BBC budget cuts "getting very, very close to the edge" says Mark Thompson as he leaves for job at New York Times
In his final day as BBC director general, Mark Thompson has revealed that he believes the corporation is “getting very, very close to the edge” after the latest round of budget cuts.
"What the BBC tries to do in the way it runs itself, is it tries to be sensitive to what its owners, the British public, thinks. When you look around... it's very hard to see what more you can cut," he said.
George Entwistle, who takes over from Thompson on Monday morning, will handle the licence fee negotiation in 2015-16, which at the moment stands at £145.50 per household. This figure was frozen in 2010 for six years, representing a 16% cut for the BBC.
Entwistle also takes over the role with an annual salary which is considerably less than Thompson's £622,000.
Speaking on the Andrew Marr Show, Thompson acknowledged there was a "particular sensitivity" about how the BBC spends the licence fee.
"There's no question that we've seen over the last eight years, not just with the BBC but with the whole of public life, a real change in attitudes to these things, and we've tried to respond to it
"I think the BBC will continue to wrestle with that challenge. How do you get the best sports rights, the best presenters, and the best creative leaders, and do that in a way that is acceptable to the public."
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The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters are at Broadcasting House in Westminster, London.
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