THE current TV licence costs £145 per annum per household.

Now, following the publication of the salaries being paid to the BBC announcers, we get some inkling as to why such a huge amount has to be paid.

Three things instantly spring to mind on hearing about those huge amounts:

1. Female announcers are not paid the same as their male counterparts.

2. What difference does it make having well-known, to unknown, people doing the broadcast?

3. The BBC is a public service and it’s not of any great relevance whether the announcers are famous ex-footballers or just plain and simple people who know about the particular sport they may be commentating on.

The first anomaly, in this day and age of equal pay, is absolutely indefensible and the managers of the BBC have some serious explaining to do as to why there is the huge pay-gap which currently exists between their male/female announcers.

Secondly, just why do ex-footballers etc have to be so highly paid to do the simple job they do?

Thirdly, as the BBC is a public service it doesn’t need injections of commercial money to keep it afloat so they don’t have to pay for names to get people to listen or watch their programmes.

An ex-Radio 4 presenter has said that those salaries should not have been published as that information is private.

The BBC’s employees are similar to MPs in that they are paid by the public therefore we, the public, do have a right to know.

Philip Roe, Roman Avenue South, Stamford Bridge