Inflation-linked licence fee rises and a closed iPlayer loophole are wins for the BBC, but overshadowed by the £700m-plus burden of free licences for the over-75s.
The BBC could close a channel the size of BBC2 or the whole of its radio division if it were required to shoulder the £600m-plus burden of free licence fees for the over-75s in Wednesday's budget.
"Plus the burden of owning so many posters is becoming overwhelming.
They all seemed to have the usual human assortment of baggage and defenses, plus the burden of childhoods spent in rather deeper alienation than even those of us who became writers.
For the purposes of this analysis, and based on comparable administrative costs for peer companies plus the burden of stylist overhead, I have estimated contribution margin as 25%.
The company faces mounting losses from its own consumer and corporate loan books, plus the burden of taking on Merrill, which faces staggering losses from its holdings of mortgage derivatives.
Then there's a closure programme that will see at least 15% of branches shut, plus the continuing burden of bad loans.
At GM the retired-to-active ratio is roughly two-to-one.This burden, plus the fierce price-and-incentives competition in the industry, has savaged the finances of the Big Three.
Bureaucratic systems to record pupil progress and staff performance, plus a heavier burden of written marking to please Ofsted inspectors, are taking a toll on the health of the school workforce and prompting more to escape to schools in the independent sector or overseas, the survey finds.
Plus, the debt burden is typically loaded onto the purchased company.
Limitations include a lack of private sector data and the need for careful interpretation of the comparisons with burden, plus categorisation is subjective.
