TV license: BBC and soccer 'stars'

BBC ‘stars’ pay from public funds 2017                                                                          Source: TV LICENCE RESISTANCE

I was somewhat taken aback on hearing a statement in Parliament that the BBC enjoyed revenues from the British public amounting to £3.8billion plus another £billion from sales. The BBC's total income was £5.0627 billion in 2017–2018 (Wikipedia).

It puts into perspective the BBC's bleat about the £745m cost of maintaining government policy of free TV licensing for the over 75s which was part of the fee settlement reached with the BBC.

Although funded by the tax payer through the licence system BBC 'stars' have not suffered the wage restraint demanded of public servants. In the latest BBC pay list Gary Lineker has replaced Chris evans at the top with a salary of £1,750,000-£1,759,999 for presenting Match of the Day and Sports Personality of the Year. If £1 million were knocked off that figure he would still be over paid for a task that could be easily performed by any reasonably competent sports journalist/personality.

Why are there so many sports editors, correspondents and commentators most of whom are biased beyond measure? News readers hand over to sports presenters who utter a few words before handing on to a sports correspondent, something the news reader could have done. There is layer upon layer, all adding to production costs.

While on the subject of news readers I do not see Reeta Chakrabarti on the list despite being among the best of the bunch along with Ben Brown who appears on the bottom rung. Can it be because they have not turned their presentations into personality shows when personality is all that appears to count at the BBC? 

The BBC needs to take a good, hard look at itself. Soccer has been elevated to a state of religious fanaticism with BBC soccer 'stars' being remunerated on commensurate levels with the enormous amounts paid to star players.

Auntie might have known best when she was the voice of the nation but those days are long gone.

On Newsreaders and Weatherpersons

Perhaps I should have used the title "In Praise of Ben Brown". Increasingly irritated by current news/weather personalities, Ben stands out as an old school model which other media persons would do well to follow. His unassuming reporting and news reading present content without imposing himself. Come back Moira Stewart! Spare us from gesticulating somebodies, unable or unwilling to sit down. We even have some on the fringe channels with just one cheek wedged on a ledge and a laptop perched on a pillar for balance. But I am a BBC man at heart.

As an ancient Briton I have fond memories of those glory days when the original McDonald, McDonald Hobley, resplendent in DJ, and Sylvia Peters looking sufficiently alluring without having to glare seductively into the camera made watching television a pleasure without distracting irritants.

What has triggered this outburst? Principally gesticulating George, OBE - no, not 'other buggers' efforts' as some would have it but an Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire no less, though a lot less than the later McDonald, Sir Trevor of the opposition channel.

Whether reading the news or reporting from afar the ever popular George waves his arms about like a graduate from the Toscanini School of Conducting, stabbing here, pointing there as though the news has no impact without his personal intervention. Now they're all at it. And what does he scribble on his script at the half-time break? Probably "Up yours Humphrys!" after the BBC's Rottweiler reportedly said, “You are on air for about four minutes by the time they have taken out all the filmed reports and everything else, reading from an autocue. It's not a job for a grown man, I'm afraid, or woman." Perhaps that is why George pads out his show by dismissing reporters with an "Alright [whoever]" after they've delivered their minor walk on parts. To conclude his bulletin we have a grinning introduction to the football item as if to say, alright we've got over the dull stuff, now for the really interesting bit before you have the news from where you are. Regional and local news perhaps?

And what of today's Weatherpersons? (I avoid the term 'Weatherman' because it will offend those of a delicate PC disposition while 'Weatherwoman' sounds too much like Wonderwoman. - Close!). Apart from the odd exception they illustrate the same flapping trend looking as though they went to a flying school for people with a speech impediment. Arms flying in all directions, they break their sentences into weatherspeak chunks as though two half sentences make for better weather than one. But can that be any worse than the inert who appears to have just got out of bed to deliver a monotonous confidential chat that leaves me groping for the remote? Come back Sian Lloyd, all is forgiven!