Costs of BBC Radio

simon — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 13:57:54 +0000

Today, in response to the confirmation of the news that the BBC intends to close BBC 6 Music and BBC Asian Network, I’ve lodged a Freedom of Information request in order to find out how much the various national radio stations cost – and thus whether the two stations facing closure represent sufficiently poor value for money to warrant being shut:

Dear British Broadcasting Corporation,

I would like to know the outline costs of the various BBC radio
stations:

Radio 1
Radio 1 Xtra
Radio 2
Radio 3
Radio 4
Radio 5 Live
Radio 5 Sports Extra
BBC 6 Music
BBC 7
BBC Asian Network

I would like the cost information broken down in terms of:

Total ‘on air talent’ (ie presenters & djs etc) salaries (I do not need to know individual salaries),

Total production staff (ie producers, broadcast assistants etc) salaries,

Total rights (ie music broadcast rights, drama first broadcast & repeat fee rights, etc) costs, &

Total transmission cost (ie, how much it costs for the transmitters etc to physically pump the broadcast out).

I would like this information separated for each of the stations listed above.

Additionally, I would like the number of hours per week that each station is broadcasting for, & the BBC’s estimated (or known) weekly audience figures for each station. If you were able to calculate the total cost per listener hour for each station for me,
that would be icing on the cake.

The Albert Memorial is still there » bbc

Costs of BBC Radio