Here's a question for you: who earns the more, the British Prime Minister or the Head of Digital at the BBC ?
It's no contest of course, with the latter taking home almost double the salary of the PM. Is it just me, or is there something askew here ? Certainly, Ashley Highfield has been peerless in surrounding himself with a world class team. But you have to ask if it's right that we licence payers stump up for this superteam when the likes of Sky, Microsoft and Virgin.
Especially when they can't even deliver analogue television or digital radio to many parts of the country, such as my home in Wales.
It also does not bode well for the commercial sector to have this heavyweight and highly paid superteam ranged against them. The BBC has had its wings clipped back somewhat, but the entire organisation needs serious rethinking, especially when it's hell bent on competing with the commercial sector.
The BBC's actions will have minimal impact on advertising funded internet TV services (although it will hurt their audiences), but will kill any opportunity the industry has of establishing meaningful paid for content services. This will become even more acute when, as I'm sure they will, BBC Worldwide leverages the BBC back catalogue.
What also riles is the pisspoor performance of the BBC in streaming. You'd think by now that they could have got it right, but viewers still end up trying to watch postage stamp players delivering a bare 30Kbps in many cases. ITV Local proves what can be done and makes them look silly.
It's no contest of course, with the latter taking home almost double the salary of the PM. Is it just me, or is there something askew here ? Certainly, Ashley Highfield has been peerless in surrounding himself with a world class team. But you have to ask if it's right that we licence payers stump up for this superteam when the likes of Sky, Microsoft and Virgin.
Especially when they can't even deliver analogue television or digital radio to many parts of the country, such as my home in Wales.
It also does not bode well for the commercial sector to have this heavyweight and highly paid superteam ranged against them. The BBC has had its wings clipped back somewhat, but the entire organisation needs serious rethinking, especially when it's hell bent on competing with the commercial sector.
The BBC's actions will have minimal impact on advertising funded internet TV services (although it will hurt their audiences), but will kill any opportunity the industry has of establishing meaningful paid for content services. This will become even more acute when, as I'm sure they will, BBC Worldwide leverages the BBC back catalogue.
What also riles is the pisspoor performance of the BBC in streaming. You'd think by now that they could have got it right, but viewers still end up trying to watch postage stamp players delivering a bare 30Kbps in many cases. ITV Local proves what can be done and makes them look silly.
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