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Wimbledon winner
Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 9:26 pm
by Gob
The BBC will pay Tim Henman an astonishing £14,000 a day to commentate at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships this summer.
The 36-year-old will pocket £200,000 for two weeks’ work – more than doubling his fee last year – despite swingeing cuts at the BBC and criticism of his ‘wooden’ commentary.
Last night John O’Connell, a spokesman for the TaxPayer’s Alliance, which represents licence-fee payers, called on the BBC to justify Henman’s new deal.
He said: ‘This is a huge amount of licence-fee payers’ money for a fortnight’s work, especially when the BBC are supposed to be cutting its sports budget.
‘The BBC has exclusive rights to the tournament so there are no market pressures for the payment to run this high, but it’s ordinary families that will foot the bill.
‘Auntie must work harder to make sure that contracts for stars and talent are negotiated with taxpayers’ interests in mind.’
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... z1QhckCdDr
Re: Wimbledon winner
Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 9:30 pm
by The Hen
What are "swingeing" cuts?
Re: Wimbledon winner
Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 9:38 pm
by Gob
swinge
–verb (used with object), swinged, swinge·ing. British Dialect .
to thrash; punish.
Origin:
1250–1300; Middle English swengen to shake, smite, Old English swengan, causative of swingan to swing, or denominative derivative of Old English sweng a blow
Re: Wimbledon winner
Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 9:49 pm
by The Hen
There you go!
Here was me thinking it was a spelling error, instead I got a lesson in dialects from the Daily Mail.
Who would have thunk it?
Re: Wimbledon winner
Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 11:26 pm
by Long Run
I don't get it, why is there a complaint here. BBC is owned by the government? So any taxpayer can complain about what it does with "their" money? Or does it work some other way?
Even if it is a government owned station, doesn't it get to decide how to produce its programming -- it pays rights fees, hires talent, get advertisers to offset costs, etc. No to Henman, but that Leo McKern was worth every penny as Rumpole?
Re: Wimbledon winner
Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 11:30 pm
by Guinevere
Oh they're just piling on the Andy Murray hopes --- a Brit commentator and a Brit (ok, I know he's a Scot, but the hopes of the Island ride on his shoulders) potential winner? He (Murray) has even met with Rory McIlroy so he can gain insight about how to come back from a crushing melt-down in a major event.
Poor boy, he's about to be steamrollered by Rafa again.
Re: Wimbledon winner
Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 11:44 pm
by Gob
Long Run wrote:I don't get it, why is there a complaint here. BBC is owned by the government? So any taxpayer can complain about what it does with "their" money? Or does it work some other way?
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster, headquartered at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London.
It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff. Its main responsibility is to provide public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, Channel Islands and Isle of Man.
The BBC is an autonomous public service broadcaster that operates under a Royal Charter and a Licence and Agreement from the Home Secretary.
Within the United Kingdom its work is funded principally by an annual television licence fee, which is charged to all United Kingdom households, companies and organisations using any type of equipment to record and/or receive live television broadcasts; the level of the fee is set annually by the British Government and agreed by Parliament.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC
Re: Wimbledon winner
Posted: Wed Jun 29, 2011 11:50 pm
by Long Run
Interesting, they can call it a fee, but it is really a tax to pay for the BBC. If you tune in to any television, even if you never watch one of the BBC channels, you are supposed to pay the tax. Definitely an antiquated system. I guess our publicly paid for art is open to regular criticism for misuse of taxpayers, so why not bust on the Henman.