BBC releases reports amid review

BBC director general Mark Thompson outside Television Centre in west London. The BBC is due to publish its annual report and accounts
12 April 2012

The BBC will publish its annual report and accounts, amid a wide-ranging strategy review.

The report comes a day after the corporation's director general came out firmly against revealing the salaries of its top stars, warning that to do so would be "damaging and destructive".

Mark Thompson said he had to balance the "legitimate right" of the public to have a sense of what was spent on talent against demands for confidentiality.

And he suggested that any moves to force the BBC to make individual salaries public could actually lead to wage inflation.

"I continue to believe it would be wrong and it would be damaging and destructive to the BBC and its ability to get the top stars to actually publish individual salaries," he said. "The BBC is trying to find the right balance between, on the one hand the public's absolutely legitimate right to have a sense of what the BBC spends on on-air talent, versus a broadcasting industry where confidentiality is the absolute norm, is the expectation and in some cases is the contractual right of the individuals involved."

His comments followed a separate intervention in the wages debate by Sir Terry Wogan who said pay packets were "far too high" at the BBC. The 71-year-old broadcaster suggested high-earners could take a cut of up to 15%.

Mr Thompson also said he accepted home-grown talent would leave, such as the high-profile departures of One Show presenters Christine Bleakley and Adrian Chiles to ITV.

"There has always been some of that in broadcasting and I think it is a good thing that the BBC constantly is having to find new talent," he said.

"One of the ways that the BBC can help broadcasting in this country as a whole is by finding new people, new stars, new talent and accepting that after a while they may go and work for ITV or somebody else."

Last week BBC chairman Sir Michael Lyons outlined plans to slash pay and called for greater transparency, saying every pound the BBC takes from licence fee-payers must be shown to have been spent well. Sir Michael, who is also chairman of the BBC Trust, said the names of the BBC's top-earning stars should be made public where possible.

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