BBC losing stars amid budget cuts

BBC budget cuts are leading to an exile of on-screen talent to rival channels, BBC1 controller Danny Cohen claimed today.

His view comes just a day after the director general, Mark Thompson, said it was getting harder to fill senior executive positions at the broadcaster due to cash constraints.

The BBC has been seeking to curb talent salaries as well as management costs, and further cuts are on the way under its Delivering Quality First initiative.

But Mr Cohen said today that the departure of BBC2 presenter Jimmy Doherty to Channel 4 was an example of how the corporation was losing its stars.

“We’ve lost people to Channel 4, talent, who we couldn’t compete with the deals for, and there’s an ongoing battle with that,” he said.

“We are losing people and will continue to lose people. Now there’s an opportunity in that because one of the things we know we can do is bring through new talent. But as I say the public expect us to have the best talent so we’re trying to square that circle.”

Stars such as Graham Norton and Bruce Forsyth are among those who have seen their wages cut as the BBC has tried to tackle the lucrative deals to which many presenters have become accustomed.

Mr Cohen said it was a difficult balancing act to keep top stars – on air and behind the scenes – but address the financial reality.

“The public want the very best people at the BBC because they pay for it so they want the best on-screen talent, they want the best from their programmes and you can infer they want the best people making the programmes so that creates a conundrum when there is pressure on salaries,” he said.

Mr Thompson said yesterday that it was becoming “extremely hard” to fill senior roles because of salary expectations.

He told the House of Lords Communications Committee it was “not true to say there are a long queue of people” waiting to take up senior jobs at the corporation.

Mr Thompson, who cut his own pay and that of other senior executives in a bid to curb anger over high pay, said: “It’s extremely hard now to fill senior jobs in the BBC and increasingly remuneration is a factor.”

The BBC has cut the number of senior managers it employs and frozen bonus payments.

Mr Thompson said pay at the BBC was “substantially less” than for equivalent jobs at other broadcasters.