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Pension fund stays ‘strong’ despite shortfall
by Sally Hillier
People who are concerned about
their pensions, given that the BBC
pension scheme has a deficit of
more than £400m, should take
heart from the fact that it remains
one of the best funds in the UK and
still has a positive cash flow.
That is the message from Jeremy
Peat, chairman of the scheme’s
trustees, whose latest report was
published on Monday.
The current position is that if
the scheme were suddenly to be
News storm
after death
of Jackson
by Sally Hillier
Michael Jackson’s death meant
a frantic Friday for many BBC
people on both sides of the
Atlantic, not least broadcast
journalist Natasha Grüneberg
in the news obituary unit.
She arrived at work at Television
Centre at 5.15am and
spent the day doing live twoways
with the BBC’s network
of local radio stations,
answering questions about
the singer and his career,
the circumstances surrounding
his death, and what was
likely to happen next.
‘I did one broadcast after
another, in eight minute
slots,’ she explains. ‘I spoke to
22 stations at breakfast and
12 at lunchtime. In addition,
Betty Redondo [senior broadcast
journalist] did ten stations.
‘I had been preparing material
about Farrah Fawcett,
who died on Thursday, when
the news came through about
Jackson,’ Grüneberg added.
His death caused a huge
surge at news online, where
11m pages were viewed on Friday
alone.
On tv and radio, schedules
were rearranged to make way
for documentaries and tribute
programmes.
A news special on Friday
evening, pushing EastEnders
(which itself referred to Jackson’s
death in a hastily written
new scene) back by half
an hour, drew an audience
of 2.9m, while a Newsnight
Review special on BBC Two,
drew 1.3m.
On Saturday, BBC Two
showed a special edition of Top
of the Pops 2 as well as the documentary
The Essential Michael
Jackson.
Radio 1, 1Xtra, Radio 2,
Radio 4, and Radio 5 live all
scheduled themed Michael
Jackson programmes,
wound up (an unlikely scenario),
and tried to meet all its liabilities, it
would have a shortfall of £470m.
This is in contrast to the £274m
surplus that was recorded in 2007,
when the economy was buoyant
and companies were enjoying good
returns on their investments.
Since then the economic situation
has deteriorated and stock
markets have fallen, with disastrous
consequences for many
company pension funds.
The BBC scheme, which has
58,744 members and is worth
£6.5bn, is in a relatively healthy
state, thanks to the BBC’s contributions,
members’ contributions
and returns on its investments,
although these have reduced.
‘These are unprecedented times
but the trustees recognise that
the investments are long term in
nature,’ Peat explains. ‘The scheme
has a positive cash flow so does
not need to sell equities at
depressed rates to fund the payment
of pensions.’
He adds that the trustees have
taken professional advice and ‘are
satisfied that the BBC’s covenant’
[its willingness and ability to continue
funding the scheme] remain
strong. ‘In particular, the trustees
are mindful that the charter and
licence fee agreement give the BBC
a level of stability and guarantee of
income that is not available to most
employers.’
Even so, Peat is blunt about the
future. The downturn in the markets
will mean that the current
deficit ‘will undoubtedly have increased
by the time the next funding
report is produced’, he says.
Iran crisis calls for
rolling news service
by Claire Barrett
As diplomatic tensions between
Iran and Britain increased over
the weekend, the BBC was again
accused by government supporters
of stoking up unrest.
BBC Persian tv – the Farsi language
channel watched by an estimated
6-8m in Iran – has also been
criticised by the opposition faithful
for failing to be more outspoken in
their defence. But acting head of
the channel Rob Beynon remains
impassive in his pursuit of a ‘dispassionate
and impartial’ service.
If the channel that was
launched in January did play a
part in the post-election turmoil, it
was simply in ‘providing information
for people that they may not
have received in any other way’, he
argues. ‘But we have been assiduous
in not becoming a channel for
the opposition in an unchallenged
way. We would only refer to claims
of vote rigging, for instance, but
didn’t venture an opinion – it’s not
what we do.’
With reporters unable to gather
news from inside Iran, and the
risks too high for them to do so
Big screens pack
in summer crowds
BBC Big Screens are proving a big
attraction for Wimbledon fans, with
thousands enjoying the action in city
centres across the UK.
The London Olympics organising
committee has paid for the latest 12
screens, including those in Plymouth,
Cardiff, Derby and a replacement
screen for Manchester which was the
original pilot. It brings the total across
the UK to 21.
Anita Bhalla, editor public space
broadcasting, says the programme
for the next few months is particularly
packed: ‘The summer is a busy
time with Royal Opera House [events],
Proms in the Park, Formula 1, and the
Olympics open weekend.
Despite jamming, Persian tv broadcasts
continue, including online
without permission, the Londonbased
BBC Persian team turned
to user generated content to tell
the story. ‘Striking pictures’ – like
that of protester Neda Agha-Soltan
bleeding to death after being shot
– continued to arrive despite sluggish
web connections.
Every item is verified and
assessed before broadcast – ‘we’re
not YouTube, we’re the BBC and we
can’t just throw stuff on air’ – and
Deadline for
Salford moves
This Tuesday (June 30) is decision
day for most people in salary
bands 8-11, whose jobs are
ear-marked to move to Salford.
Numbers declaring their
intention to relocate won’t
be known until the end of
the week. About 100 people
in bands 8-9 in sport have an
agreed two week extension,
to give staff on lower grades a
clearer picture of promotion
prospects in Salford before they
make their decision.
In total, 375 jobs are affected
at this stage. Staff in bands
2-7 have until September 30 to
decide.
painstakingly dated: ‘It’s easy to
use images as wallpaper but that’s
both risky and wrong.’
Pro-government material, such
as the supreme leader’s speech at
Friday prayers, has been broadcast,
courtesy of Iranian state tv. ‘That
helps create something of a balance,’
reasons Beynon.
But this hasn’t kept the jammers
at bay. Strong signals are
being sent up from inside Iran to
interfere with BBC Persian transmissions
from the main Hotbird
satellite. Engineers have got the
channel on to another satellite
that is more difficult to jam, while
it remains on a secondary satellite
as well as being streamed online.
The staff – many recruited from
Iran – are working long shifts to
cover developments. Broadcasts increased
from eight to 14 hours a
day at the height of the protests.
‘We went from being a mixed channel,
with scheduled bulletins, to a
rolling news service,’ says Beynon,
who paid special tribute to the
professionalism of colleagues with
family and friends in Iran: ‘They
managed to leave any personal and
political allegiances at the door.’
How green is
Albert Square?
The environmental impact of producing
EastEnders will be revealed later
this year.
Environmentally sustainable productions
– a branch of BBC environment
– has announced it is working
with the soap to find ways of reducing
its carbon emissions.
ESP has invited the Energy Saving
Trust to visit the Elstree set and
develop a carbon calculator to measure
the environmental impact of the
series.
Charles Simmonds, who leads the
ESP team, said that EastEnders was
an ideal partner. ‘It’s high volume,
long-running, self-contained and
extremely well known,’ he said.
a 30·06·09
NEWS BITES
toppiNg out ceremony will be held
on July 8 to mark the completion of
the highest point of MediaCityUK
in Salford Quays. The ceremony will
be on the 19th floor of the South
Tower of the Studio Block, which
is more than 300ft. The following
week, the redeveloped Broadcasting
House in London will be topped out
BrEakfaSt NEWS plinth – the
programme’s homage to the
fourth plinth ‘living monument’
in Trafalgar Square – will tour the
UK from July 6, inviting people who
have performed acts of selflessness to
take their moment in the spotlight.
Candidates include Cornish
lifeguards and Oldham masseuses.
a SchEmE has been launched
offering aspiring filmmakers a
£5000 budget to make a music-based
short film with a professional
production company and have
it premiered at the BBC Electric
Proms in October. See bbc.co.uk/
electricproms/2009/newmusicshorts
World’S loNgESt running sitcom
Last Of The Summer Wine, has been
recommissioned for a further
six half-hours. Filming will take
place this summer, in and around
Holmfirth, for transmission in 2010.
radio 2 is marking the 50th
anniversary of Billie Holiday’s
death with two new documentaries:
All Of Me – The Betrayal Of Billie
Holiday on July 7 and Billy
[Crystal] on Billie, on July 14.
thE gruffalo, Julia Donaldson and
Axel Scheffler’s best-selling children’s
picture book, will be shown on BBC
One this Christmas. Produced by
Magic Light Pictures, the 30-minute
animation is currently in production
coNor mcNicholaS currently
editing IPC’s music title NME,
has been appointed editor of
BBC’s Top Gear magazine, which
overtook FHM last year as the UK’s
most widely-read men’s monthly,
with a readership of 1.9m.
roziNa BrEEN, a lecturer in radio
at Leeds Trinity and All Saints
College, has been appointed editor
of Radio Leeds. She will start in
September, marking a return
to the BBC where she used to
work in radio current affairs.
She replaces Mike Bettison, who will
return to his substantive post as editor
of Radio Nottingham. Bettison
left to take over at BBC WM on
attachment, before becoming editor
at Radio Leeds.
Is HR working?
Lucy Adams, new director of BBC
People, wants to hear colleagues’
perceptions of how well the HR
function works for them. Is it too
bureaucratic? Does it make life simpler
or harder? Does is add value to
the business? You have until July 8
to complete her ten-minute confidential
online survey, via Gateway.