DYKE ANNOUNCES INCREASED PROGRAMMING BUDGET

BBC Director-General, Greg Dyke, has announced to BBC staff that he plans to increase the programming budget by 24 per cent by the end of 2002/3.
So far the increase in spending has been comparatively small, £39 million in the current year, out of the £58 million set aside.
Dyke said that in the financial year starting this April there would be a marked increase in expenditure on programmes and services with a further increase in the year starting April 2002. In all by 2002/3 the BBC plans to spend £450 million more than they have spent in 1999/2000.
He said that the biggest increases would go to BBC One and BBC Two, a total of £154 million when the rise in the television sports budget is included. Most areas of the BBC will see significant increases.
However, viewers, listeners and staff have yet to see the financial advantages of One BBC, the name given to the report recommending the restructuring of all but the world service and the commercial areas of the BBC.
Dyke said: “We have only just started to spend the additional money. However there was never a promise in One BBC to increase the budgets of all our existing programmes although some staff seem to have interpreted One BBC as meaning that. Our plan was always to spend additional money on new and different programmes and services.
“To gain agreement on the way forward for the digital curriculum has meant a lot of detailed work. We aren’t there yet but the signs are positive. Making this happen is one of the important things we need to achieve this year.”
Dyke outlined the initiatives in a booklet distributed to the staff at the BBC. (CD)