A room with a view

A late afternoon trot round the course for the BBC at the Public Accounts Committee. Messrs Thompson, Mosey and Davie stay silent on talent costs at outside broadcasts, without quite denying that one presenter at one event was paid 20% of the total budget. Conciliatory Trustee Jeremy Peat offers to write privately to the Committee about the issue - let's hope that stays safer in the Commons than MPs' expense claims. That's all in the Telegraph.

The Guardian picks up on discussions about the cost of building a studio with a view at Euro 2008, for "editorial reasons". Mr Thompson says the BBC would have had to spend £200k anyway - it was only £50k extra for the view, and the BBC tried to tell the NAO but....

That's slightly different to the line taken by Roger Mosey in his blog, who didn't raise the "extra" issue - but said a studio without a view would have been more expensive !

BBC Sport are on their own again for the World Cup in South Africa, choosing to host from a glass box with a view of Table Mountain. The "editorial reasons" clearly don't include the experts actually going to many matches. Unless, of course England progress beyond the quarter finals, when I'll bet they want to be closer to the action.