Thompson told the Guardian that he would not provide further details about how sport, and other content, would be affected until the New Year, when he had consulted across the organisation to establish spending priorities.
In addition to the cuts in content spending, the BBC is looking to make savings of £330 million (€390 million /$518 million) per year by reducing overheads and a further £50 million per year from online spending, which currently stands at £200 million per year. Thompson said that the cuts were necessary to ensure that the BBC could operate within the terms of its recent licence-fee settlement, in which the broadcaster accepted a freeze in the licence fee until March 2017.