A spokesman for the Bradford-based museum said: ‘We have started consultation with five members of staff affected by proposed changes to structures and roles within the National Media Museum Senior Management Team and Film department.’

The NMM – part of the Science Museum Group – says the group’s core funding has been cut by more than 27%, in real terms, since 2010.

The spokesman added: ‘Our museum must play its part in contributing to group-wide savings of £3.7m by 2015/16.

‘Over the last five years, we have addressed these challenges in a number of ways – reducing costs, looking for efficiencies and exploring models for a sustainable future for the museum.’

The museum houses the historic collection of the Royal Photographic Society, which includes the earliest surviving negative created by British photography inventor William Henry Fox Talbot.

Last month, Bradford Council approved £1m funding for the NMM over the next three years.

The NMM also announced a £1m ‘capital injection’ from the Science Museum Group to create an interactive gallery.

Today, the museum entered a commercial partnership with Picturehouse Cinemas that will see Picturehouse take over the operation of three of the museum’s screens.

Earlier this year, it was reported that the NMM faced a ‘potentially devastating £900,000 budget shortfall’.

The news came less than a year since the Government signalled that the museum had been saved from an earlier budget crisis.

In 2012, the NMM launched a spending review as part of a restructure designed to cut running costs after visitor numbers halved over the previous 10 years.