[DTV]

Unfortunately this is a question that (at least some of it) needs answering sooner rather than later including getting the lost presenters back on air as surely benching them for this long (nearly 4 months and counting) is against employment laws.

Unless their contracts specifically guarantee them air time, which seems unlikely, what employment laws would they be breaking? At worst, they've voluntarily signed new contracts; at best, they're either being paid not to work or being relatively overpaid for an off-screen role - neither which seem like the kind of thing you'd take to an employment tribunal.

Plus, to be quite honest, I suspect that the former presenters themselves think about this issue less than some of the people on here.

[harshy]

If I was getting paid to not do anything I’d happily take it especially at their wages

[all new phil]

If I was getting paid to not do anything I’d happily take it especially at their wages

Don’t be silly. Being part of a process that’s being drawn out longer than it should is no fun.

[Brekkie]

If I was getting paid to not do anything I’d happily take it especially at their wages

I don't think you would actually.   It's quite demoralising being sat on the side lines, even if being paid - and means their future is far from certain too.


That said £230k seems a significant fee for a news channel shift considering a few years back when questioned on air one presenter (possibly Carrie Gracie (whoops)) revealed their fee to be around £80k.    However although the salary may be half of that of Huw Edwards the hours are more, so the daily rate is probably about a quarter of what the chief presenter is paid, which doesn't sound so extortionate.


It might also explain why World presenters tended to get the job if they were already paid a fee more fitting of the commercial sector than the licence fee funded sector. The nature of the merger meant those salaries were unlikely to be reduced, and therefore those already close to them would be more likely to be selected for the new roles than the staff who although doing a similar job for similar hours were possibly on half the amount.

[Steve in Pudsey]

I think you mean Carrie Gracie

I'm not sure that the hours are necessarily more, they are on screen for longer but the network bulletin presenters do a lot more prep than rolling news presenters need to.

[DTV]

It might also explain why World presenters tended to get the job if they were already paid a fee more fitting of the commercial sector than the licence fee funded sector.  The nature of the merger meant those salaries were unlikely to be reduced, and therefore those already close to them would be more likely to be selected for the new roles than the staff who although doing a similar job for similar hours were possibly on half the amount.

I did suggest something like this at the time - most of the 'promoted' were the ones who'd otherwise be taking a pay cut (though, to be fair, the fact they were at the higher level suggests BBC managers already thought they were, in some respect, better). Basically, pay for the senior World News presenters was around £180k, while only a handful of News channel presenters (the ones who also did network, plus Gosling) were ever high enough to get on the pay disclosure list (i.e., above £150k). I believe typical NC presenter pay was suggested to be about £120k.

[News76]

Well would you look at that headline (okay slightly inaccurate that they were axed but the point still stands).

twitter.com 

[ALV]

BREAKDOWN ALERT!!!

We have our first technical breakdown ever since the merger (I think)... The UK feed and World feed are currently on a recorded bulletin:

I have no idea what was going on in the past 30 mins... The UK feed opted out to Gallery A to cover FIFA soccer last I watched at 0945... Towards the TOTH the UK feed was playing a filler after the weather and then cut to the recorded bulletin. Anyone got rewind? Did the World feed went haywire during 0930-1000?

EDIT: At 1007 both feeds switched to Studio E and back live. The presenter acknowledged the technical difficulties:

[oscillon]

BREAKDOWN ALERT!!!

We have our first technical breakdown ever since the merger (I think)... The UK feed and World feed is currently on a recorded bulletin:

I have no idea what was going on in the past 30 mins... The UK feed opted out to Gallery A last I watched at 0945... The UK feed was playing a filler after the weather and then cut to the recorded bulletin. Did the World feed went haywire during 0930-1000?

At first the UK feed even showed the clock that was an hour behind real time, then they took it off and put the "RECORDED" bug up.

Looks like Studio C is glitching again around the gallery. The issues started in the second half-hour of 9am, when the clock went missing. AT 9:44 the recorded package went into a half-a-second-long loop mid-sentence, after which the UK feed (at least) switched to the opt-out.

[harshy]

Ehh what happened to Nicky Campbell was that not shown ?