The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

-d -h -min -sec

BBC

Lord Patten criticises BBC pay and its 'inhibited' culture

Author

By The Drum Team, Editorial

March 11, 2011 | 2 min read

The Government’s choice to take on the role of chairman of the BBC Trust, Lord Patten of Barnes has criticised the management of the corporation.

Addressing the House of Commons Select Committee on Culture, Media and Sport, Lord Patten, the potential successor to Sir Michael Lyons, described the BBC as ‘a great organisation’ before adding that he felt it gave the impression ‘that public service broadcasting is a brand’.

He continued to debate whether the public could be asked to pay for the BBC, while its employees were paid ‘as if you were working for Barclays.’

He continued: “I think it’s also true that if you talk to other broadcasters, they would recognise the sheer quality of what the BBC is doing, but would probably argue that the BBC sometimes has a sort of swagger about it. So I think it would be even better if it addressed those issues.”

He also claimed that the BBC has formed a ‘compliance culture’ internally following the response to the phone call made to actor Andrew Sachs by Jonathan Ross and Russell Brand during Ross’s Radio 2 programme, and questioned whether it had meant there was a lot of ‘inhibition’ as a result.

The final decision as to who will become the next chairman will be decided by Prime Minister David Cameron.

BBC

More from BBC

View all

Trending

Industry insights

View all
Add your own content +