The BBC has splashed out a staggering £435,000 on alcohol in the past five years – frittering away licence-payers’ cash on more than 41,000 bottles of wine, nearly 9,000 bottles of champagne and almost 85,000 bottles of beer.
The broadcaster spent around £1,700 per week on drinks for staff before VAT, a Freedom of Information request revealed, despite previous anger at its extravagance.
Despite the BBC bringing in a champagne ban in 2008 after alcohol costs soared, staff continue to spend vast sums of viewers’ money on alcohol, including expensive bottles of bubbly.
Spending reached its apex in 2007, when the BBC spent a massive £55,872 on champagne and fizzy wine alone.
In the year after the crackdown, no champagne at all was bought, with employees instead buying in hundreds of bottles of prosecco and cava and spending just £3,800 on fizz.
But after a year of abstinence, champagne was back on the drinks list in 2010, with 12 bottles of high-end Veuve Clicquot purchased and a total spend of more than £3,000.
And this year the Beeb spent even more on champers, buying in 27 bottles of Bollinger Special Cuvee at £658.95, 12 bottles of Canard Duchene Brut at £180, 10 bottles of De Telmont Grande Reserve Brut at £133.33 and one bottle of Moet et Chandon Brut at £21.67 – costing £4,011 in all.
CHAMPAGNE SHOWTIME
The most expensive bottles of champagne bought by the BBC were:
- – Krug Vintage 1995 – one bottle bought for £200 in 2008
- – Dom Perignon – two bottles bought for £197.57 – that’s £98.79 each – in 2007
- – Dom Perignon – nine bottles bought for £802.96 – that’s £89.22 each in 2008
- – Bollinger Grand Annee – one bottle bought for £71.25 in 2008
- – Jacquart Mosaique 1996 vintage magnum – one bottle bought for £69.69 in 2007
- – Mumm Cordon Rouge Magnum – one bottle bought for £55 in 2008The most expensive bottles of champagne bought by the BBC were:
- – Krug Vintage 1995 – one bottle bought for £200 in 2008
- – Dom Perignon – two bottles bought for £197.57 – that’s £98.79 each – in 2007
- – Dom Perignon – nine bottles bought for £802.96 – that’s £89.22 each in 2008
- – Bollinger Grand Annee – one bottle bought for £71.25 in 2008
- – Jacquart Mosaique 1996 vintage magnum – one bottle bought for £69.69 in 2007
- – Mumm Cordon Rouge Magnum – one bottle bought for £55 in 2008
In October, it was revealed that the BBC has spent a massive £70,000 on drinks and leaving parties at exclusive restaurants in the past year.
The Corporation ran up a bill of £600 at both the Clarendon in Holland Park the Iskele, a Turkish restaurant in Clerkenwell.
A further £595 was spent at the Stinging Nettle in Shepherd’s Bush and the cocktail bar in LVPO in Soho, according to FoI requests.
And staff shelled out £581 at Paradise, a trendy West London gastro-pub in Notting Hill, at an event for just 17 people.
Emma Boon, Campaign Director of the TaxPayers’ Alliance, said that although the BBC was spedning less than in its ‘wild years’, the broadcaster should be spending cash on quality programming, not alcohol.
She said: ‘It is right that bosses look at a cut in spending on booze before making savings elsewhere or asking for an increase in the licence fee.
‘The BBC has to stop splashing out on alcohol-fuelled wrap parties, it’s unacceptable that some staff are living it up on the licence fee.
‘Viewers expect their licence fee to be spent on quality programming not on boozing execs.’
A BBC source, who did not want to be named, said: ‘The drinks bill used to be vast, but since 2009 everyone has been told the cut back on the fancy champagne.
‘We are still getting through a lot of wine and beer though.
‘In fact the culture of the BBC now is more a case of ‘champagne taste but only beer money’, although the number of bottles of champagne is slowly creeping up again.’
The BBC’s favourite beer is Becks, with 23,961 bottles bought since 2007.
The total number of bottles or cans of beer and cider bought in the period is a massive 84,443, which is 1,417 per month on average.
Sauvignon Blanc is the Beeb’s most popular wine, with more than 7,000 bottles bought in the past five years – although more than 300 different varieties of wine have been tried.
The top red wine is Merlot, with in excess of 5,000 bottles bought in five years.
Over the five years, 41,335 bottles of wine were drunk.
Staff spent £4,242 in five years on spirits, including 80 bottles of Pimms and various high-quality whiskies and vodkas.
A spokesman for the BBC – which is set to axe 2,000 jobs by 2017 to save cash – said: ‘Drinks may be purchased where there is an appropriate business purpose, for example at award ceremonies, to celebrate the successful completion of a series or ad hoc team drinks to reward exceptional effort.
‘More recently we have cut back dramatically on all events, including leaving parties – such events are now rare and of a modest nature.’
He added: ‘Occasionally staff hospitality may be appropriate, for example following the award of major contracts, to mark the end of a series or project, or for team building purposes.
‘We continue to be mindful of how we spend public money and have made good progress in tightening our expenditure in this area.’
