There are 91 BBC executives who are paid MORE than the Prime Minister and 11 bosses get morethan DOUBLE his salary. Source: Mail online
The BBC's mission is "to act in the public interest, serving all audiences through the provision of impartial, high-quality and distinctive output and services which inform, educate and entertain".
It is a job they do well at their best but 'Auntie' is not what she used to be. Pay and 'bias' have again been dominating the headlines.
Their salary bill is similar to the cost of running their main TV channels: BBC One- £1.2bn, BBC Two- £481.2 million and BBC Four- £52.3 million according to the BBC's Annual Report and Accounts for 2017/18.
In 2015, the government announced that the BBC would take over the cost of providing free licences for over-75s by 2020 as part of the BBC fee settlement.
In a staggering breach of faith the BBC later claimed that "BBC Two, BBC Four, the BBC News Channel, the BBC Scotland channel, Radio 5live, and a number of local radio stations would all have been at risk" if they honoured the commitment that guaranteed their fee settlement.
Delayed as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, demands for licence fees are being received by pensioners over 75 year old at the same time as the BBC published accounts showing that staff pay had "soared 3.5 per cent to £1.5billion this year".
There is no recognition in the BBC that part of the problem in honouring their obligation to elderly pensioners is the unjustifiable amount of money paid out in salaries when they cannot afford to do so.
I suspect that I am not alone looking at the photographs of the highest paid 'stars' only to find that just two of the ten have any impact on my life and then only because they are BBC newsreaders.
Personally I prefer Reeta Chakrabarti and Ben Brown at less than half the cost.
Programme content has become dire with endless repeats. New series are built around murder and violence while frequent soccer programmes pervade the airwaves, something that could well be left to other providers given the cost to the licence payer.
New content is bogged down in the BBC's 'diversity' drive. Knee deep in political correctness and wokism BBC's mission is increasingly questionable. Not all change is for the better as the BBC should learn from their mishandling of their previously successful Strictly Come Dancing.
In the 2011 census over 86% of the population were white with 13% identifying as BAME but often the BBC's news coverage conveys the impression that white people are the minority in the UK.
The BBC's Breakfast time programme constantly undermines the Government's strategy to defeat Covid-19 while some of the presenters adopt the role of official opposition to the Government.
One ought to expect the highest standards from a public service broadcaster but some of the trailers are jaw dropping.
Following on from their promotion of BBC 3's Drag Race, the BBC are currently promoting Little Mix in a series that encourages grotesquely made-up youngsters to mimic their hosts by cavorting around in clothing that could easily be mistaken for underwear.
I do not watch EastEnders but the trailers illustrate life in the East End as constant misery and angst. No wonder the programmes are accompanied by health warnings.
As a public service institution the BBC should be readily available to all, informing and educating.
Instead we have an over-paid politically correct woke elite constantly lowering standards by foisting their own liberal views on audiences thus 'normalising' abnormal behaviour.
The announcement by Gary Lineker that Sue Barker is to be replaced on A Question Of Sport by ex-soccer player Alex Scott brought one of the best suggestions: Alex Scott should replace Lineker.
That would be diversity!
The answer is in the hands of every householder in the UK.
ReplyDeleteAll one has to do is stop watching live TV, stop using iPlayer and stop paying your TV tax.
Licence payers can easily "Defund" the bloated BBC and indeed, I read today on t'Internet that almost a quarter of a million families have already done just that.
I stopped paying for a TV licence years ago, strangely enough, just around the time I stopped my giving to the Church in Wales and Llandaff Cathedral.
Let them all carry on with their "woke" and trans promoting agendas but none of us is obliged to foot the bill.
Whatever happened to the adage "He who pays the piper calls the tune"?
As you know, I rarely agree with you! But, while I don't share your negative views on the BBC in general, I do agree with you on the issue of these huge salaries. All right, they're peanuts compared to the "earnings" of top-flight footballers and business people (which are also preposterous) - but they are still being funded by licence payers (and, indeed, those who until recently got the BBC's services for free but are now having to fork out). I know the adage goes that "we need to pay these sums if we want to get the best people" but it doesn't convince me! For interest, read: https://inews.co.uk/news/media/bbc-pay-gary-lineker-zoe-ball-celebrities-strategy-654497
ReplyDeleteWho says they're the best people?
DeleteIf they can get better salaries elsewhere then let Market forces do their worst.
I only recognised two of them.
ReplyDeleteMaybe there should be legislation to make BBC a 'subscriber service' so you have to pay to receive BBC programmes - they'd soon have to drop the high salaries then! (NotGoneYet)
ReplyDelete