BBC spends just half of income on programmes

THE BBC was last night described as ‘a public scandal’ after figures showed it will only spend half of this year’s budget on programmes for licence fee payers.

The broadcaster has set aside only £2.71billion, or 53 per cent, of its annual £5.14billion income for ‘content to air’ on television, radio and online in Britain.

The rest will be swallowed up by its commercial arm, BBC Worldwide, and £1.2billion of ‘centralised’ costs such as the upkeep of the corporation’s property portfolio, transmitting programmes, and collecting the licence fee.

The figures were laid bare in the BBC’s annual plan, published yesterday. The corporation is on track to receive £3.83billion from the licence fee this year, with the rest coming from sources including a government grant for the World Service and profits from BBC Worldwide.

Tory MP Sir Bill Cash said: ‘I think the BBC has become a public scandal.’

The BBC said it spends the vast majority of licence fee money on programmes.