An extra 1,000 BBC jobs will be moved to Media City under a plan to restructure the corporation that will include transferring BBC Three to Salford.
But unions have warned strike action is inevitable if the BBC presses ahead with its proposals to "radically" reshape the corporation.
The BBC unveiled a blueprint today which includes selling off buildings, showing more repeats and shedding around 2,000 jobs by 2016.
The Delivering Quality First programme includes savings of £670 million a year by 2016/17 on top of £30 million of savings generated by exceeding targets for its current efficiency programme.
It includes "a small reduction" in new programmes on BBC One, which will be replaced by repeats, and fewer chat shows and panel shows on BBC Two.
Around 1,000 more staff will move to Media City in Salford which will become the permanent home of BBC Three.
The report states BBC bosses considered "the possibility of shutting one or more services entirely" but rejected the idea on value-for-money grounds.
It states: "The decision to share Formula One motor-racing rights with BSkyB, for example, will save the BBC more cash between now and the end of the Charter than we would have saved by shutting one of the smaller TV channels."
Director General Mark Thompson said the plan would lead to "a smaller and radically reshaped BBC, yet still able to command the talent, technology and resources it needs to deliver the best broadcasting in the world".
But Gerry Morrissey, general secretary of technicians' union Bectu, said the programme should be called Destroying Quality First.
"They are destroying jobs, and destroying the BBC," he said.
Mr Morrissey accused Mr Thompson of doing the Government's "dirty work" by cutting spending and jobs, accusing the corporation of "salami slicing".
He said Bectu did not accept the proposals, adding: "Unless the BBC changes its stance, I believe we will see strike action at the BBC before Christmas."
The National Union of Journalists also warned of industrial action.
General secretary Michelle Stanistreet said it was a "watershed moment in the BBC's history".
She said: "You cannot reduce budgets by 20% and pretend the BBC will still be able to be a world-class broadcaster.
"Quality journalism and programming is inevitably going to be diluted.
"If the BBC presses ahead with these changes, strike action across the corporation seems inevitable."
News staff were told in an internal email that a "considerable" number of post closures would be made, probably reaching almost 100 by 2016, although newsgathering has been allocated £3.5 million in reinvestment which would reduce the number of job losses to 70.
There are expected to be fewer overseas correspondents, with cheaper offices or shared locations with other news organisations.
Jobs would also be lost in the economics and business unit, 23 newsdesk posts would go as well as a number of English regional reporter and production posts.
There would also be "a phased but full exit for the BBC's public services from their current home in West London" including its White City offices.
Television Centre is already for sale and Mr Thompson said there had been "a great deal of interest" from potential buyers for the west London sites.
Recent reports have linked Premier League clubs Chelsea and Queen's Park Rangers with potential moves to the area.
Mr Thompson added: "We are nowhere near a shortlist, let alone a preferred buyer."
Other moves include reviewing the BBC's orchestras to find "efficiency savings" and less original programming on radio.
Factual programming will leave Birmingham and go to Cardiff and Bristol although some shows like Doctors and The Archers will stay in the Midlands. The Natural History Unit will stay in Bristol.
Less money will be spent buying films and television shows from outside the BBC and the corporation also wants to reduce the number of "senior leaders" from around 3% of its staff to 1%.
There will be a reduction in "overall talent costs on Radio 1 and Radio 2" which might see the corporation lose some well-known presenters.
BBC Two's daytime schedule will be moved over to BBC One and replaced with repeats.
Speaking to reporters after the initial announcement, Mr Thompson refused to be drawn on where jobs would be lost and which shows might be axed.
He said: "This is a long-range plan. It is absolutely for controllers and commissioners to work out what it means title by title and the plan is set so many years into the future, so I'm not going to give you a list of programmes that will be cancelled because we're not at that point in the discussion."
He added it "would be a bit odd" if the BBC was not facing the same pressures as other public institutions, but said this was "the last time" it would be able to make these kinds of savings without cutting quality and services.
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Where did Mark Thompson say there would be more jobs coming to Salford? I read there may be more jobs moved outside London, but also possibility of some of those in Salford losing jobs?
how about trying to employ the local talent...
Run that bit about the BBC HD channel being closed (and replaced by a HD BBC2) by me again ?
Jobs for the boys.Local people let down again
They're going to shut Salford next year anyway, less than 2 years employment !!
More southern shandy drinkers?
I actually think this will be good for Salford.
Watch the police presence increase as soon as the money arrives...
Close BBC3 & BBC4, run the best programmes from each on BBC1 & BBC2 & NOT show more repeats.
Put all your sports coverage on the proper channels & not hidden behind the red button.
Merge Radio 3 & Radio 4, merge Radio 1 & BBC Six Music.
Charge for iPlayer, reduce the content on the website & stop trying to be all things to all people.
Oh god yet more southern posh boys en route
What a fantastic Blairite 'PFI'-esque cityscape photo.
There is just about every tired current architectural cliche going: asymmetrical colured windows, silly roofs, everything in glass, an obsession with pseudo 'transparency', cheap cladding etc... I'm all for creating jobs but this could be any waterside regeneration zone anywhere in the UK. Even in 10 years time these buildings will look moribund and very much of this decade.
Excellent news.
'Smaller BBC' means a 'smaller licence fee' surely no?
Mark Thompson BBC Director General has been a disaster - & should go.
The BBC has more than £3 billion annually to spend, from our £145 annual license fee -
according to it Accounts, available online - but it squanders too much of this.
BBC TV gets £2.4 million - BBC1 gets £1.4 billion, BBC2 £600 million, BBC3 £120 million, BBC4 £70 million , CBBC £60 million & BBC Parliament channel £10 million .
BBC Radio gets £600 million - Local Radio gets the lion's share £140 million, Radio4 £100+ million, Radio 5 £80 million (!), Radios 3 &2 £55 million each, Radio1 £45 million, & Radio Scotland £30 million
BBC Online gets £200 million - & a further £400 milion is spent on the Director General's Office and other "overheads" & infrastructure.
As a retred person who is at home throughout the week , the BBC is of less & less interest to me - I look for world news not to the BBC News24 nor World Service radio but instead to Russia Today 24 & Al Jazzera PM, for entertainment to ITV3, for sport to ITV4 & general interest especially historical material to the Yesterday channel.
When I was a lad ... tv had one channel, for four hours each day.
I'd like to see the TV License cut back from £145 to £95, implying real cuts to the BBC , who are no longer my main tv provider in today's media age - but whose Radio 3 & 4 stations are the " jewel in the crown" .
1,000 more public employees for the region.
No real jobs though, just jobs the rest of us have to pay for out of our wages via a tax.
I see no reason why people see the relocation of public sector jobs from an affluent area to our own depressed region as a good thing. It's a sure sign we are in trouble rather than a sign of prosperity. Governments often shift public sector jobs to poor areas.
As BBC starts to address it's cost base, it could become a proper company and be privatised.
This would save the public money and allow the BBC to compete on a world stage. If the BBC had Sky's efficiency, given the size and scope, a privatised BBC could contribut nearly £1bn to the economy.
Show some guts coalition, get ads on the beeb & privatise it
The BBC shouldbe a private company with shareholders - then it would be run properly. Everything for profit I say
Raise the cost of the license, even if just by a couple of pounds, to allow the BBC to compete with the likes of Sky otherwise the only sport we'll be watching in the future is Tidleywinks! If inflation continues up until 2017, the proposed date for the next price change, the BBC will be working on an increasingly small budget!
For all those that moan, just drive round and see how many satelitte dishes you see, whatever the area!
As with previous cuts proposals such as the closure of 6Music, I'm sure there will be uproar at some of the proposed cuts. Top of the uproar list most probably being the closure of Radio 4 LW). This may well result in some of the cuts being reversed.
Problem is with all these familiar "I don't like <insert programme or service> so cut it" arguments is that as far as the BBC is concerned, one man's waste of money is another person's it's worth the licence fee in its own right.
Equally the "reduce licence fee to <insert arbitrary amount>" argument is useless unless you actually have an idea of what you are going to (or are likely to have to) cut to get there.
Jumped the gun there. Great news for the region.
There will be no jobs for the Northern workers,they will just look after themselves the chosen few from the South,they try to say there is no North South divide.
Scrap the licence fee and fund the BBC from voluntary suscription.
That'd mean only those who want the BBC need pay for it.
It'd be interesting to see how much BBC fans would like to pay all of the corporation's costs themselves instead of being subsidised by people who pay up to avoid getting a fine and a criminal record for watching Sky on our own TVs in our own homes.
On a cultural and moral level the licence fee is a dreadful idea. We shouldn't insist that every TV viewer helps pay for dross like Eastenders and Casualty for the miserable idiots who like such rubbish. Like cigarettes, booze and other things that are bad for you, those who enjoy junk TV should be taxed, not helped to pay for their fix.
Fixing the BBC finances? Get rid of the celebrities and over-paid presenters, and put the money into content.
The Beeb should now remake 'Love On The Dole' using local Salford actors!!