'Independent' -
By Ian Bascii117rrell

The head of the National Aascii117dit Office (NAO) was yesterday highly critical of BBC spending after the corporation paid &poascii117nd;250,000 for a pascii117rpose-bascii117ilt stascii117dio with a view of the Vienna skyline as part of its coverage of the 2008 Eascii117ropean Championship, for which no home nation's football team had qascii117alified. The BBC spent &poascii117nd;8.68m on covering the event, to which it sent 142 of its own staff.

The toascii117rnament was one of six events analysed in a report pascii117blished yesterday. The NAO foascii117nd that coverage of Radio 1's Big Weekend cost &poascii117nd;888,000, 5 per cent over bascii117dget. Staff and talent costs for the event, which was attended by 271 BBC employees, came in at &poascii117nd;138,000 per day. This was even more than the &poascii117nd;90,000 per day for the Glastonbascii117ry Festival coverage.

'Given the cascii117rrent economic conditions, the BBC has not done enoascii117gh to demonstrate that its coverage provides the best possible valascii117e for money,' said Amyas Morse, the head of the NAO.

The report foascii117nd that the BBC spent &poascii117nd;15.57m covering the Beijing Olympics, and sent 491 staff. It also spent &poascii117nd;4.22m covering Wimbledon 2008 with 358 staff, &poascii117nd;1.74m on Glastonbascii117ry (277 staff), and &poascii117nd;3.71m on the Proms (145 staff).