Trust's Lyons pledges more frugal BBC

BBC Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons has pledged to curb the "excessive salaries" paid to senior executives and top talent at the corporation.

Speaking to The Guardian, Lyons said that the BBC "relaxed" its grip on editorial and financial standards over the past decade, which in turn jeopardised its mission to always secure value for money for licence fee payers.

"To some extent the challenge of recent years has been to reassert that grip and that focus on value for money, particularly in how much you pay to top managers and on-screen talent," he said.

"We are simply not going to see what the public regard as excessive salaries, so [the BBC] must be harder in negotiations and much more willing to walk away. The BBC needs to be more confident that people will accept the most extraordinary discount to come and work for it."

Lyon's comments follow recent public outrage at the pay packets of BBC talent, including the revelation that 47 BBC senior executives all earn more than the prime minister.

BBC director general Mark Thomson will publish results of his strategic review of the corporation next month, which is expected to usher in radical changes to its size and scale over the next two years.

However, the Trust is itself under threat after recent reports suggested that the Conservative Party will scrap the organisation if it secures victory at the general election.

In response, Lyons promised that the Trust is "not going to be bullied" from political pressure or criticism coming from other quarters, such as satellite platform holder Sky.

He said that Thomson's review is "starting from the point of what the BBC's mission is rather than the interests of a very successful satellite broadcaster wanting to get us off its turf".

Despite his dogged stance, Lyons accepted that the BBC must be more aware of its need to co-operate with commercial rivals and not just keep launching new services.

He further claimed that the corporation is no longer interested in audience share, following a recent bruising encounter with ITV over a peak time scheduling clash of Strictly Come Dancing and The X Factor.

'We're not interested in audience share," he said. "We're interested, of course, in reach - delivering for everybody who pays a licence fee - but they are quite separate."