Every year the vast majority of people buy their TV licence with little trouble. Some still prefer to pay once a year. Most favour the convenience of setting up a direct debit.

But we know that it’s not easy for everyone. Some people can struggle to afford the full cost of the licence fee. Others may have a disability or health condition which impacts on their ability to pay or makes it more difficult to communicate with us. Some may have problems living independently or have other issues to deal with.

Our visiting officers and contact centre staff interact with millions of people each year, in person and on the phone. And we work with more than 450 charities and money advice organisations so they can give the best advice and information to people who approach them for assistance.

We’ve briefed money advisers in more than 180 towns across the UK and have strong partnerships with national support groups like RNIB, Mencap, the Hindu Council and Age UK. We meet with hundreds of diverse stakeholders, like Mind, Shelter, the Red Cross and Women’s Aid, as well as community support organisations and housing associations. Volunteers and staff at these organisations help us by providing feedback and advice on the issues facing our customers, and we work together to identify ways to help their clients stay licensed.

But we recognise everyone’s circumstances are different. That’s why for the past 12 months we’ve been looking into what more we can do to help those who find it difficult to pay.

As a result, we’re making some improvements to help customers who are at risk of becoming unlicensed. And we’ve recently published our , which explains the full range of support that’s available.

Pipa Doubtfire, Head of Revenue Management at the 主播大秀, leads the TV Licensing Management Unit which is responsible for collecting the Licence Fee, along with companies such as Capita and Proximity, operating under the “TV Licensing” trademark. Here she reveals the latest performance figures, published today in the 2016/17 TV Licensing Annual Review.

In the past year, TV Licensing collected a record £3.8 billion to fund 主播大秀 programmes and services and the number of licences in force reached the highest ever level of 25.8m. Alongside this, we maintained evasion at the very low level of 6 or 7 per cent, meaning around 94 per cent of homes and businesses across the UK are correctly licensed. We’ve also been able to reduce complaints by 50 per cent since 2010/11.

TV Licensing’s job is to collect the Licence Fee in the most cost-efficient way to deliver the best value for the licence payer and ensure as much money as possible goes towards funding the 主播大秀’s programmes and services. Every one percentage point rise in evasion costs the 主播大秀 £40m in lost revenue, so it’s important we work to ensure everyone is aware of licensing requirements.

We know licence fee payers think it’s fair we catch those who attempt to avoid paying, so our latest awareness campaign highlights the excuses people have given when caught watching live TV or 主播大秀 iPlayer without a licence over the past year and explains that however creative, these excuses won’t protect people from the consequences of evading.

To accompany the excuses we worked with comedian Kevin Eldon, who composed a selection of poems based on the excuses. You can see the results below and on the  from today. The Top 10 excuses are listed at the bottom.

Yesterday the Department of Culture, Media and Sport published a weighty assessment of the market impact and distinctiveness of the 主播大秀’s services by Oliver & Ohlbaum (O&O) and Oxera.

We have now had time to digest the report. It suggests that in some areas the 主播大秀 has become less distinctive - particularly on 主播大秀 One - in recent years.

Having gone through the detail of O&O’s analysis we are not sure that the evidence presented supports such a claim.

In fact, one of O&O’s conclusions is that they don’t have the data to check the long-run distinctiveness of 主播大秀 One versus ITV1 across all relevant dimensions and “we are not sure how relevant this is to the current or future dynamics of 主播大秀 One and ITV1 and its impact”.

The data, in fact, tells rather a different story – a story of 主播大秀 One that is not only distinctive compared to ITV1 but more distinctive than it used to be.

Genre mix

For instance, Ofcom’s industry data shows that despite a similar level of spend, 主播大秀 One broadcasts in peak-time a much broader range of programming than that offered by ITV.  ITV broadcasts close to double the number of peak-time hours of Entertainment and Soaps (45% to 25%). Almost half of 主播大秀 One’s peak-time schedule is allocated to News and Current Affairs and Factual programming, against just 30% on ITV1.

Genre mix on 主播大秀 One and ITV (% peak time)

Charlene Boucher, an Enquiry Officer for TV Licensing, shares some of her experiences in a special video diary for the About the 主播大秀 Blog.

主播大秀 Director General Tony Hall speaks at the Future of the 主播大秀 Event on Monday 7 September at the Science Museum in London.

A key theme in the Government’s Charter Review is the scale of the 主播大秀 and its impact on the media sector. It poses the questions: ‘‘is the 主播大秀 crowding-out commercial competition and, if so, is it justified?’’ and ‘‘where does the evidence suggest the 主播大秀 has a positive or negative wider impact on the market?’’

It’s best to start with what we know. First, the 主播大秀 is becoming a smaller part of the UK broadcasting sector. Its share of broadcast revenues has fallen from c.40% to c.20% today. Its audience reach and share has remained broadly stable but this is a function of audience satisfaction not economic dominance. In online, the 主播大秀 accounts for 3% of the total time spent by UK audiences.

Second, few other countries are in better creative shape than the UK. There aren’t many industries where the UK goes toe-to-toe with the US, but the creative industries still can. Britain’s competitive position hasn’t come about by accident but is, at least in part, because of this country’s vision and foresight in creating institutions like the 主播大秀. UK broadcasting is based on competition for quality between public and private institutions with different remits and funding structures. Ofcom’s latest says the 主播大秀 ‘‘remains the cornerstone of the PSB system and is the key driver of investment across the system’’; the licence fee is c.20% of TV industry revenues, but c.40% of what is spent on original British programmes (excluding sport).

So our hypothesis is clear – the 主播大秀 makes UK broadcasting and the wider creative sector stronger. To test this further, we need to know how and by how much, the 主播大秀 contributes to growth. Or to put it another way, we need to know what would happen to the sector without the 主播大秀 or with a diminished 主播大秀?

It’s worth pausing here. I’m not arguing that the primary purpose of the 主播大秀 is to promote economic growth. The 主播大秀 exists to provide universal access to services that educate, inform and entertain millions of people each day in ways that the market alone wouldn’t. And in doing so, the 主播大秀 makes our quality of life better and our culture richer.

At the same time, the 主播大秀’s public service remit requires it to invest in new, home-grown creative ideas and talent, and the licence fee enables it to do so at scale. Economic value is, therefore, a corollary of the 主播大秀’s public purpose.

To answer the how question, we identified, with the help of Frontier Economics, the principal channels through which the 主播大秀 supports private sector growth. I’ve written about these in a previous . The 主播大秀 is the largest single investor in TV and radio original content* and provides a ‘shop window’ to the world for UK talent and programme-makers; its investments stimulate output in other creative industries such as music and help make markets as iPlayerdid; and the 主播大秀 strengthens the productive capability of the creative sector across the UK by, for example, training some of the greatest professional talent in the world and kick-starting local creative economies such as MediaCityUK in Salford/Manchester.

We’ve asked . They’ve used the same kind of model that the Government uses to assess the economic effects of tax changes. Importantly, it takes into account the fact that a change in licence fee income will not only change the 主播大秀’s expenditure with knock-on impacts across the creative sector, but could also affect other broadcasters’ spending and household expenditure. It measures the net effects of policy changes.

PwC have modelled two hypothetical scenarios. The first involved a 15% nominal increase over a five year period in the 主播大秀’s licence fee income. Since we’ve agreed our funding with the Government as part of the last Budget, this isn’t a pitch from us – the figures were chosen simply to assess the 主播大秀’s impact. PwC’s analysis suggests the increase would likely boost creative sector GVA by £435 million, total economy GVA by £319m and create 16,200 extra jobs in 2021/22, compared to the counterfactual where the 主播大秀’s licence fee revenues remained unchanged.

The growth is driven by a number of factors. Firstly, the rise in licence fee income results in a net increase in investment in original TV content (£221 million by 2020/21) and the wider creative industries which has a multiplier effect. PwC says it is difficult to predict whether a higher licence fee would ‘crowd-out’ or ‘crowd-in’ commercial activity. To be prudent, they assume that an increase in 主播大秀 spending would reduce other broadcasters’ revenues and expenditure to some degree. Secondly, an increase in the licence fee would mean that households have slightly less income to spend on other goods and services.

The analysis concludes that increased licence fee investment would far outweigh either of the downside effects. This is because the licence fee channels resources into one of the most productive parts of the UK economy, the creative industries. Every £1 increase in licence fee income generates an extra 60 pence of economic value. Far from increasing the deficit, this is an area where public investment reduces it.

PwC’s analysis also demonstrates that the effects work in reverse, too. The second hypothetical scenario involved a 25% nominal decrease in licence fee revenues over the five year period. This would likely reduce creative sector GVA by £997 million, total economy GVA by £630 million and lose 32,000 jobs in 2021/22, compared to the counterfactual where the 主播大秀’s licence fee revenues remained unchanged.

The last few years have provided us with a real-life experiment in what happens with a smaller 主播大秀. As spend on the 主播大秀’s UK services has fallen in real terms over the last five years due to the licence fee freeze and external obligations (e.g. broadband), so – as Ofcom’s PSB review highlights – overall investment in original UK TV content has gone down. The market has not filled the gap.

The available evidence supports the hypothesis that the 主播大秀 makes UK broadcasting and the wider creative economy stronger. From TV to music, writing to film, the 主播大秀 is a key part of why the UK is such a great exporter of creativity. There is a real risk that a diminished 主播大秀 would reduce the competitive pressures in broadcasting, leading to a new equilibrium in which investment in a wide range of UK original content is lower than before. The question we should be asking, therefore, is: "How can the 主播大秀 do more to support British creativity and the creative economy?"

*主播大秀 invests c.£2.2 bn of licence fee income directly in creative sector; £1.2 bn outside of the 主播大秀, with c.£450m in small and micro creative businesses. 86% of its creative suppliers are small or micro.

James Heath is 主播大秀 Director of Policy & Charter

• Read

The Government’s decision to transfer the cost of the over 75s TV licence fee concession to the 主播大秀 has been widely reported – less so, the other elements of what has been agreed. To understand the net financial impact on the 主播大秀, both sides of the equation need to be considered.

In short, the effect of the agreement will be flat cash funding for 主播大秀 content and services over the first five years of the next Charter period, after implementing a programme of £1.6 billion of cumulative savings over this Charter period by 2016/17.

The agreement means we will continue to make tough choices and simplify the 主播大秀 in the next Charter, building on to close the 主播大秀’s £150 million per annum funding gap and manage the on-going inflationary pressures in our cost base. But, alongside, we now have the planning certainty we need to give the 主播大秀 financial stability and the opportunity to continue our reform programme.

Let’s first look at the cost part of the equation. The cost of over 75s TV licences will be transferred to the 主播大秀 on a phased basis, starting in 2018/19 with the full liability met by the 主播大秀 from 2020/21. We estimate this will reduce the 主播大秀’s licence fee income by around £725m pa. We will give those eligible households an opportunity to voluntarily pay for a TV licence and so make a contribution to the cost of the 主播大秀’s services. In the next Parliament, the 主播大秀 will take-on responsibility for the over 75s policy and how this balances with funding services to audiences.

As part of the new arrangements, the 主播大秀 has agreed a package of funding benefits to compensate for the over 75s obligation. In yesterday’s Summer Budget speech, the Chancellor said: “the 主播大秀 has agreed to take on responsibility for funding free TV licences for the over 75s and in return we were able to give our valued public broadcaster a sustainable income for the long term.’’

The new arrangement includes a commitment to:

• modernise the licence fee, to adapt it to cover catch-up as well as live TV. This will make the licence fee model sustainable, fairer and safeguard the funding available for our content and services over the period. We estimate that the financial benefit will be around £100 million pa against our baseline. The Government has said it will bring forward legislation within 12 months to make this happen;
  
  
• phase-out the ‘ring-fenced’ money from the licence fee – £150m a year – which is being used to support broadband roll-out; and
  
  
• increase the licence fee in line with CPI over the next Charter period, subject to Charter Review conclusions on the purposes and scope of the 主播大秀 and us undertaking equivalent efficiency savings to other parts of the public sector. The licence fee has been frozen for seven years at £145.50. Linking the licence fee to CPI would deliver income of around £350 million per annum, at the Bank of England’s target inflation rate of 2%. If CPI is below this level over the period then the planned efficiencies in the 主播大秀’s cost base will be available for offsetting the loss of over 75s income rather than offsetting inflationary pressures

Forecasting how all these factors will add-up over the period is complex; we anticipate that the new arrangements will result in flat cash funding for 主播大秀 services over the first five years of the next Charter period. In real terms, the licence fee funding available for 主播大秀 services will be down by around 10%.
The way the financial settlement is structured gives the 主播大秀 some room for investment in digital transformation in the early years of the next Charter before the full cost of over 75s is absorbed. This will help us to manage the transition we all know is coming to an online world.

We believe that the substance of what has been agreed is a strong deal for the 主播大秀 in very tough circumstances.

Of course, once the Charter Review process starts there could be further pressures faced by the 主播大秀 such as decriminalising the licence fee which would, in our view, lead to an additional cost of £200m pa. As part of the agreement, the Government has said it will consider decriminalisation in light of the Perry Report and the need for the 主播大秀 to be funded appropriately.

James Heath is Director, Policy 

• the letter received by Tony Hall on 3 July 2015 from Rt. Hon George Osborne MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer and First Secretary of State, and Rt. Hon John Whittingdale MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
• Tony Hall's letter (sent by email on 6 July 2015) to Rt. Hon George Osborne MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer and First Secretary of State, and Rt. Hon John Whittingdale MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. 

You might have read today’s story in the Daily Mail about how much of the licence fee goes on funding our programmes. I wanted to explain why the Mail’s interpretation is misleading. 

The paper's central accusation is that the 主播大秀’s income is approximately £5.1bn and only £2.4bn of this goes on ‘content’. The implication they leave is that much of the rest of the money is wasted.

The reality is the 主播大秀 has a record on efficiency which has been acknowledged by the National Audit Office and Parliament's Culture, Media and Sport select committee - and which ensures more money goes on programmes and services for licence fee payers.

We’ve got nothing to hide, so let me explain the figures (they're available in full in the financial statements of if you want to study them in detail). 

Firstly, our income

Last year we received £3.7bn from the licence fee. As you would imagine this accounts for the majority of our income and what we spend on programmes.

However, not all of this benefits the 主播大秀 - last year around £285m went to pay for the Government's broadband roll-out programme (£150m), Local TV (£16m), 主播大秀 Monitoring (£7m), the Digital Switchover Help Scheme (£7m) and S4C (£105m, of which we spent £24m on content for S4C).

We also received around £240m from the Government for the 主播大秀 World Service. It’s the last year we’ll receive this though, as from April 2014 we have had to pay for these costs out of the licence fee.

Separately we have three commercial businesses (主播大秀 Worldwide, 主播大秀 Global News and 主播大秀 Studios and Post Production). The Mail claims that we ‘pumped money’ into these businesses. This is nonsense. These all run as commercial entities, separate from the 主播大秀 - so they don't get any of your licence fee. They earn money when they sell things (programmes abroad, use of studios etc) and, just like any business, have costs (investing in TV productions and channels abroad as well as things like staff salaries, buildings etc). At the end of the day if they earn more than they spend they make a profit that can be reinvested in their business or can be returned to the 主播大秀 - so last year it meant an extra £174m to spend on programmes and services for UK licence fee payers. Last year collectively these businesses took in just over £1bn in revenue but around £900m was accounted for by operating costs and investments.

So when the Mail says our income was £5.1bn that includes over £500m of money we didn't get to spend on the 主播大秀’s UK Services and £900m of money that simply couldn’t all be spent on content as it was used to keep these businesses running. No business - including the Mail - can operate without costs. To claim otherwise is misleading.

Our expenditure

Actually more than 90% of the money we control is spent on content, distribution and their related support costs - making TV, radio and online content and bringing it to you. That leaves just 9% of spend on the professional support needed to run the 主播大秀. That figure has been independently verified.

You might wonder why this is so different from the figures in the Mail. For starters, when the paper says that we spend £2.4bn on programmes it excludes crucial things like the distribution costs of getting programmes to your homes, all the equipment in our newsrooms, edit suites, studio lighting, and research and development – without which you wouldn’t have any programmes or new services. Our creative people also need desks and places to work, which is also in the infrastructure and support costs.

The article goes on to say that "most of the remaining cash was swallowed up by costs that included running its ostentatious buildings, middle managers and services such as human resources and marketing." Again, this simply ignores the kind of crucial programme costs listed above and the fact that by selling off unnecessary buildings and using more modern, efficient, ones, we’re saving £75m a year in running costs.

So the figure quoted by the Mail is like calculating the cost of running a newspaper without including printing presses, newsprint, and a delivery network to get newspapers into shops and homes.

In fact, the amount we spent on making our programmes and services and bringing them to you last year was around £3billion.

Last year we published a  which showed how we're now saving £1.1billion a year by becoming more efficient – so more of our money goes into programmes and services. And don’t take our word for it. Parliament’s : "The 主播大秀 has highlighted to us that over the last 20 years, the licence fee has stayed almost flat in real terms, but the 主播大秀 had expanded its offering, suggesting greater value for money and organisational efficiency."

It added: "The 主播大秀's achievement of cumulative savings of £1.1 billion since 2007 is commendable given the relatively small negative impact they have had on audiences" appreciation and on reach of its services."

Another £400 million a year is due to be saved by 2016/17 - taking the total to over £1.5 billion a year.  We'll never stop looking for ways to do things even more efficiently, but we’re proud of the work we've already done to save money to invest more in programmes.  We publish full details of our income and expenditure in our accounts for everyone to view so these 2013/14 figures have been public since July 2014 and analysed by many people and no one has seen anything remarkable in them until now.

Ian Haythornthwaite is Director, Finance

Whenever people talk to me about the licence fee I feel confident in pointing out what great value it is it is at £2.80 a week.

Compared to 20 years ago, when there were two televisions stations and five national radio stations, our audience today has got four times as much television, twice as many national radio services plus iPlayer, apps and a global web service.

It all shows doing more for less has clearly been a mantra at the 主播大秀 for a long time.

Back in 2010 the 主播大秀’s settlement with Government brought about a six year licence fee freeze, at £145.50, and the Government allocated a significant portion of our funding elsewhere to national broadband roll-out, the World Service, S4C and local television.

This meant the 主播大秀 faces 26 per cent less in real-terms to spend on public service content than it otherwise would have by 2016/17. Our plan to cope with that change was to increasingly cut our annual costs so we were saving £700 million by 2017.

That plan, named , placed a particular emphasis on finding efficiency or recurring savings - ways of saving on costs on an ongoing basis. Two-thirds of the money would come from improving the way we work on a day to day basis, securing better deals when buying-in goods and services, cutting property running costs, reducing staff numbers and finding more efficient ways of working. A small increase in commercial income from 主播大秀 Worldwide was also projected. Then the remainder would come from reducing the scope of services such as shared evening programmes across local radio in England and changes to the 主播大秀 Two daytime schedule.

We have a good track record. Last week a group of influential MPs commended the 主播大秀’s efficiency. Today we have been given our mid-term report card by the National Audit Office who have confirmed that our overall savings of £374m to the end of 2013-14 exceeded the projected milestone of £367m.

主播大秀 savings bar chart

Following today’s article criticising the way the licence fee is enforced, I wanted to take the opportunity to explain how we operate, and our approach to evasion. Licence fee evasion remains low at between five and six per cent, one of the lowest rates in Europe. So we know the vast majority who need a licence have one - a comparatively small number of people will receive letters or visits from our enquiry officers.

Helping people pay

It is a criminal offence to watch or record live TV without a valid licence. Anyone doing so, on any device, is breaking the law. We give people every opportunity to pay for a licence, and will do everything we can to help them to spread the cost so they stay licensed. We know some people do struggle financially, and our teams work with more than 420 money advice and community groups across the UK to provide advice about small weekly instalment payments and concessions. Contrary to what the article suggests, those aged 75 and over are required to have a licence if they need one, but it’s provided for free. It is only fair there are consequences for people who deliberately evade but we’d always prefer people pay for a licence, and only prosecute as a last resort. Prosecution decisions are based on the Crown Prosecution Service guidelines and include both an evidential and public interest test before cases proceed to a magistrates’ court.

Prosecutions in context

Every UK household which watches or records live TV needs a licence. We have a database of 30m addresses with 25 million TV Licences in force. Prosecutions are small in number (only 0.6% of the addresses on our database in 2013 according to Ministry of Justice figures) when compared to the numbers of those who are properly licensed.

Who is taken to court?

When a TV Licensing enquiry officer visits a property, and finds TV equipment being used without a valid licence, they will take a statement from any responsible adult living at the address. It’s that person who may then be prosecuted. Officers might visit at any time of day, including evenings. While we don’t know for certain why more women are prosecuted than men, I’d refute any suggestion that this is due to improper behaviour by our officers, who operate by a strict code of conduct.

Court time taken up by TV Licensing cases

Licence fee evasion cases account for a significantly smaller proportion of magistrates’ court time than their numbers might suggest. Because the vast majority of cases are heard uncontested and in bulk they actually only account for 0.3 per cent of court time in the most recent data available.

Goodwill payments

The article suggests that TV Licensing was “forced” to make £100,000 in goodwill payments to people who have complained to us for about being unfairly pursued. This isn’t the case, the figure refers to goodwill payments made for all complaints to TV Licensing (including those about administrative errors, or matters of policy) over a six year period. In an operation the size of TV Licensing, with 25m licences in force, mistakes can happen. When they do occur we do everything we can to resolve customer issues. As is common practice we may offer a gesture of goodwill in a small number of cases where we have been at fault. In the case cited in the article, we offered Mr Troy our apologies and made a goodwill gesture in recognition of the fact that errors were made in handling his case.

What should the sanctions be for TV Licence evasion?

The Government has engaged David Perry QC to review how the licence fee is enforced and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport recently published the terms of reference of the review. The review will assess ways of enforcing the fee bearing in mind criteria including value for money, fairness for all licence payers and effectiveness in deterring evaders. It will report in June 2015. At present, there are no changes to the way we enforce the fee, and evaders face prosecution and an average fine of £170 levied in England and Wales.

We’re looking forward to engaging with the Government’s review. It’s important that any new system is both proportionate and successful in maintaining the current low levels of evasion and collection costs. An increase in evasion and collection costs would mean less money available to invest in content and services for the public.

Pipa Doubtfire, Head of Revenue Management, TV Licensing

As the Director of Workplace and Safety, I lead the team that manages the 主播大秀’s properties across the UK. Our buildings provide the production and broadcast capability that allows us to serve our audiences both in the UK and across the globe. We have distinct services in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland together with our regional and local radio stations across the country. Many of our buildings are highly specialised with studios, editing and playout facilities which need to run 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The output of the 主播大秀 has increased enormously over the past 20 years from two to nine television stations and five to 10 national radio stations as well as 主播大秀 online, iPlayer and Red Button.

Our buildings have also had to keep pace with the rapid changes in technology and the way we all consume media now – such as 24-hour news and the internet. About 15 years ago we recognised that many of our buildings were rapidly becoming out of date and unable to support the ‘digital revolution’ in broadcasting. So we embarked on a programme to modernise the estate and make it more efficient and to do so without increasing the cost to licence fee payers. Along the way we also addressed some other things including the need to better reflect the geographical spread of our audiences across the UK outside London.

How we've saved money by reducing our property portfolio

This article first appeared in the Sun newspaper on Wednesday 24 December 2014.

Without some things, it just wouldn’t be Christmas — the tree, turkey and a festive dose of EastEnders.

Millions of people will spend some of their Christmas Day watching the 主播大秀.

If you don’t see who’s having a pint at the Queen Vic you might be sitting with the kids to watch Doctor Who or Strictly — or laughing at Mrs Brown’s Boys when they’ve gone to bed. Or maybe you’re looking forward to the first of two Miranda specials.

Christmas shows the 主播大秀 at its best, bringing you so many of the nation’s favourite shows. For just £2.80 per household every week, I think you get incredible value from the licence fee all year round whether you watch our programmes, listen to the radio or use 主播大秀 iPlayer or our websites.

I know in recent weeks The Sun has questioned that and some readers may have their doubts as well. So let me try to convince you.

The millions of families who will watch our programmes this Christmas show how the 主播大秀 can bring Britain together at special moments. Just like when Rory McIlroy won the Open this year and Lewis Hamilton became Formula One World Champion — moments seen live on the 主播大秀.

Look what else you get for your licence fee — the World Cup, Olympics, Match of the Day, CBeebies and C主播大秀, new British dramas like The Missing and The Fall, the best natural history programmes, all of our radio stations, the 主播大秀 website and impartial news from around the world.

There’s something for everyone — because if everyone pays in through the licence fee you should all get something back as well, and not just at Christmas. But to make great programmes we need great people at the 主播大秀. The people we need would otherwise work for others who can pay seven figure salaries.

Because our money comes from you, it’s right that the 主播大秀 should pay much less.

But there is a level as well beneath which we wouldn’t get the right people. Talent — such as a finance director who saves the 主播大秀 hundreds of millions of pounds — costs.

To make sure every penny is put to good use, we’ve saved lots of money by cutting staff numbers and senior managers, limiting pay increases, selling off costly buildings and negotiating better contracts. We’re more efficient, but I know there’s more still to do so we’re not resting on our laurels.

We aren’t perfect. But where we’ve made mistakes we’ve learnt from them. Capping the amount people can receive in pay-offs when they lose their job was one of the first things I did when I returned as Director General.

The Sun and the 主播大秀 agree on lots of things — we both want to celebrate the best of Britain, and we both know that you want value for money. I hope you’ll agree that’s what you’re already getting. As you enjoy the amazing programmes we’ve got lined up for you this Christmas, I’m confident we’ll give you even more next year.

Tony Hall is Director-General of the 主播大秀. 

This article first appeared in the Sun on Wednesday 24 December 2014. 

As Managing Director of Finance and Operations at the 主播大秀, my responsibilities extend to looking after finance, legal, technology, and business support services.聽 I first worked at the 主播大秀 in the 1990s, rejoining about 18 months ago. The role I have now is to make it as easy as possible for everybody to do great work. That comes about in two ways: by keeping things simple; and, making sure as much money as possible goes into the content people see and experience.

Working here we all have a very special responsibility to get best value for the licence fee. That comes with a duty to make the best quality content and keep support costs as efficient as possible. At the same time we've had to face some very tough challenges. The combination of a licence fee 'frozen' at 拢145.50 for since 2010 and the additional obligations the Government attaches to the fee means that we have in real terms 26% less to spend on public service content than it would have been by 2016/17. So when I came here to work with Tony and the team my job was to put financial rigor and efficiency right at the heart of the corporate agenda.

In February 2014, Tony Hall gave a at the Oxford Media Convention聽where he argued that although the 主播大秀 had done much to become efficient, we must never stop looking for ways to do more.聽 At the same time, Tony asked me to carry out an efficiency review, looking both at the 主播大秀鈥檚 record and where we can go further to deliver value for money for Licence Fee payers.

The 主播大秀 now vs. 20 years ago.