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BBC transparency

(205 Posts)
gillybob Wed 19-Jul-17 08:27:42

Details of salaries of those "stars" working for the BBC who earn over (I believe) £150,000 will be published today .

Do we have the right to question these salaries considering that we as license payers are paying them?

Teetime Wed 19-Jul-17 08:46:55

Yes.

Anniebach Wed 19-Jul-17 09:06:07

Whilst I think they are overpaid I dread the response of some. The eagerness to take property from Legal owners in, Kensington was upsetting, seemed more envy than any concern for the homeless .

Will there be campaigns to storm the homes of celebrities ?

Rigby46 Wed 19-Jul-17 09:19:15

I'm torn on this - I firmly believe the motivation is the anti-BBC bias of the Conservatives and their relationship with Murdoch who would like a MBC to rule the world. However, it is public money and transparency in public life is generally a good thing. I think I would rather it not have had names attached to the information and I think there will be the most dreadful things put on social media - especially for the women. I also think that there are other aspects to this as mentioned on R4 this morning. Royal Opera House, CBSO etc etc all get huge amounts of public money - should we know what their stars are paid? To be fair, yes. With all its faults, we need to have a BBC and I hope this move doesn't go too far in undermining it -Fox news is not a future I'd want

MaizieD Wed 19-Jul-17 09:23:19

In a rush so all I can do is say 'Hear hear, Rigby!

Good post.

paddyann Wed 19-Jul-17 09:48:46

we dont NEED to have the BBC at all it raking in cash and paying ridiculous wages to not only on screen personnel but administrators.Would maybe be better if they were truly a neutral annd didn't report biasedly on many things.The rise of reporters who think they have the right to swing the news in a direction THEY want it to go in has been clear in the past few years.The final straw for me was BBC NI having hours of Orange Walk on live TV and treating these knuckle draggers as if they were out for a family party.It had to be seen to be believed.The percentage of OO members in NI is not huge ,there is a minority of people in NI who support them so why this overload of coverage and WHY do they get away with it ?

Oldwoman70 Wed 19-Jul-17 10:02:28

I am concerned about the privacy issue for those paid these salaries, however, I do feel that this is public money (which we have no choice whether we pay or not) and we are entitled to know how this money is spent. I do feel it is a mistake for the BBC to stick to the usual "stars" who are then paid huge salaries when there are equally talented people working in local TV and radio who could be brought in.

Luckygirl Wed 19-Jul-17 10:04:35

Te BEEB is not perfect but I am glad we have it.

Anniebach Wed 19-Jul-17 10:08:46

I have more trust in the Beeb than other broadcasting companies . Naming these people will keep Twitter bile going

kittylester Wed 19-Jul-17 10:09:04

Exactly Lucky.

I'm not sure it's a good thing to have them published - but that is just a gut reaction. I'll listen, watch, read any debate with interest.

gillybob Wed 19-Jul-17 11:03:03

Is Chris Evans worth £ 2.2 million of licence payers money ?

Nandalot Wed 19-Jul-17 11:04:35

It will be a sad day if we lose the BBC which is what some Tories and some media moguls want. Just wish it would give less air time to Farage.

gillybob Wed 19-Jul-17 11:06:26

I wish the BBC would give less air time to a lot of people including the aforementioned Chris (ego) Evans !

gillybob Wed 19-Jul-17 11:09:00

15 hours per week, for how many weeks of the year ??? for a cool 2.2 million . For talking on the radio (mainly about yourself) nice work if you can get it !

Oldwoman70 Wed 19-Jul-17 11:20:19

Is Gary Lineker worth £1.8m? He's not even a trained journalist just an ex footballer! Stephen Nolan (who I have never heard of) is paid "up to" £449,000. Of course many are paid through a production company so the real salaries are still not revealed. BBC management say they have to pay "stars" these salaries or they will leave - well let them and, as I said before, bring in talent from local TV and radio - they will be cheaper and just as good, if not better.

gillybob Wed 19-Jul-17 11:41:47

I too wouldn't care if they left Oldwoman70 Who are these people anyway and what do they actually do to deserve these kinds of salaries? Most of them have "companies" set up to avoid paying their full taxes too.

Eloethan Wed 19-Jul-17 12:15:15

One way or another, we pay for all the channels we watch - or don't watch. People subscribe to a channel and/or they pay for it indirectly through the cost of advertising built into a product's price. The "packages" on some subscription channels can be pretty expensive - and all programmes are interrupted by adverts.

I suppose it is reasonable that people should know what people at the BBC are paid. I'm not sure it should be confined to "high earners" (also, I don't think that, relative to commercial channels, they are "high earners". On The Wright Stuff this morning is was revealed that the salary of the highest paid person on the BBC, Graham Norton is £2.5m whereas that of Ant and Dec is £5m each). I knew a couple of people who worked in the offices of the BBC and they were fairly poorly paid.

Anniebach Wed 19-Jul-17 12:16:01

What angers me is the age discrimination at the Beeb, a man with fifty years experience of broadcasting and a Woman with five years experience ? Fair enough the man earns more, but seventy year old women are a no no for the Beeb

As for Evans and Lineker? Disgraceful waste of money

Ana Wed 19-Jul-17 12:21:07

I thought Chris Evans was the highest paid person on the BBC Eloethan.

Oldwoman70 Wed 19-Jul-17 12:25:49

Eloethan - the difference is that the "talent" of the BBC are paid these salaries out of our licence fee whilst the BBC claim they don't have enough money to make new programmes. Ant and Dec are paid by a commercial company, if they didn't draw in enough viewers to generate advertising revenue they would not be paid those salaries, yes the advertising is paid for by the cost of the products but we can choose whether we buy them or not - we can't choose whether we pay the licence fee

gillybob Wed 19-Jul-17 13:12:37

Just learned that there would be many more on the list but they are not paid directly but through their own production companies.

varian Wed 19-Jul-17 13:54:01

Not disclosing how much you earn is a very British thing and there is a lot to be said for it. We can feel much more comfortable in our relationships with friends by not knowing and hever asking.

However in the public sector, where there are published pay scales, colleagues usually do know. The BBC is publicly funded and so it may be fair to have full disclosure, but it can't be done without stirring up a lot of criticism, especially when the top salaries seem so stratospheric.

Gemmag Wed 19-Jul-17 15:35:49

Steve Nolan is on 5 live. He does a phone in programme on Friday and Saturday night from 10 pm. Can be very interesting.

Gemmag Wed 19-Jul-17 15:52:17

Derek Thompson 'Charlie' in casualty is paid £400.000. One of the worse actors I've ever seen. Shocking when you think that High Court Judges earn around £225.000. Some a bit more and some a bit less.

Ana Wed 19-Jul-17 15:54:15

I agree, Gemmag - he's so wooden! How on earth can they justify that salary?