Blog: BBC fails to reveal all

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Broadcast's BBC correspondent Katherine Rushton criticises the BBC Trust's report on talent costs for keeping too much out of the public eye.

Sir Michael Lyons has made a great play this morning of the fact that he commissioned a study into the BBC's talent costs in response to public concerns – so it seems ironic that the final product tells the public almost nothing.

The report by Oliver and Ohlbaum Associates is so heavily censored that almost every detail on which the BBC can be judged has been expunged from the public record.

We know that talent costs inflated by 6% last year and that the top 50 names saw their pay packets rise by "significantly" more, but we do not know – or even have a ball park figure – for what that significant step up might be.

Similarly we know that there are many BBC names earning below £5,000 from the broadcaster, and that there are probably only about 12 earning between £250,000 and £300,000 a year. Above that is a mystery.

The logic for all this, according to the Trust, is to stop wily agents looking at the averages and using them to squeeze a few more quid out of the publicly-owned coffers. But surely the agents in charge of the key talent have a fair old idea of what their rivals are pulling in anyway. Is an inflation figure across such a broad swathe of TV names really going to tell them anything they don't know?

In the event, all we are left with is a very much diluted message of "trust us, we've seen the figures and we know what we're talking about". It's kind of ironic - given the origins of the report - that it will leave the public feeling even more frustrated.

Katherine Rushton is chief reporter and BBC correspondent at Broadcast