Hard bargain

BBC DG Mark Thompson and his senior non-exec Marcus Agius yesterday complained about the strictures set on top pay by the BBC Trust.    But even they seem to have been a bit mean setting the pay level for the new Director of BBC Vision, George Entwistle, at £270k.  It is, I'm sure, a welcome leap upwards for George from his current acting base pay of £190k.    It falls short of previous incumbent Jana Bennett's basic of £415k.

The Trust says a discount of 50% to 80% must be applied to appropriate private and public sector benchmarks for Executive Board salaries.  That suggests the BBC Reward team and their consultants think the job is worth in the range £540k to £864k.

George now controls a big budget, and, through his commissions with Vision Productions, a considerable number of staff. Certainly more than Tim Davie at Audio & Music (£365k p.a) and Peter Salmon at BBC North (£375k). Let's hope George is entitled to a "growth in job" uplift soon-ish.

• The hunt's now on for George's job-winning powerpoint, which presumably outlined his approach to 20% savings in Vision.