BBC 'Cutting Exhorbitance' week before TVL Review

[Teddy Bear]

We've been detailing the more major transgressions of BBC executive decisions and output for over 5 years here, as has Biased BBC Blogspot for considerably longer and more thoroughly. Suddenly a week before the licence fee is to be reviewed, the Director General Mark Thompson realizes he may have to cut back on the milking of the licence fee and overall waste that he has generated till now -or at least make noises in that direction.

'The broadcaster’s most senior official said an austerity drive would affect every aspect of the £3.2billion organisation and would also see numbers of its senior managers slashed.'

"Austerity drive"...he's got to be kidding. He was willing to pay somebody £190,000pa for the purpose of convincing 1500 staff to move up north for another waste of money, but would satisfy a corrupt Labour MP, until the person he hired decided 2 months later that he wasn't going to be moving himself.

Suddenly a week before the BBC has to negotiate a new deal for their licence fee they 'realize' how much they might save by reviewing the overly paid executives at their trough, and how much they overpay their (what they call) 'stars'.

Thompson - you may be taking in a lot of the ones you have brainwashed already with your left wing tripe, but don't think for a moment that you fool everybody. Neither you - or the government of the day.

It's pay cuts or the sack, says BBC boss - as millionaire stars warned: 'You're replaceable'

The BBC’s millionaire stars face being axed or having their massive salaries slashed, its boss warned last night.

Director-General Mark Thompson used a keynote speech to warn the days of vast pay packets for top ‘talent’ were over - and said that many faced being dropped.

The broadcaster’s most senior official said an austerity drive would affect every aspect of the £3.2billion organisation and would also see numbers of its senior managers slashed.

But he used the MacTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival to mount a trenchant defence of public service broadcasting, saying: ‘I am up for the fight.’

The speech comes a week before Mr Thompson begins talks on the future of the £145.50-a-week licence fee, with Culture Scretary Jeremy Hunt indicating that he would like to see it cut.

Mr Thompson said he expected to see ‘reductions’ across the corporation and that further cases of star names such as Christine Bleakley, Adrian Chiles and Jonathan Ross leaving the corporation as a result of lower pay deals are almost inevitable.

‘Expect us to reflect a changed market and reduce top talent pay a good deal further as well. Sometimes we will lose established on-air stars as a result. When we do, we will replace them with new talent.

‘We’ve committed to reduce senior management numbers by a fifth by the end of next year. That’s a minimum. If we can go further, we will - and we will look for reductions at every level in the organisation up to and including the executive board.

‘By the end of next year the total senior management pay bill will reduce by a quarter.’

On the board are some of the BBC’s most prominent executives and all are on salaries far outstripping Prime Minister David Cameron, with Mr Thompson on £800,000 a year.

He also heralded an end to the days of ratings-chasing and said he would reduce the size of the broadcaster to ‘as small as its mission allows’.

He also admitted the pending licence fee renegotiation would be a ‘moment of realism’ about the challenges facing the public, prompting suggestions that he is prepared for a cut in its funding.

A large part of the speech comprised a robust defence of the corporation and public service broadcasting in general, with Mr Thompson hitting back at what he called ‘exaggerated claims about waste and inefficiency’.

Last year, News Corporation director James Murdoch used the lecture to deliver a withering attack on the BBC, saying the size of the corporation was a ‘threat’ to independent journalism.

Mr Thompson jokingly described Mr Murdoch and his father Rupert as ‘villains’ in his speech before saying it should be up to Sky to help fund the wider broadcasting industry, including Channel 4 and ITV.

He said it was time Sky ‘pulled its weight’ by investing more in UK shows and talent and suggested ‘retransmission’ fees.

This could see well over £75million being given back to the public service broadcasters ITV, Channel 4 and Channel Five. The BBC would not benefit from his plans.

‘Sky should pay to have the five main terrestrial channels on its satellite platform rather than get them free,’ he said.

[Teddy Bear]

The attitude and mindset of the Director General of the BBC is clearly visible in this exchange. He apparently can't understand why those who have to foot the bill for the decisions that his staff make with regard to payments for 'stars should want to know what they are paying. He doesn't understand that people want to see and judge for themselves of the value they feel they are getting for their money. He feels that anybody who wants to know this is being 'prurient'. For the benefit of anybody not familiar with this word it is defined as follows:

1. having, inclined to have, or characterized by lascivious or lustful thoughts, desires, etc.
2. causing lasciviousness or lust.
3. having a restless desire or longing.

How he arrives at this conclusion is beyond me, perhaps his English is as good as his judgements.
Point is he knows full well the amounts that are paid to its disputable 'talent', a total of £54 million on just those who earn over £150,000pa, will show just how poor his judgement really is. So like any third rate and mediocre being, he goes on the attack trying to avoid it.

He also goes on to say that
He added: "The danger is that if everything the BBC offers is made open, but not for other broadcasters such as Sky, you put the BBC at a disadvantage."

It is NOT for the BBC to have an advantage over privately funded media organisations that it was set up. It is to provide a service - simple as that. Other broadcasters are at a disadvantage that they actually have to make profitable decisions - not feed at the publicly funded trough like the BBC and be above any comeback for their actions.

Fact is the BBC has long ceased to provide a proper service - let them have to function like Sky and the rest, then they won't be at a 'disadvantage'.

BBC director general Mark Thompson hits out at salary critics
The BBC's director-general has claimed that those calling for the corporation to disclose the salaries of its top stars were "prurient".

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Media Correspondent
Published: 9:00PM BST 28 Aug 2010

In a question-and-answer session at the Edinburgh International Television Festival on Saturday, Mark Thompson defended the BBC's refusal to reveal how much it pays to its 'talent' despite growing pressure for it to be more transparent in how it spends the licence fee.

His stance was criticised by Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, who said that the publicly-funded broadcaster needed "to live on the same planet as everyone else".

Speaking at same festival, Mr Hunt attacked the BBC's reluctance to open its accounts to the National Audit Office and warned that this resistance made the public suspicious.

Earlier this year, the corporation for the first time revealed what it spends in total on talent – £54 million on presenters earning more than £150,000.

However, it has resisted calls to provide a breakdown of the spending and Mr Thompson questioned the motives of those demanding that individual stars' salaries should be revealed.

"I think there's a lot of prurient interest in what presenters earn," he said.

"Is it right that the public should see how much goes to top talent? Absolutely. But is it in the public interest to know exactly what they earn? I don't think it is."

He added: "The danger is that if everything the BBC offers is made open, but not for other broadcasters such as Sky, you put the BBC at a disadvantage."

There have been growing calls for the corporation to disclose what it pays high-profile presenters, with widespread disquiet expressed at reports that Jonathan Ross earned £6 million a year while employed by the BBC.

In his MacTaggart speech on Friday, the director-general had admitted that the BBC is now prepared to lose some of its top stars to save money.

Jonathan Ross has already left the corporation, and the BBC has also recently lost the presenters Adrian Chiles and Christine Bleakley to ITV.

However, Jay Hunt, the BBC One controller, said that their loss had not weakened the corporation.

Referring to the departure of Chiles and Bleakley from the One Show, she said: "It [the One Show] is performing more robustly than it has ever performed before.

"What's happening now is that we've got a very high audience to brand new presenters who the audience has never seen before."

She said that Chiles had been "hurt" by the move to bring Chris Evans in to present the Friday episode of the show, but said he had been offered a range of opportunities that "other presenters would give their back teeth for".

The station controller said that Chiles, who also presented Match of the Day 2 for the BBC, had been offered a "huge" salary by ITV and echoed Mr Thompson by saying that the corporation could no longer "offer high cheques to retain presenters".

While the senior executives at the BBC have tried to stress how the corporation has taken moves to reflect the current economic climate – by freezing executive bonuses and pay and reducing salaries for top talent – Mr Hunt criticised its response to attacks over its spending.

"The BBC has to live on the same planet as everyone else," he said.

"They have to understand the rest of Government, apart from the NHS and international development, is looking at average cuts of 25 per cent.

"It is not our job to set the salaries of management of the BBC, but there areas of real public concern and I think executive pay was one of those areas and I think it took a long time to address that."

He said that the corporation should be open to being scrutinised by the National Audit Office.

"This is about transparency. It worries the licence payer that the BBC is resisting this."

Mr Hunt called for “a better system of ensuring value for money” from the BBC and said the corporation would benefit from strong competition from its rivals.

Michael Grade, the former BBC chairman, said that Channel Four had been damaged by Big Brother and had lost its voice.

He said: “Big Brother is well past its sell by date. It has dragged on and on and has dragged the channel down with it.

“Channel Four needs to find its voice again.”

This was denied by Julian Bellamy, the channel’s acting creative officer, who vowed the station would explore the boundaries of “taste and decency”.

He defended a controversial new reality show called Beauty and the Beast - details of which were revealed by The Sunday Telegraph - which will feature two contestents, one very attractive and the other with severe physical deformities.

“This is very much in the time honoured Channel Four tradition of a provocative title that challenged prejudice. It’s not to shock for shock’s sake, but it’ll have public value oozing out of it.”