Following Sue’s post yesterday about Christine Bleakley leaving the BBC for ITV, BBC creative director Alan Yentob – a man who has shown notable creativity in personal expense claims – has claimed in the Times (no link, I’m afraid- the Times won’t allow it) that the days of the BBC having “deep pockets” to hire talent are over. Some would say that in itself was a tad disingenuous as the BBC spends £229m a year on such offensive morons as Jonathan Ross, Nicky Campbell and Anne Robinson. But meanwhile, Paul Revoir at the Daily Mail points out the true picture. While the rest of us are forced to tighten our belts in today’s budget, dear old auntie is sending 1,000 staff and spending upwards of £5m in just a week covering the World Cup, Glastonbury and Wimebledon. Among the all-out extravagance, a chap called Dotun Adebayo has presented three of his Up All Night shows from Ghana – 2,000 miles from the world cup action. A total of £12m is being spent on the “totaly overboard” world cup coverage, while 400 BBC boys and girls are going to Glastonbury this year – up from the more modest 292 last year. We don’t know yet whether Mr Yentob himself will be repeating his BBC-paid-for Glastonbury bash of two years ago at his nearby country estate bought with our money. But one thing is for sure. The chill winds of austerity have not yet hit the corridors of the BBC. And “creativity” at the BBC is not about art or programmes; it’s all about spending our cash.
Correction: I’ve made a botch of the figures – 400 are going to Glastonbury, but the 292 refers to those at the world cup not Glastonbury last year. Humble apologies for so maligning the esteemed corporation. But, heck, what’s a hundred or so here or there in BBC accounting?
“while 400 BBC boys and girls are going to Glastonbury this year – up from the more modest 292 last year.”
Robin, I think you’ve confused the numbers going to the World Cup with the number of staff going to Glastonbury. Checking the Daily Mail’s archive it seems the BBC sent 415 staff last year so this year sees a slight reduction.
David Gregory (BBC)
A fine example of BBC arrogance if ever there was!
Only 415 this year?
You couldn’t make it up!
Wow he has his own wiki page, we are honoured.
I stand corrected – Only 400 this year, down from 415 last year.
Wow.
Bit of a picky point Mr BBC man! as you cannot justify sending 200 let alone the adjusted 400!
1 is too much.
it seems the BBC sent 415 staff last year
Isn’t that nearly double the number of CO2 molecules per million in the atmosphere.
But while CO2 is miniscule per million, that 415 is per what: 10,000?
My God think of the BBC’S GIANT CARBON FOOTPRINT
Mr Gregory, you have shown up your BBC colleagues with your ability to respond quickly to errors here.
What a pity they cannot so quickly rebut the manifestly incorrect accusations of bias that are to be found on this site. It would save so much time and high blood pressure for many of my fellow posters.
Well said , Roland !
‘Mr Gregory, you have shown up your BBC colleagues with your ability to respond quickly to errors here.
What a pity they cannot so quickly rebut the manifestly incorrect accusations of bias that are to be found on this site.’
Indeed.
Also worth noting is the ability of this massively funded and staffed site [well, free and volunteer run] to respond quickly with corrections when warranted, using the power of massive individual, informed feedback.
As opposed to a mindset that sees such as ‘watertight oversight’ lockdowns as more appropriate, namely ignoring, denial [it can work both ways, Aunty] and/or censorship when things drift from the ‘narrative’.
Even when ‘corrections’ are made, eventually, they are too often too late and/or stealthy. I’ve lost count of the number of errors highlighted on blogs by readers that quietly get changed without even an acknowledgement. Hardly the case here.
I know which seems more honest.
Perhaps the people of Ghana will appreciate the ramblings of Dotun Adebayo, a man who seems to have no ability whatsoever in presenting a radio programme, and somehow manages to make the most simple of sentences, an assault on the English language.
Be fair. Have you heard Danny Baker?
Is he gay?
Nah, nothing like that, he just doesn`t seem to have a fluent way of presenting, along with a forced laugh he does every 3 minutes.
here`s his wiki entry, I can only assume he wrote it himself, or got his missus to do it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dotun_Adebayo#Personal_life
Extract – Personal Life:
“Adebayo is married to the singer Carroll Thompson and his younger brother Diran Adebayo is a novelist.
Adebayo is fluent in Yoruba, English, and Swedish; he has conversational French . He has lived in Nigeria, France, Sweden and the United States.
He supports Charlton Athletic and claims to have once shared a flat with the “shoebomber” Richard Reid.”
I’d love to see a breakdown of the jobs at both Glastonbury and the World Cup. FOI?
BTW the BBC are the official broadcasters at Glastonbury and apparently are broadcasting everything, literally. THE GLASTONBURY FESTIVAL BROADCASTER FILMING AND INTERNET POLICY 2010
This raises other questions other than the efficiency or otherwise of the BBC operation. Who benefits from the ₤20,770,000 or more expected to be raised by ticket prices alone (couldn’t find figures for sponsorship, licenses and spin-offs)? What percentage goes to Oxfam, Greenpeace and Water Aid and where/how will that money be spent? Does the BBC make a profit or loss from this arrangement? Why should Glastonbury be favoured over other festivals? What salaries are earned by the organisers? For that matter, who are the organisers?
degee, I looked at the link but am none the wiser as to where Oxfam, Greenpeace and Water Aid come into it.
If you glance to the top of every page on the Glastonbury festival website you will see an image, that I have screen grabbed, with links to those three organisations.
The Festivals Objectives
In addition to all of this, the company actively pursues the objective of making a profit. And in so doing is able not only to make improvements to the site, but also to distribute large amounts of money to Greenpeace, Oxfam, Water Aid and other humanitarian causes which enhance the fabric of our society. In the running of the event the Festival deliberately employs the services of these organisations, increasing the amounts they can raise towards their objectives.
My question related to the ethics of the BBC giving free and vast coverage to a profit-making enterprise (or possibly paying for the privilege) and the division of these profits. This is particularly so as the identities of the chief organisers or the company/organisation responsible is conspicuously absent from the website. Do they have financial connections to the BBC leading to a conflict of interest here?
I read the filming policy that you highlighted. It was a very boring read. 🙂 Unsurprisingly, I wasn’t interested enough to look elsewhere on the site or the top of every page.
I’m watching Yentob propagandizing viewers with his theories about children and play ‘making art’.
‘Release the child within’, ‘explore your self’.
There was one sad sod who had a religious upbringing [shock horror] and wasn’t allowed to watch tv [more shock and horror] and now spends his adult life recreating his imaginary world in what looks like a cardboard box. Just like a kid.
‘When I was a child I reasoned like a child, but when I became a man I gave up childish things’
Well, St. Paul didn’t work for the BBC.
The Wikipedia entries on the Glastonbury Festival also give on cause to ponder.
Glastonbury Festival
Michael Eavis
For example: With the exception of technical and security staff, the festival is mainly run by volunteers. Some 1400 stewards are organised by the aid charity Oxfam. In return for their work at the festival Oxfam receive a donation, which in 2005 was £200,000. In that year of 2005 Attendance 153,000. Tickets £125 i.e £19,125,000 in ticket sales.
Given that Oxfam provides 1400 ‘voluntary’ stewards whose value could be estimated in terms of manhours at minimum wage and would otherwise have to be paid for by the festival organising company that £200,000 doesn’t seem extraordinarily generous.
The Labour Party connection also makes one wonder.
Several stages and areas are managed independently, such as The Left Field which is managed by a cooperative owned by Battersea and Wandsworth TUC,
Eavis stood as a candidate for the Labour Party in the 1997 General Election in the Wells Constituency, polling 10,204 votes.In 2004 however, he suggested that disillusioned Labour voters should switch their vote to the Green Party to protest at the Iraq War, though he returned to supporting the Labour Party in 2010.
The London Evening Standard reports that the Glastonbury Festival is a 70 million pound business.
Although profits are a meagre £150,000 on a turnover of £22 million, more than £700,000 is given to charitable organisations. Eavis’s remuneration from the festival direct is a modest £105,000 but he also gets paid £500,000 for his loss of earnings from farming the land where the festival is held. His pension fund also receives £13,000.
Another Eavis company receives £245,000 and he also gets management fees of £585,000, according to accounts filed in February. In all, Eavis and companies in which he has an interest receive fees of more than £1.4 million but even then he is owed £166,000 by way of loans he has made to Glastonbury Festival. Other enterprising local folk benefit too from the Glasto effect
Hmmmmmmm …!
BTW As sort of a cross-post, relating to the BBC’s well known animosity to Israel (an OXFAM’s) UK Glasto festival uses Israeli system
BDS …!
UK Glasto festival uses Israeli system
Gosh, better get the word out to those musicians who refuse to play in Israel, and those who promote boycotts of Israel…
I used to love Glastonbury in the 80’s and 90’s before the BBC arrived and it became all about corporate sponsorship and preachy sandalistas.
The coverage is crap because all coverage of live concerts is a bit rubbish on TV and radio, it’s just an excuse for the metropolitan liberal elite at the BBC to have a big jolly.
It makes sense that the beeboids love it such now that is an authoritarian nightmare with every inch covered by CCTV and more police than the world cup. Like rats, one is never more than three feet from a beeboid at todays Glastonbury.
If Andrew Marr ‘does the papers’ in green wellies outside his luxury trailer again I may go postal.