The BBC lavished some of its most lucrative contracts on a bunch of presenters who worked at a channel which next to nobody watched and which most people had never heard of. It was closed down on 8th February 2003.
Christopher Price earned £250,000 a year at the channel called BBC Choice until his death in 2002. This was a similar figure to established news anchor Peter Sissons and Newsnight presenter Jeremy Paxman, and more than news anchor Huw Edwards.
But audience figures showed that Price's programme was watched by an audience of just 17,000 people. He was being paid £14.70 for each of his viewers.
His colleague Johnny Vaughan has a £3 million annual contract with the BBC. His chat show on BBC Choice only attracted 40,000 viewers. Even with a repeat on BBC One, Vaughan was paid 20 times more for every viewer than talk show host Michael Parkinson.
BBC Choice was intended to cater for a 'yoof' audience. Other station presenters on juicy contracts included Richard Bacon, sacked as a children's TV presenter after an incident involving cocaine. He presented Rent Free, a 'new format' in which students attempted to win a year's free accommodation in a luxury apartment. This was watched by only 46,000 viewers. But he still received a reported salary of £120,000. BBC Choice's schedule also included a profile of Jordan, a model with large breasts.
The BBC reveals that over £200 million was spent on BBC Choice in the four years since its launch in 1998. That figure represented more than £6,000 for every viewer of its average audience of 40,000. Showing repeats of BBC1's EastEnders, which could secure 300,000 viewers, disguised the tiny audience the station attracted with its own shows.
Jocelyn Hay, chairman of Voice of the Listener and Viewer, said: "These are extraordinary sums for the BBC to be paying. It seems difficult to understand how an unknown presenter such as Christopher Price has been employed at this kind of rate. If these latest audience figures are correct, this use of licence-payers' money should be urgently reviewed."
The BBC kept asking permission from Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell to rebrand BBC Choice as BBC3. And Tessa Jowell kept refusing. Perhaps she has found out what had been going on there. And when she finally gave her approval the channel, BBC3 gets even more cash. And it will still only be available to viewers who have purchased a new digital television or a digital decoder.