As part of a wide-ranging consultation with BBC staff over savings, Thompson has "set the corporation a challenge of 20 per cent".
An agreement struck between the coalition and the BBC as part of last year's comprehensive spending review means that the licence fee will be frozen for six years and the broadcaster will take over the cost of the World Service, BBC Monitoring and fund some of the costs of Welsh-language broadcaster S4C.
"All the changes mean a 16 per cent real terms cut in BBC funds over six years," the BBC reported reported at the time.
According to BBC today, the 16 per cent savings will balance income and expenditure and fund new services while a further 4 per cent will "give flexibility to invest back into new content and innovation priorities as set out in Putting Quality First".
The savings need to be made to enable the BBC to "meet its new obligations" the release adds, such as funding the World Service.
The move was today condemned by the National Union of Journalists, which said the 20 per cent reduction goes "way beyond" the cuts set out in the spending review.
"Today Mark Thompson has exposed the real impact of the behind-closed-doors licence fee deal he did with the Government," NUJ general secretary Jeremy Dear said in a statement.
"BBC staff, viewers and listeners will pay for that with massive job cuts and a serious threat to BBC services.
"The NUJ will actively resist damaging cuts, service closures and compulsory redundancies."
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