BBC must prove £357m events bill is good value

The NAO called yesterday for the Corporation to improve how it commissions coverage and evaluates success, criticising a lack of "transparency over the total budget for coverage of individual major events".

Budgets could be misleading where several BBC divisions were involved. For example, BBC Sport's plan involved spending 13.7m for TV, radio and interactive coverage of the Beijing Olympics. But this did not include an extra 2.5m for some talent, staff and online coverage, approved separately.

The NAO called for the BBC to conduct annual reviews assessing the quality and management of coverage.

The study focused on coverage of six events in 2008/09 at a cost of 35m: the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Euro 2008, Wimbledon, Glastonbury, the BBC Proms and Radio 1's Big Weekend.

The BBC spent 357m in total during that period on the rights for and coverage of sporting and music events.

Amyas Morse, head of the NAO, said: "When the BBC decides that it wants to cover a major sporting or music event, it should carefully explore a range of options, and set down clear objectives against which it can measure its achievements after the event. Without that, the BBC will not convince licence fee-payers that their money has been well spent."

BBC Trustee Jeremy Peat said: "The Trust notes that the executive has already implemented many of the NAO's recommendations, but there is still more to do and we will review progress on a regular basis."