This is taken from The Sunday Times:

BBC chief’s pension leaps to state sector record of £3.85m

THE BBC’s director of radio and music, Jenny Abramsky, has accumulated a pension pot of £3.85m, believed to be the biggest in the public sector, writes Richard Brooks.

It has jumped by more than £800,000 in the past year, leap-frogging over that of Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, whose pension pot rose from £2.6m to £3.5m.

Abramsky, 59, received a pay rise last year of 27% of her basic salary to £295,000, according to figures in the BBC’s annual report. She has had a 37-year career at the corporation, including editing the Today programme and launching Radio Five Live.

Other BBC executives have also enjoyed sharp rises in the value of their pension pots. That of Mark Byford, the deputy director general, rose from £1.66m to £2.12m, while the pension of John Smith, chief operating officer, rose from £1.62m to £2.2m.

Disclosure of the generous packages enjoyed by BBC executives contrasts with the treatment of the corporation’s staff. There are plans to make 4,000 redundant and most employees are being given pay increases tied to the rate of inflation.

The BBC plans to scrap its final salary pension scheme for new employees, and the retirement age is going to rise to 65.

The broadcasting unions are meeting tomorrow to discuss pay, job cuts and pensions just as the Commons debates the new BBC charter, which comes into effect from 2007.

John Whittingdale, a Conservative MP and chairman of the culture select committee, said: “How can the BBC justify such huge pay awards and why on earth did they agree to an £18m contract for Jonathan Ross?”

This is taken from "Broadcast":

BBC CHIEFS DEFIANT OVER 'SUPER SALARIES'
by Geoff White

In a tumultous week, the corporation faced a backlash from the press, politicians and unions.

"We are going through a big process of change that will continue probably forever". For staff who have felt the sharp end of his cutbacks, BBC director general Mark Thompson's comment at the unveiling of the annual report must have come as cold comfort.

But even for a corporation enduring massive change, this was a tumultuous seven days – with Thompson and chairman Michael Grade undergoing the annual report, a House of Commons committee grilling, a public AGM and the threat of strikes.

Pay rates – always a sore point around annual report publication time – proved especially touchy this year. Reports that Jonathan Ross signed an alleged £18m contract shortly before his "lewd" questioning of Conservative leader David Cameron touched a particularly raw nerve with Tory MPs.

Thompson once again defended not only Ross' interviewing style, but also his salary, insisting that many stars work for below market rates at the BBC, but pointing out that audiences would be disappointed if the BBC did not pay for big name talent.

The corporation revealed that such increases in staff costs would soak up half of the £1.6bn it has asked for in the next licence fee settlement to fund "super-inflation", with the other half going to fund increased buying power among indies.

But some of the biggest ire over pay was aimed at the executive board members themselves, many of whom enjoyed above-inflation increases in take-home pay, at a time when staff are being offered a 2.6% rise.

Even Thompson's decision to waive his bonus for the second year running did not placate MPs at the cross-party media committee on Monday, where chairman John Whittingdale, a Conservative MP, said senior management should "show restraint".

Grade insisted the salaries were essential to hang on to key talent and were pitched "at or around the market median", but this in turn triggered questions from MPs as to whether market rates would be relevant to a publicly funded broadcaster.

The annual report also ignited the fuse on the long-running dispute over pensions. Four unions – Bectu, the NUJ, Amicus and the Musicians' Union – are balloting their members for strike action over BBC pension plans, as well as pay. The corporation wants to raise the retirement age from 60 to 65 for employees under 50, raise contributions to 7.5% and close the final salary scheme to new members.

Adding to the unions' fury was the fact that the pension fund's "interim valuation" – a snapshot of the health of the fund in between the three-year full valuations required by law – was conspicuously absent from this year's report.

Union officials believe the pension fund has a "massive surplus" worth as much as £500m, and they question the need to increase contributions.

All this came against the background of a shrinking TV audience – down from 36.2% last year to 34.9% this year – a fact Thompson hopes may be solved by new measurement which will take into account what he believes is massive growth in online usage.

Through it all, Grade and Thompson keep pushing the corporate line – the Trust to replace the governors will be more strict, service licences will rein in the BBC, but no, the National Audit Office should not poke its nose into independent BBC business.

*Annual report in numbers
*£3.1bn the licence fee income (up from £2.9bn last year) 42.7% BBC TV and radio's total share (down from 43.1% last year) 34.9% BBC TV's share (down from 36.2% last year) 54.9% total BBC radio share (up from 54% last year) 92.7% all weekly reach of BBC TV and radio (down from 92.9% last year) 13.7m average weekly reach of bbc.co.uk (up from 10.6 million last year) 31% performance against 25% indie quota (up from 30.3% last year) £840m the amount spent by BBC1 (down from £873m last year) £374.1m amount spent by BBC2 (down from £374.5 last year) £17.7m amount spent by Radio 1 (down from £17.8m last year) £24.1m amount spent by Radio 2 (up from £23.8m last year) 2,000 number of jobs to go this year (with 1,132 already axed last year)

*Exec pay ups and downs (but mostly ups) *

*Jenny Abramsky
*Total 2005 = £304,000
Total 2006 = £322,000
*Difference: up £18,000 *

*Jana Bennett
*Total 2005 = £334,000
Total 2006 = £353,000
*Difference: up £19,000 *

*Mark Byford
*Total 2005 = £457,000
Total 2006 = £456,000
*Difference: down £1,000 *

*Stephen Dando
*Total 2005 = £313,000
Total 2006 = £292,000
*Difference: down £21,000 *

*Tim Davie *(appointed 11 April 2005 )
Total 2006 = £287,000
*Total 2005: n/a *

*Ashley Highfield
*Total 2005 = £320,000
Total 2006 = £311,000
*Difference: down £9,000 *

*Zarin Patel *(appointed 1 January 2005 ) Total 2005 = £72,000 Total 2006 = £324,000
*Difference: n/a*

*John Smith
*Total 2005 = £387,000
Total 2006 = £444,000
*Difference: up £57,000 *

*Mark Thompson *(appointed part way through 2004/2005) Total 2005 = £560,000 Total 2006 = £619,000
*Difference: up £59,000 *

*Caroline Thomson
*Total 2005 = £290,000
Total 2006 = £317,000
*Difference: up £27,000 *

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