employees.

Union leaders said a strike was inevitable if the BBC went forward with the radical overhaul, which includes major cutbacks to news and documentary divisions.

BBC journalists say the cuts threaten the quality of the broadcast. BBC Director-General Mark Thompson told staff that 2,500 jobs will be cut over the next six years, but that 700 new jobs would likely be created.

The job cuts represent about 8.0 per cent of the corporation's 23,000 positions.

"Media is transforming. Audiences are transforming. It would be easy to say that the sheer pace of this revolution is too fast for the BBC," Thompson said.

"I believe we will look back at today in a few years time as the moment when the BBC did make some difficult choices," he said.

The BBC also plans to sell its Television Centre in west London, where most of its television shows and nearly all its national TV and radio news programmes are produced, to cover a £2 billion (US$4 billion) funding shortfall.

- AP