BBC chiefs defend licence fee bid: (20-Jan-06) The British Broadcasting Corporation needs a 2.3 percent hike in its licence fee to give the public what it wants, BBC Director-General, Mark Thompson, has told the British House of Lords. Lords committee quizzed Mr Thompson and BBC Chairman, Michael Grade, over BBC proposals which could see the licence fee increase to US$316 by 2013, BBC News reported. Mr Grade said the figure was the lowest it could be to meet the public's needs. The demands of the digital switchover placed the BBC in "unprecedented circumstances", he added. Audience research by the BBC as part of a bid to renew its 10-year royal charter showed a demand for fewer repeats, more factual programming and increased local services, the BBC chiefs said. Mr Thompson said the corporation aimed to make "continuous incremental improvements without costs", but that the broader changes "cannot be achieved by small percentage increases". Mr Thompson also said the planned transfer of some BBC departments to Manchester would cost far less than first thought. The cost of the move was originally believed to be between US$932.7 million to US$1.1 billion, but this has been revised to US$704 million. Up to 1,500 BBC staff are still set to make the move, expected to take place in 2010. (ABU Wesite)
Best regards, MD. AZIZUL ALAM AL-AMIN E-65, GOURHANGA, GHORAMARA RAJSHAHI-6100 BANGLADESH ---[Start Commercial]--------------------- World Radio TV Handbook 2006 is out. Order yours from http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0823059367/hardcoredxcom/ ---[End Commercial]----------------------- ________________________________________ Hard-Core-DX mailing list Hard-Core-DX@hard-core-dx.com http://arizona.hard-core-dx.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx http://www.hard-core-dx.com/ _______________________________________________ THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. It may be copied, distributed and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License published by Michael Stutz at http://dsl.org/copyleft/dsl.txt
