Even The King Underperformed

The teetering, skidding end to 'channels', highlighted by the FT, continued apace on Christmas Day. Of course, overnights don't matter, except when the BBC wants them to...   BBC Director of Content Kate Phillips will already be on the phone to James Corden, Ruth Jones and Aardman Films for 2026. 

Thinking Aloud

And, as we scan the BBC News website to find out what matters in the world this Boxing Day, we find the announcement that a former member of Girls Aloud is pregnant nestling well within the first seven. 

The same story is missing entirely from the 'front pages' of sites run by ITV News, Sky News and GB News. It's not mentioned by The Times or The Telegraph. 

Merry Christmas

Season's greetings from Tradingaswdr Towers to all readers, tipsters, critics, columnists and bots. The flying fingers move from Qwerty to Korg this evening, as we accompany raucous singing round the village Christmas tree in Rudolf The Red-Nose Reindeer and an endless Last Christmas, fuelled by sauasages and mulled wine.  A wonderful distraction from worrying about 'whatever next'. I hope you all find similar distractions over the holiday. 

Two ways

 I'm being spun in different directions by Lisa Nandy's consultation on funding the BBC. 

There are those who tell me the question about taking some (more) advertising is there simply to provoke the usual suspects - Reach, ITV, Channel 4, The Radio Centre - into such a cascade of outrage that she has no room to maneuovre. 

There are those who tell me that extending exemptions from licence fee payments is so complex that it will never fly. Imagine 'free' BBC to those in full time education; by proxy, you'd take half the diminishing number of households out of the system, watching on sons and daughters sign-ins.  Or a reduced deal for the 8m on universal credit - that's at least 6m households.  You'd have to more than double the full rate.

There are those who tell me a premium subscription, if only for archive, is a dead end.  The BBC hasn't got enough sizzle left to sell in competition with the US streamers.  

And yet, you sense that Lisa would be keen to produce change. Advertising might be confined, say, to sponsorship. On the archive, we already 'pay' twice for BBC produced, recycled endlessly with ads on the U-channels of BBC Studios. And the BBC likes Britbox in the States; why not revive it in the UK ?

And, on the households v individuals conundrum, a move to the award-winning tradingaswdr option of a levy on broadband and smartphone connections, might allow more flexibility..... 

BBC News: What happens when you stop ?

And as Sunday follows Sunday, "Health and Wellbeing" once again tops the BBC News 'most read' chart (at 1000am), with "Weight-loss jabs: What happens when you stop?"

Two women form the core of the story. Ellen Ogley first told hers to The Sun's Fabulous team in June: WEIGHT OFF I lost 6st with fat jabs & now have abs at 42 – the exact diet I follow not to put any weight back on.   Tanya Hall is an expert in marketing, and has 1,000 followers on Instagram.  She tells the BBC "It's like a switch that goes on and you're instantly starving."

The third pillar of this in-depth and clearly authoritative piece ?  Lifestyle GP, TV doctor, public speaker, health coach, personal trainer & triathlete Hussain Al-Zubaidi from Coventry. 

Dear Robbie

The important bits of Caroline Thomson and Richard Sambrook's report on the problems with the BBC's Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee are, without formal stating, for the immediate attention of non-executive director Sir Robbie Gibb.  Try this paragaph on a clear restatement of the committee's remit...  

In fulfilling the remit it is important to be clear that the Board, and consequently this subcommittee, does not have a role, nor has ever had or tried to have, a role in assessing. individual editorial decisions, except in so far as they help in establishing overall standards.  It is for the Board to set the Editorial Guidelines and the Director-General to meet them

It was in March 2024 that new chairman Samir Shah first attended a meeting of the EGSC "as an observer", watching Senior Independent Director Sir Nicholas Serota chair the session. By May 2024, Samir had decided he should chair the EGSC.  Caroline Thomson and Richard Sambrook want that changed back. This allows matters which get out of hand at the EGSC to be 'referred up' to the Board Chair, rather than explode on the pages of the Daily Telegraph. 

And Robbie Gibbs' influence on the EGSC will be diluted by adding two more non-executives to the formal attendees.  And, officially, the Director General, as editor in chief, will be the only executive member of the EGSC - though an even bigger rolling maul of BBC editors, managers and bureaucrats will attend monthly, to ingest directly the words of wisdom. 

Spin ?

I've been worrying a little that the BBC News team are currently moving rather quickly to negative takes on Government statistics.   Try this... 

Alternative headlines are offered later in the piece: "However, the figure was £1.9bn lower than in the same month last year and was the lowest November borrowing for four years. The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said the fall was mainly due to higher receipts from taxes and National Insurance contributions."

But the writer chose to lead with "Borrowing - the difference between public spending and tax income - was £11.7bn in November, whereas analysts had been expecting about £10bn." Nowhere are these analysts named. 

Opaque Board

After a period of constipation and reflection, the BBC has produced online minutes of its Board meeting in June. A reminder - the BBC pledge "The Board usually meets monthly and the minutes from these meetings will be published on this section two months after they have been approved by the Board, which usually happens at the next Board meeting."  

So it's taken six months for these minutes to appear.  They are, of course, sanitised to exclude most specks of useful information.  There's no mention of a row over US Election coverage as discussed by Michael Prescott and David Grossman at the Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee, two weeks earlier. We do learn that both non-exec Shumeet Banerji and CEO News Deborah Turness had something more important to do. Eleven turned up, plus a huge rolling maul of 24 guests. 

There's one admitted redaction, in the minutes of the discussion of the Charter Review process. There's note of an 'update' on the East Bank studios.  It would be a reasonable guess that it's 'late'.  Completion was scheduled for 2025, and I think we'd have heard about that by now. 

Top toppings

Probably working over Christmas: BBC Group General Counsel, Sarah Jones.  Sarah, 64 (Sutton High School and BA Law, Lincoln College, Oxford) will be choosing external lawyers to respond to Donald Trump. 

She's one of the highest paid staff members not on the BBC Board, at £305k+. She joined the BBC in 1996, after eleven years with Allen and Overy.  It's not all bundles and briefs for Sarah; in her latest expenses we find a claim for "Thank you pizza for the work of the L4E group in Legal" At £346.90, it works out at nearly £27 a head, for 13 people. 

Making it Welsh

BBC Studios have won the tender process to produce Casualty for the next three series, starting in Spring 2026, and now it will not only be made in Cardiff, but 'set' in Cardiff too. 

Nick Andrews, Head of Commissioning, BBC Cymru Wales, says: “Casualty will be supercharging the portrayal of Wales to the UK and beyond and BBC Cymru Wales are delighted."

The move offers many opportunities to reflect Welsh issues, such as 10,000 patients a month waiting more than 12 hours in accident and emergency;  just under 800,000 a month waiting on all 'pathways to treatment', up from 500,000 a month five years ago; equivalent to one in four of the Welsh population.