When the BBC says it’s finding ways to cut back costs so budgets match the carnage in the commercial sector, it means business. The BBC Trust on Thursday announced that the broadcaster will cut exec pay — currently £79 million a year — by one quarter in the next three years and reduce its roster of 634 senior managers by 18 percent, which means that around 114 jobs are now on the line. It’s the result of a pay review started by the trust in February and carried out by director general Mark Thompson. And to please Beeb-bashing private media chiefs like James and Rupert Murdoch even further, all exec bonuses are to be cut indefinitely.
BBC executive committee’s remuneration review (pdf) also reveals that of the 52 senior managers in the Future Media & Technology department, 21 percent earn more than £150,000 — the figure across the BBC is 16 percent. By comparison, TV is the only department with a higher proportion of top earners with 27 percent on more than £150k. In its defence of high tech salaries, the Beeb says: “In technology the labour market is global, there are many blue chip players, staff expect to move roles every 3-5 years, and market levels of pay for senior managers are consequently higher.”
The review has no details on which departments will be affected — although bigger cuts are expected in corporate roles than “output areas” like bbc.co.uk. But it does show how the corporation’s huge digital operation has forced it to offer high salaries to attract private sector digital experts – a pressure it says will only grow as technology evolves.
The doc says: “As the pressure grows on the BBC to innovate at the pace of the market, the need to attract specialist technical skills will only increase… A policy which prevents the BBC from directly hiring highly-skilled staff whose abilities attract premium salaries may therefore come with significant hidden costs.” The Beeb says it can on occasion bring in technical staff to carry out jobs on a contract-only basis, but adds that it’s often more efficient to hire them full-time. Just 54 percent of FM&T managers were promoted internally — of the rest, 95 percent were recruited from the private sector.
FM&T director Erik Huggers, Anthony ‘iPlayer’ Rose and Richard Titus, now at DMGT, are just some of the high profile names the Beeb lured away from private sector jobs and projects.

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