What of the deal itself?

One problem from two different views...

The team selling BBCT didn't know what they were selling - they didn't do their homework properly, so the market testing was basically wrong. Therefore, Siemens didn't know what it was buying either.

Their preconceptions appear to have been that the BBC is jut a TV company and that Siemens thought they were buying another NS&I or UKPPO operation run by monkeys. Both parties thought it was just an ordinary IT outsource job

What they got was an operation far more professional that the outfit they were being grafted into. (average of 13years service over 1440 staff! How's that in man-years experience!) A large part of the BBC's broadcast communications system (non-IT based!!) got sold along with the IT operation.

The future?

The current senior management within the BBC are the types that believe that broadcasting has nothing to do with what is commonly known as "craft skills", and that these minor inconvieniences can be bought in. They can, but the product by definition isn't as good - there is no pride in being "part of the BBC" which used to be a very big incentive to do the job to the best!

They have sold half of the family jewels already, getting rid of Scenic Operations, the other craft areas and most recently BBC Technology. This lost them a large part of the "non-editorial" and "non-managerial" services that made the BBC what it was, they're about to sell the rest of it with BBC Resources.

The "poor" relation.

Radio counts for little in their eyes - it's minor inconvenience they can put up with until they can find a way of getting rid of it. The BBC will no longer be the world renowned broadcaster it used to be, it is about to end up as just another TV company, purely because of someone's misguided belief in the myth of outsourcing.