A "funny" that just might have passed you by ..

Not everyone spends their waking hours with their ears glued to the speaking word box, and those that do may not necessarily be permanently tuned in to one of the BBC's serious news stations 4 or 5 live.  Which means that quite a lot of people missed out on a splendid funny peddled by an BBC person discussing, as the BBC is prone to do, an issue affecting the BBC that was "in the news".

The issue was the "agreed by both sides resignation" last month of former head of BBC Worldwide John Smith, who happily did not have to wait long after his "resignation" to take a short walk to go work for Burberry as their chief operating officer.  

News of Smith's leaving package broke over the weekend, when it became known that he was to receive a payment of £447,000 - a years salary - as compensation for "loss of notice" as well as a possible profit-related bonus payment of up to £386,000, together with £4 million in his pension pot.

This, the BBC was keen to stress to anyone listening, was all a matter of "contract", reiterating the line it had given to the Sunday Times which first broke the story.

"A BBC source told the Sunday Times that the corporation had paid his year's notice because Smith's successor was ready to take over, saying: "John made the decision to step down from BBC Worldwide. However, he was entitled to any outstanding notice and bonus entitlement owed under his contract."

Fair enough. Contracts should be respected. Now comes the funny.  No doubt seeking to reassure listeners, in the item that I heard, an person was also at pains to explain that "because John worked for the Worldwide arm of the BBC, which is a business, this money will not be coming from licence fee payers"

Well maybe not, if it is a business.  And doing what, aside from  ventures into travel guide publishing that cannot be considered a roaring success?   Not "reselling BBC product produced courtesy of the licence fee?" It would appear so from their Website. 

BBC Worldwide Limited is the main commercial arm and a wholly owned subsidiary of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which operates in the UK and over 200 countries around the world. The company is self-funded and exists to exploit the value of the BBC's assets for the benefit of the licence fee payer and invest in public service programming in return for rights.

We acquire the commercial rights to great programmes such as Doctor Who, Top Gear and Dancing with the Stars and find ways of earning money from these rights across different media and markets. In 2011/12, BBC Worldwide generated headline profits of £155 million on headline sales of £1085 million and returned £216 million to the BBC. For more detailed performance information please see our Annual Review website.