Firstly let me point out that I have a great respect for the BBC and think too many media businesses wrongly accuse the corporation of misusing licence fee revenues – often when those activities clash with their own interests – especially online news. Cries of “unfair” are loudest from newspapers who will shortly experiment asking online visitors to pay to read their content – when similar high quality news is freely available online – especially the BBC.
The value we get from the BBC in return for our licence fee is incredible however sometimes they do themselves no favours
For example this article in the Times revealed that Alan Yentob, the creative director, defended his claim for a business class return flight between New York and London that cost £3,300
His itinery was to arrive in New York, give a talk, watch some filming and get a return flight to the UK on the same day.
A weak, creative but pathetic excuse. No one on a flight lasting less than 5 hours needs to fly business class but they can choose to pay the extra to upgrade themselves. On long-distance flights lasting more than 5 hours, and if there are meetings to attend, then business class might be allowed. But why not learn to be creative Mr Yentob and use video-conferencing to exchange views and ideas and ONLY fly somewhere if it is paramount.
Real creativity is the imaginative response to constraint.
What is striking about most modern television (not just the BBC) is how expensive it is while managing to be so lacking in imagination.
I would like to see at the end of every programme a breakdown of its costs – including the overheads resulting from Mr Y’s business class travel (where relevant).
Let us see whether we have really been given value for money.
Stop wasting our money, use video conferencing and send your juniors traveling who would be more than happy to undertake the project for a fraction of the cost.
