BBC prepared own studio for Euro 2008 football in Austria and Switzerland as host's facilities didn't overlook 'key buildings'
The BBC spent £250,000 on a purpose-built studio at the Euro 2008 football championships in Austria and Switzerland because it did not like the view from the facilities provided by the host broadcaster, it was revealed today.
A National Audit Office report into the corporation's spending on major sporting and music events said the studio provided at the International Broadcasting Centre in Vienna for Euro 2008 was deemed by the BBC not to have an 'editorially suitable camera shot of key buildings'.
The BBC's coverage of the tournament was anchored by Gary Lineker from a local studio in the Austrian capital, built and operated at a cost of an extra £250,000, the report said. The total cost of the BBC's coverage of Euro 2008, to which it sent 142 staff, was £8.68m, 1% under budget.
Another £160,000 was spent on a purpose-built studio for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, which it said was 'editorially necessary', today's report revealed.
'For Euro 2008, the BBC was allocated space and facilities in the International Broadcasting Centre, some four miles from the centre of Vienna and without, in the BBC's opinion, an editorially suitable camera shot of key buildings,' said the NAO report.
'The BBC therefore paid an additional £250,000 for the construction and operation of its local studio in Vienna, with a backdrop of the city skyline. For Beijing, the construction and operation of the BBC's own studio, which it considered editorially necessary, was approximately £160,000.'
The corporation spent a total of £357m on major sporting and music events in the year to the end of March 2009.
Some £246m was spent on buying the rights to the events – which included the Beijing Olympics, the Wimbledon tennis championships, Euro 2008 and the Glastonbury music festival – and £111m on the live production and broadcast of coverage across TV, radio and online.
The NAO said the cost of talent, including presenters and commentators, can be a 'significant element' of the corporation's coverage expenditure, 'particularly those covered by BBC Sport'. Talent accounted for either 2% or 3% of music events, and between 6% and 20% of sporting events.
But the BBC Trust requested the NAO not reveal total talent costs for each event, which it said could 'constitute disclosure of talent fees for individuals which would be in breach of the data protection act'.
The report focused on six big events – the Beijing Olympics, Euro 2008, Wimbledon, Glastonbury 2008, the BBC Proms and BBC Radio 1's Big Weekend music festival in Maidstone, Kent.
'For the events we reviewed the BBC did not compare the proportions spent on the cost of talent with the added value of using those presenters,' said the NAO.
'The added value was particularly important given the BBC had exclusive free-to-air coverage for two of the three sporting events. There was no inter-event comparison even though the proportions varied markedly.
'While such comparisons clearly have to take into account the editorial ambition for the programme, a systematic analysis of the added value from high proportionate talent costs could help the BBC make best use of its resources.'
The BBC spent £15.57m on its coverage of the Beijing Olympics, including £13.7m for TV, radio and interactive, plus another £2.5m for talent, staff and online coverage. The NAO report said the total cost of the coverage had not previously been published because spending was split between different budgets by the corporation.
'The total budget of £16.2m was not brought together anywhere,' said the NAO report. The total cost of covering the 2008 games was 4% below its planned budget.
The BBC spent £4.22m on Wimbledon, less than 1% under budget. The 2008 BBC Proms, which cost £3.71m, were also marginally under budget, but Glastonbury was 1% over budget, at £1.74m, and Radio 1's Big Weekend, which was 5% over budget, at £888,000.
A total of 491 staff were sent to cover the Beijing Olympics, 358 staff covered Wimbledon, 277 for Glastonbury, 271 for Radio 1's Big Weekend and 145 for the Proms.
The report said 84% of the BBC's outside broadcast expenditure was with SIS. The company bought BBC Resources' outside broadcast operation in March 2008 for an estimated £20m.
"The BBC's five-year contract with SIS guarantees it a minimum amount of business across the BBC, not just Audio & Music and BBC Sport," said the report.
'While the BBC is not obliged to use SISLive, and can therefore competitively tender the work, it will incur a financial penalty if the minimum expenditure threshold across the BBC is not met. This was agreed as part of the sale of BBC Resources, and may diminish the advantages that can accrue from competitive tendering.
'The BBC's rationale for placing a high volume of provision with one provider was that it secured what the BBC believed to be a competitive price on the disposal of this part of BBC Resources.'
The report said the corporation had 'almost no formal cost-benefit consideration of different coverage options' when it drew up provisional budgets for big sporting events.
It said budgets were based on the cost of covering previous events – 'rolled forward versions of previous budgets' – but there was a 'more comprehensive budget-building process for the four-yearly Olympics and Euro football finals'.
'The BBC made only limited use of the potential for using internal benchmarking of costs to improve efficiency,' it said.
It said the six sporting events featured were all 'largely within final budgets'. But it added: 'The BBC has recognised that the absence of a formal documented control framework or a formal planning procedure may have exposed the BBC to unnecessary risks.'
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