Greg Dyke got a full year's salary plus bonus when he was forced out of his job as DG, in the wake of the Gilligan affair.  This from the Guardian:

Dyke left BBC with £456,000 payoff

Governors are keeping quiet about the past year - but financial details emerge ahead of the annual report
by Nils Pratley
Thursday July 8, 2004


Greg Dyke received a payoff of £456,000 after resigning as director-general of the BBC in the wake of the Hutton report into the death of weapons expert David Kelly.

The payment represents one year's salary of £375,000, plus a bonus relating to the period he worked before his departure at the end of January. Mr Dyke was effectively forced out when he lost the support of the corporation's governors a day after the resignation of his close ally and chairman, Gavyn Davies.

His bonus - to be revealed in the BBC's annual report, published next week - is in line with general bonus levels for BBC executives last year. These will be shown to be 22% of salary, the same level as the previous year and less than the 30% of salary that potentially can be awarded.

Basic salaries for the BBC's top executives increased by 1.9% last year, roughly in line with inflation, which may allow the corporation to escape another "fat cat" row at a time when staff redundancies seem inevitable.

New director-general Mark Thompson signalled last week that overheads could be cut to "under 10%" of revenues during the next charter period from the present level of 12%.

A figure of 8%, however, is now being discussed at senior levels within the BBC, which would imply overheads falling from £326m to close to £200m. Executives concede privately that a £100m-plus target could not be achieved without some job losses, but it may be announced publicly within weeks.

The compensation payment to Mr Dyke - and the £301,000 to Roger Flynn, the former head of the Ventures division - will be confirmed in the annual report, to be published next Tuesday, the day on which senior corporation figures will appear before the Commons media and culture select committee.

Last year MPs, including the committee chairman, Gerald Kaufman, accused the BBC of producing a gushing and complacent account, and it is understood the format will be changed this time.

New chairman Michael Grade has insisted that the governors' report, which last year was overshadowed by glossy pages illustrating programme successes, should be more prominent.

The governors' reflections on one the most tumultuous years in the corporation's history are still a close secret, but much of the financial detail in the annual report is beginning to emerge.

It will show a fall in spending on programmes - albeit by just £38m. It reflects the distorting costs of covering the previous year's Jubilee celebrations and the World Cup in Japan and South Korea. Programme spending is still £606m higher than in 2000, the start of the current charter period, with spending on BBC1 - which was one of Mr Dyke's priorities - some £220m higher.

About 85% of the corporation's total spending of £2.4bn was on analogue services and 15% on digital, a figure that will inevitably provoke close questioning from MPs.

Last year's annual report showed that BBC4, one of the highest-profile digital channels, achieved an audience reach of only 0.1%.

The BBC's continuing boom in commercial revenues will be another contentious area. BBC Worldwide - the main commercial division - generated operating cashflow of £141m, an improvement of £18m to yet another high.

Worldwide's assets include BBC America, Britain's third largest magazine publisher and a merchandising operation for exploiting brands such as Teletubbies.

Some 6,000 of the BBC's 28,000 staff are employed directly in commercial activities and the future of the operation is now the subject of a major internal review. A break-up, outright sale or outsourcing are regarded as real possibilities in the corporation's current drive to make efficiency and cost improvements.

A committee to review all commercial operations has been established that includes BBC finance director John Smith, the divisional heads, Anthony Fry, the head of investment banking at Lehman Brothers, and Lord Inglewood, the Tory MEP. It met for the first time this week and plans to reach its conclusions by November at the latest.

For the second year in succession, the BBC will report a loss and a sizeable deficit in its pension fund - although both figures have improved on those reported a year ago.

The pension fund deficit is £400m, less than last year's £1bn thanks to the modest gains in global stock markets. The BBC will also insist that the scheme is fundamentally more healthy than it appears to be under the new FRS17 accounting standard - because it is still receiving more cash than it is paying out, a reflection of the relative youth of the scheme's members.

Nevertheless, the BBC has gone ahead with moves to oblige staff to contribute 6% of their salaries, rather than the previous 4.5%, but there is no thought of following many quoted companies and abandoning a commitment to final salary pensions.

The BBC's financial loss of £249m for the 12 months to March 2004 - some £66m better than the previous period - is also regarded internally as largely irrelevant for a public service organisation. The figure includes a non-cash charge of £161m for the pension fund.

A more closely watched figure is net cash, and the BBC accounts will show debt of £106m. Again, the corporation thinks the number is not helped by a conservative accounting treatment.

Under the rules of its charter, the corporation is not allowed to include £109m of licence fee income that has been paid in advance and has already been banked.

The BBC's performance in collecting licence fees has improved - rates of evasion will be reported as falling from 6.3% to their lowest level yet, of 5.7%, yielding an extra £42m in revenue. Inflation-rate rises contributed £52m, and a further £46m came from an increase in the cost of the licence fee itself to give overall income for the BBC of £2.8bn.

The BBC hierarchy's enthusiasm for cost-saving measures was demonstrated yesterday when the corporation, in the face of union opposition, announced the preferred bidder for BBC Technology, the business services division that employs 1,400 people.

German group Siemens is the planned buyer and has been provisionally awarded a 10-year contract worth up to £2bn. The BBC hopes to complete the sale this autumn, and says the switch to outsourcing will save £20m-£30m a year.