Bunhill: Canning the cost

NEWS in from Cannes. Last autumn, all hell broke loose when it emerged that the brave new BBC had sent 84 staffers on an all-expenses paid sales trip to Cannes, the playground of the the rich and famous.

Suitably chastened, the BBC has economised at the MIP-TV conference held in Cannes this week. It only sent 74 on the trip.

The Beeb is indignant at the suggestion that the conference is some kind of creatives jamboree. 'This is a very important conference and always repays its investment,' says BBC Enterprises, which tells me that Middlemarch, Absolutely Fabulous and The Wrong Trousers have been selling particularly well.