The Stage

BBC faces money-wasting accusations as it spends 45k on Merlin launch party

Published Wednesday 17 December 2008 at 12:20 by Matthew Hemley

The BBC has come under fire for spending more than £160,000 on launch parties for four dramas over 2008.

Channel 4 News discovered the figure after making a Freedom of Information request to the Corporation about how much it spent on launching new dramas this year.

The worst offender was Saturday night BBC1 show Merlin, for which the BBC spent £45,572.23 on an event at the Oxo Tower in London, which was attended by 326 people, including 11 BBC staff, actors, presenters and press.

In its response to Channel 4 News, the BBC said the figure included “food, beverages, room hire, photography, security, entertainment, invitations, transport and production”.

Also obtained through the same FoI request, Channel 4 News found that in 2008 the BBC spent a total of £118,379.33 on three other BBC1 drama launch parties. These were The Passion, No 1 Ladies Detective Agency and Little Dorrit.

In their FoI response, the BBC said: “Launch events for major new drama series are standard across the television industry, but we have already significantly cut back the number we host. We are careful about ensuring such events provide value for money and we only hold a small number based around our flagship programming.”

It added: “In 2008/2009, we intend to reduce both the number and spend on the programme launches we hold still further due to the financial pressures we’re facing.”

Gerry Morrissey, general secretary of broadcasting union Bectu, told Channel 4 News that he was “shocked” by the figures for the Merlin launch, particularly as the BBC has made 2,000 staff redundant this year.

He said: “Putting this amount of money into context, you are looking at approximately one and a half jobs being spent on one launch party. I’m not saying that they shouldn’t do it, but I believe they have plenty of in-house facilities that would be suitable.”

Speaking to Channel 4 News, BBC chief operating officer Caroline Thomson defended the spending.

“We don’t party for party’s sake - we choose the programmes we are going to launch at parties very carefully. When we do it, we do it because we are very proud of the programmes and we therefore do the launch in the most cost-effective way possible,” she said.