Tom Scotney: BBC is acting like a business

Jun 26 2009 By Tom Scotney, Birmingham Post

Two grand. Two thousand pounds. £2,000. What would that buy you? With the release of the Tata Nano in India, that’ll buy you a new car nowadays.

Alternatively, if you’re Jana Bennett of the BBC, it’s flowers for a few years. The BBC expenses are out, and they’re... modest. But still far, far too much.

This is nothing compared to the duck houses, moats and second homes of politicians. But while MPs – gluttonous and shameless with expenses though they are – are a vital part of democracy, what really irks about the BBC expenses is what a colossal waste of money most of the whole organisation is.

While businesses everywhere trim sails and cut costs in the face of the economic downturn, the BBC continues to suck in money like a vacuum, and demand more. While you’re sat reading this, House Swap, Cash in the Attic, Bargain Hunt and Wimbledon are all being shown, paid for by the “unique” way the BBC is funded – extortion basically.

Of course, the executives at the BBC aren’t even the tip (or the bottom if you prefer to look at it that way) of the iceberg. That lofty position belongs to the laughably-named ‘talent’.

Jonathan Ross – in between bouts of grandfather-baiting and desperate smug-ins with celebrity pals – boasted in 2007 of being worth “1,000 BBC journalists”. I’d defy anyone to tell me what aspect of public life would be reduced if Ross and co were booted out of the door. What part of the national discourse would be lost?

Large swathes of the BBC are run like a business now – the overseas commercial wing is nakedly acquisitive and rakes in huge amounts from selling programmes around the world.

Justifying the huge wages for frothy pap presenters, the only justification we’ve heard is that if people aren’t offered top dollar they’re likely to go to other channels.

Similarly, it’s happy to pay a hefty sum (of your money) to take the rights for Formula 1 away from ITV.

A wodge of taxpayer’s money is handed over, a few jobs go at ITV, and the general viewing public see no change at all, except for having to change to a different channel on a Sunday afternoon.

So not only is the BBC acting like a business, it’s putting other businesses out of business – all on the public purse. What’s the point of the whole enterprise?

Maybe it’s time to cut the BBC down to size – this is the era of austerity after all, let’s have a public service that reflects that. If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.

And if it moves, swims and claims expenses like a business, maybe it should be a business.