The BBC Gravy Train

The BBC Gravy Train

July 2019

On the 2nd of July the BBC released data on top salaries BBC pay: The 2018-19 list of star salaries.

Gary Lineker paid £1.75 million (£34,000/week) for effectively doing Match of the Day!

Chris Evans paid £1.66 million for hosting his BBC2 radio show!

Graham Norton paid £615,000 for his BBC2 Saturday radio show!

Steve Wright paid £470,000 for his BBC2 afternoon radio show!

Nicky Campbell paid £346,000 for his Radio 5 Live breakfast show! Who the fuck listens to it?

... the list is endless of those being paid £200,000/year for providing a service that many others could do better and far cheaper.

Since the previous year the top salary bill has seen an increase of more than £10million, when at the same time they have pledged to remove the free license for the over 75s. With a BBC license currently at £155, £10million equates to 65,000 licenses. The BBC could have decided to freeze the salary bill for their most highest paid celebs and instead given 65,000 over-75s free licenses - but nah, fuck em! Alternatively, such savings cold have been passed to offer a reduced license for the over-75s, say £120/year instead - but nah, fuck em! The BBC CEO has publicly stated that passing on such cost cuttings would make "no difference" but as we see this is nothing more than a blatant lie and reveals a lack of commitment.


It would appear that Boris Johnson also agrees that savings in salaries could be used to help the over-75s:

Sack Gary Lineker! Boris Johnson makes extraordinary BBC TV licence row intervention, Express, 5th July

The article states:

"

Speaking at the hustings Mr Johnson said: “The BBC should be coughing up for the TV licences for the over 75s.

“We give them the money, they should pay for it.”

Asked how this would be funded the leading Brexiteer commented: “Sack Lineker.”

"

The BBC license fee is long overdue for scraping and replacing with a subscription service. If their service is so world-beating as the BBC CEOs keep telling everyone then they have nothing to worry about. The article Why BBC should scrap licence fee and be like Netflix by Bill Jamieson argues the case for replacing the license fee with a subscription service akin with Netflix, Amazon, Sky, ...


In 2017 we got a glimpse of how the BBC burns license payer fee money, with how much they pay for UK exclusive rights to the 2 weeks of Wimbledon: BBC's £60m Wimbledon fee revealed... the same as they pay for Match of the Day, Daily Mail, 3rd June 2017. £60 million! The article details that Wimbledon's total income for the year was £203million, with £110million coming from broadcasting rights from broadcasters around the world. So, we see that the BBC is paying 55% of all broadcasting rights just for the UK coverage. It's totally uncompetitive and stinks of nothing more than them paying over the odds to ensure they get the exclusive rights. The article also informs us that the BBC pay £68million/year for rights to Match of the Day. And, bear in mind the £60m+£68m for Wimbledon +MoD rights is before the staff bill of presenters such as Gary Lineker at £1.75m/year. The total bill for these 2 events must be >£200m/year when one factors in everything.


SCRAP THE BBC LICENSE FEE NOW!!