Unions at the BBC are to ballot their members on strike action over plans to cut up to 4,000 jobs after talks with management broke down.
Bectu, the National Union of Journalists and Amicus said the BBC director general, Mark Thompson, had failed to meet their demand that there should be no compulsory redundancies.
Formal notice of a strike ballot will be sent to the BBC today and voting papers will be sent out to members seven days later - the earliest date possible under labour laws.
"These are the most damaging cuts in the BBC's history, with nearly one fifth of all staff being made redundant, and thousands more due to be handed to new employers," said Luke Crawley, Bectu's chief BBC official.
"Our members want a BBC that works well, but Thompson's plans could stop some parts working at all."
The decision followed a three-hour meeting last night between union leaders and Mr Thompson to discuss the corporation's controversial cost-cutting plans, aimed at saving £355m a year.
Union leaders are demanding a three-month consultation period as well as a bar on compulsory redundancies.
But the BBC described the demands as "unrealistic", saying that while it hoped the job losses would be achieved through staff turnover and voluntary redundancies, it could not rule out compulsory redundancies.
"The BBC stressed that it has every intention of working with the unions to address staff concerns whilst needing to make changes to meet its audience's changing needs and demands and achieve greater value for money for licence fee payers," it said in a statement last night.
The statement added that the BBC recognised that this was a "difficult and anxious" time for staff and that it was mindful of the human consequences of the changes it proposed.
"The BBC made it clear that it would do everything it could to mitigate the effects on staff of the job losses, but this could only be achieved by continuing dialogue and consultation with the unions."
According to Bectu, BBC management offered a limited moratorium on redundancies until June 2005, during which no staff whose jobs were threatened would be given notice of dismissal. But this was rejected as insufficient.
Under the plans more than 2,000 jobs are to go in programme-making departments, such as news, drama and factual and learning, and another 1,700 would be cut in support areas over the next three years.
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Trades unions are to ballot members on strike action following the announcement of 4,000 job cuts at the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

Formal notice of the strike ballot was sent to the public service broadcaster today by BECTU, the technicians' union, the manual workers' union Amicus and the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), after the Director General, Mark Thompson failed to rule out compulsory redundancies.

The job cuts announced last month, amounting to approximately 20% of the BBC's staff, are part of £355 million of savings that the BBC are making before the review of the broadcaster's royal charter by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, which fund the BBC through the license fee. Further production jobs are being moved into the private sector.

Luke Crawly of BECTU said that it was unrealistic to expect 100% programme quality from 80% of staff. Ballot papers will be sent in seven days, with the aim of shutting down live broadcasting of sports events including the Wimbledon Tennis tournament and the Football Association Cup final.

The BBC's rival ITV is experiencing strike action over wages at production companies London Weekend Television (LWT), Yorkshire TV, Granada and 3sixtymedia, that has led to prerecording of shows and has forced ITV to borrow studios at the BBC's Television Centre.