Context

Today's BBC monograph, "Value for Audiences", is 37 pages long. And full of the good things the BBC has done since 2010.

Among the triumphs, some supporting facts, always included, are not so prominent. One notes that, in struggling with the headcount, one big 'reduction' was hiving 1,605 staff to the commercially-operated BBC Studios, where their continuing numbers are not reported. That move also helped substantially with the increase in BBC Worldwide/BBC Studios profitability. It also helped with the reduction in 'talent spend' (my inverted commas because, at BBC Studios, the talent is still funded largely by the licence fee, but the amount no longer gets reported).   One might also note that whilst the number of senior managers in public service has more than halved since 2010, the transfer of BBC Studios helped with 20-odd moving across.  

Also understated - Mark Thompson's concession that the licence fee would fund the World Service, rather than the Foreign Office. £261m goes on the service most years.