Record pay rises for BBC chiefs as jobs axed

[Teddy Bear]

With quality and honesty in an ever downward spiral at the BBC, they do what any corrupt business does; award themselves a payrise. They're not bothered that they reach fewer of the people who are forced by law to pay for them, they even want more money out of them.


Record pay rises for BBC chiefs as jobs axed
By Rosie Murray-West, Business Correspondent

BBC chiefs have received record rises in a £3.7 million deal, despite presiding over falling audience figures and thousands of redundancies.

Mark Thompson has waived his right to a bonus

Mark Thompson, the director general, received a £60,000 increase and the nine other board members were also given hefty rises, the corporation's annual report showed yesterday.

The size of the rises, which were approved by the BBC governors, will infuriate many staff who have spent the past year dealing with around 3,000 job cuts.

Government disquiet about soaring salaries for BBC stars and now these rises will not help the corporation's case for a large increase in the licence fee.

Mr Thompson's 11 per cent rise took his salary and perks to £619,000, up from £459,000 in 2004. If he had been employed for the full 12 months of 2004, his salary would have been £562,000.

Jana Bennett, the director of television, was paid £353,000, including benefits and bonus. Her basic pay rose from £255,000 to £321,000.

The basic pay of Jenny Abramsky, the director of radio and music, rose from £233,000 to £295,000, taking her total wage to £322,000 with benefits and bonus.

Mr Thompson, who has outlined a three-year cost-cutting strategy that will involve the loss of 6,000 jobs, could have received even more money. But he waived his right to a bonus because he "would not have felt right" about accepting more money during a period of cuts.

The broadcasting unions said the fat pay packets would provoke a ballot for industrial action. Gerry Morrissey, the assistant general secretary of Bectu, said: "It is extremely arrogant for the senior management team to award themselves huge pay increases in the same year that they made 3,000 staff redundant and closed the final salary pension scheme to new staff."

Union leaders meet on Monday to consider their response to the pension scheme changes and a plan to raise the retirement age.

Officials said the big rises for bosses, coupled with a pay offer of 2.6 per cent for staff, made it more likely that a strike ballot would be held.

The report also disclosed that the BBC1 had lost nearly a million viewers over 12 months. The BBC's total weekly reach dropped from 86.6 per cent to 85.3 per cent. That figure represents the percentage of people who watched or listened to some form of BBC output for 15 minutes in any given week.

Mr Thompson said it was inevitable that there would be a drop in viewers of single stations because the business was now more competitive, with many other channels.

However, he admitted that the BBC found it hard to attract younger viewers.

The report was published as BBC income from licence fee payers topped £3 billion for the first time. A television licence costs £131.50 and the corporation has asked for a 2.3 per cent rise above inflation, which could result in viewers paying £180 by 2013.

Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, has already said that it will not receive the full amount it is demanding and hinted that high salaries could undermine its case for dearer licences. MPs are due to debate the future of the BBC on Monday. Defending the salaries, Michael Grade, the corporation's chairman, said that executive pay had been below the median for the industry for some time.

He said that executive base pay was now 4.5 per cent above the market median but, when bonuses were taken into account, it was 20 per cent below. Salaries are not expected to rise at similar rates next year.

The corporation was also forced to defend the salaries paid to such performers as Jonathan Ross. He recently signed an £18 million, three-year deal to make him the BBC's highest paid presenter.

Mr Thompson said Ross justified his price tag.

"The BBC has always had to go into the market for key broadcasting talent. Our licence fee payers want to have the very best people on the BBC."

Paul Richards, a media analyst at the specialist media brokers Numis, said that Mr Thompson's pay was still low compared with rivals.

"He would be paid a lot more if he worked in the commercial sector." Mr Richards said the decline in viewers, particularly younger ones, was to do with the fragmentation of the media, not any failure in BBC quality.

Mr Richards said the decline in viewers, particularly younger ones, was to do with the fragmentation of the media, not any failure in BBC quality

Fragmentation of the media.......hmmmmmm
Sky hasn't seemed to have been affected by this 'fragmentation' and they don't get over 3 billion pounds regardless of what they do.

How long is the British public going to put up with this BS?