BBC Salaries - progress

[Dave2002]

Today we will get to know what some people in or working for tbe BBC get paid. I welcome this, but why should the information only be for one public service broadcaster, the BBC? Other organisations are publicly funded, and indeed, there isn't a huge technical barrier to knowing what highly paid people in private companies are paid, as their tax returns could be made public, as in several other countries. Also in the BBC case, it is not clear that the transparency also extends to executive staff - the headline news is that "stars" will have their pay made known. Transparency could extend over the whole of the organisation, and indeed through other organisations.

I don't believe that knowing what others get paid is necessarily such a bad thing as some scaremongers have suggested.
I have worked in countries where there is greater transparency than the UK - such as Sweden and California, and after the initial shock of finding that other people could know what each other were getting paid, most people just got on with things.
I should note also that both those areas are highly developed, with on average a higher standard of living than in the UK.

I hope this transparency will extend to other areas of UK life within a not too lengthy period.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/live/2017/jul/19/bbc-publishes-salaries-of-highest-earning-stars-live-updates

[french frank]

I welcome this, but why should the information only be for one public service broadcaster, the BBC? Other organisations are publicly funded, and indeed, there isn't a huge technical barrier to knowing what highly paid people in private companies are paid, as their tax returns could be made public, as in several other countries. Also in the BBC case, it is not clear that the transparency also extends to executive staff - the headline news is that "stars" will have their pay made known.

Which public services did you have in mind? BBC senior management salaries have been published for some time: Alan Davey's total remuneration is £171,000.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/insidethebbc/managementstructure/biographies/

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Is there any means of learning the salaries of ITV, Sky etc staff? It's of limited actual use to know that a newsreader on the BBC gets £x if their equivalent in the non-public companies are paid substantially higher (or lower). It might appear to the casual reader that a salary of £100,000 is a disgracefully "generous" use of the Licence Fee - but less so if we also know that s/he could earn 40% more elsewhere, and has declined to do so in order to stay with the Beeb.

[Dave2002]

Which public services did you have in mind? BBC senior management salaries have been published for some time: Alan Davey's total remuneration is £171,000.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/ins...e/biographies/

Thanks for this. I was rather thinking of all public services (or at least the ones we "know" about) and ideally most of the large private companies as well.

I hadn't realised that it was mostly the "stars" whose salaries had been kept secret. Also, there is a good point that without the salaries of similar people in private companies being made public it would be hard to judge an overall pattern.

I still think such transparency is a good thing.

[teamsaint]

We will shortly have to register and provide personal information to access iplayer, ( and those who watch TV but don't watch the BBC have to pay a licence fee for the pleasure) so it's about time that those making a very nice living in soft jobs at public expense should have their salaries in the public domain, as other public employees do.

The registration for iplayer is pushing me to the brink of not renewing my licence actually.

[french frank]

The registration for iplayer is pushing me to the brink of not renewing my licence actually.

Isn't this just a way to check that people who access TV programmes have a licence, or can be traced?

If you don't renew your licence, will you still watch television?

[Bryn]

Isn't this just a way to check that people who access TV programmes have a licence, or can be traced? ...

Were that the case there would be not need to register to access BBC Radio programmes via the iPlayer. However, I get repeated notifications of a future need to register/login when I hit the play button for a radio programme. There is a way round it, but that would be telling.

[ahinton]

Salaries paid by BBC are mentioned but what about amounts that they pay to self-employed freelancers or to their companies? If that's to be excluded from the exercise, its value would, I imagine, be somewhat diminished.

[teamsaint]

Isn't this just a way to check that people who access TV programmes have a licence, or can be traced?

If you don't renew your licence, will you still watch television?

If I don't renew, I won't watch TV. I'm pretty law abiding , for the most part.....

I expect that the registration is a way, primarily of checking on fee payers. However, they don't need to know my age, gender (whats the point in asking if people can opt for " prefer not to say) whatever. They are being disingenuous, and unnecessarily intrusive.
edit: and as Bryn pojnts out, not required for radio iplayer.

And I don't want a more " personalised " service from them , as it goes.

[teamsaint]

Were that the case there would be not need to register to access BBC Radio programmes via the iPlayer. However, I get repeated notifications of a future need to register/login when I hit the play button for a radio programme. There is a way round it, but that would be telling.

Go on, you know you want to........

[Bryn]

Go on, you know you want to........

Without giving too much away, rather than running the iplayer and listening in real time, one saves it for later, getting the 8 character iPlayer programme code from the URL. That does not currently generate the adjuration to register.

[french frank]

Were that the case there would be not need to register to access BBC Radio programmes via the iPlayer. However, I get repeated notifications of a future need to register/login when I hit the play button for a radio programme. There is a way round it, but that would be telling.

Maybe it's because I already had a BBC ID - so that I could chip in with my majestic uninformed Reckons on blogs and Have Your Reckons. I'm not aware of registering/logging in for the radio iPlayer.

I had an email from TV Licensing a couple of weeks ago, addressed to me by name at my personal email address, enquiring whether I used the BBC iPlayer. Because if I did, the law had changed … Though it did say if I didn't I could ignore it. So I did. I have no objection to being asked.

One can't have it both ways: insist that the BBC doesn't waste public funding but object to methods used to ensure the system isn't abused by others.

[kernelbogey]

Top ten star salaries just posted on the Guardian website, and no doubt other news websites too.

Top earner Chris Evans: £2.2m - £2.25m.

[Bryn]

...
One can't have it both ways: insist that the BBC doesn't waste public funding but object to methods used to ensure the system isn't abused by others.

That's fair enough, but if one only uses the iPlayer to access radio programmes, why should one need to register. I, by the way, have, and willingly pay for, a television licence. Excellent value, as far as I'm concerned. I would still happily pay it if I did not access television programmes, especially with Radio 3 Concert Sound currently available, and hopefully a permanent option at some point. Damn it, it's even worth of for Radio 3's 320kbops AAC-LC HD Sound option. As it happens, I so have a registration, but choose not to use it currently.

[Stanfordian]

Top ten star salaries just posted on the Guardian website, and no doubt other news websites too.

Top earner Chris Evans: £2.2m - £2.25m.

I think the influence of many of these top BBC earners is exaggerated. I wonder how many viewers 'Match of the Day would actually loose if Gary Liniker didn't present the programme!