It’s open season on the BBC again. Director General Mark Thompson is under fire for his plan to axe 1,800 jobs and cut the number of original programmes the BBC makes. The changes follow the corporation’s failure to secure the licence fee settlement it wanted.

Listening to Radio 5 Live’s Drive programme this evening, it was amusing to hear the BBC accidentally cut off a listener who supported it against the critics. One of those critics asked how many BBC people would be in Paris this weekend for the Rugby World Cup final.

Anyone concerned about alleged BBC extravagance will have been pleased to read on the BBC editors’ blog that the Beeb is getting rid of the second presenter of the Six O’Clock news bulletin. George Alagiah is going solo after Natasha Kaplinsky’s departure for channel 5.

Today’s Independent carried a fascinating chart showing how the BBC spends its money. (Unfortunately the chart does not appear on the online version, so I can’t link to it.) The TV licence costs a British household £10.96 a month. (By my calculations, a quality daily and Sunday newspaper costs well over twice that over a month.) Eight national tv channels take up £7.54 of that cash. Ten national radio stations cost £1.17 a month. The cost of transmission and collecting the licence fee swallows £1.01. The 40 national radio stations take 75p. And finally the BBC’s 240 websites cost 49p a month. Quite a bargain compared with the £45 a month I pay Sky…