Spotlight on Kev

The Beeboids hunting for a new DG get a free chance to scrutinize Kevin Bakhurst this week. The RTE Director General appears in front of TD's on the Irish Parliament's Culture Committee on Wednesday. 

Some of them are puzzled that, despite a big and expensive redundancy programme, the RTE headcount went up in the recent annual report. At 31 December 2024, there were 1,853 (2023: 1,836) employees, of which 219 (2023: 204) were part-time/casual. The full-time equivalent (FTE) headcount at
31 December 2024 was 1,740 (2023: 1,734). 

Kev's total package at RTE is 340,000 Euros (c£297k). 

Losing definition

The BBC in the USA continues to seek favour with Americans by dropping the definite article from many of its communications.  Thus.... 

I cite Google's AI response as to why it should properly be "The BBC": 

"The BBC" uses the definite article "The" because it refers to a specific, unique, and well-known institution (British Broadcasting Corporation) that both speaker and listener generally know about, similar to how we say "the sun," "the sky," or "the President," for things that are singular and specific within their context. It's a proper noun for an organization that's globally recognized, making it definite, not just any broadcasting company. 

Cable News News

The Netflix-Warner Bros-HBO deal risks CNN ending up like Little Orphan Annie. It's reported that CNN will be part of a stand-alone spin-off company to be called Discovery Global, which will also include cable channels TNT Sports, the Discovery Channel, the Food Network and Bleacher Report. The company is supposed to be established sometime next year. 

CNN Chairman and CEO Mark Thompson, in place now for two years, told staff “I’ve been asked by many of you what today’s news means for us. And the answer is that it will enable us to continue to roll out our strategy to secure a great future for CNN by successfully navigating our digital transition. Of course, I can’t promise you that the media attention and noise around the sale of our parent will die down overnight. But I do think the path to the successful transformation of this great news enterprise remains open.”

And if it doesn't, what price Thommo as next chairman of the BBC ?

You can't believe the HIPE

The BBC's  Hosting Infrastructure & Platform Engineering (HIPE) department is recruiting.  Do you think they mean "Principal" ?

The Matrix

When the BBC deals with high-profile bullying, there's plenty of scrutiny, and usually obvious consequences. But lower down the line, bullying and harassment complaints take months to resolve, and the outcomes are often unclear. 

Now, from the latest minutes of the BBC Board's Audit and Risk Committee, comes news of a document everyone would like to see: a 'sanctions matrix'. 

Beyond HR

The BBC's recently-acquired Chief Talent and Inclusion Officer, Simone Marquis, has taken less than a year to make sure she's got a full department. So she's advertising for "Performance, Leadership, Talent and Inclusion Business Partners" across the BBC's Corporate functions in Salford, Glasgow, Birmingham and London. £60k to £80k. 

And what, pray, do PLTI Business partners do ?

"As Business Partner, you’ll ensure group-led frameworks are embedded into divisional practices and aligned with local needs, whilst responding to the specific and nuanced divisional needs of each function."

Steve Cropper RIP

Joint composer of... 

Green Onions
Walking The Dog
Sitting On The Dock Of  A Bay
634-5789
In The Midnight Hour
Knock On Wood
See-Saw
Mr Pitiful
Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa-Fa (Sad Song)
Soul Limbo
Hang 'Em High
Hip Hug Her
Things Get Better
The Hunter

Acute

Samir Shah has until Monday to hand in answers to 18 follow-up questions posed by MPs of the Culture Select Committee, about the BBC chairman's evidence to them on 24th November. 

Committee chair Caroline Dinenage unhelpfully described that evidence as 'wishy-washy'; critics of the Committee might say "If you ask wishy-washy questions...."

It's not the first time they've tried to pin down Dr Shah in writing. In December 2023. the Committee published Dr Shah's answers to ten questions they posed as part of his pre-appointment hearding....

10) What criteria should the Committee use to judge your and the BBC’s performance over your term of office? 

Dr Shah chose to divide his answer into how he would handle 'chronic' and 'acute' problems, and on 'acute' wrote.....

"Every now and then, the BBC runs into a storm of criticism. Often it is about impartiality and its coverage of a particular story. Sometimes it’s rather different (e.g. Huw Edwards, Tim Westwood).

"The committee should judge my performance, and the BBC’s, by how well we have handled such “storms”. Have we responded in an open, transparent and respectful way? Have we understood the various shades of opinion on the subject? Was the decision proportionate, sensible and carried out in a calm and thoughtful manner?" 

Horses for....

The latest 'external events register' for hard-working BBC hacks shows that conference promoters like booking people who somehow 'match'. 

Try these, for over £10k
Katya Adler - JP Morgan
Amol Rajan  - Virgin Media O2

Amol Rajan - Royal Academy of Engineering

Naga Munchetty - Mastercard

Or these, for £5k-£10K
Faisal Islam - Institute of Practitioners in Advertising

Jeremy Bowen - Lockton Re Insurance

Naga Munchetty - The Grocer

Clive Myrie - Cunard

Squad depleted

The  'summary minutes' of the latest meeting of the BBC Board Nominations and Governance Committee point to more unresolved problems for Chairman Samir Shah. 

The full board was already down one member with the departure of Charlotte Moore in May, and the minutes around her replacement are partially redacted, with Tim Davie providing an update on his plans to fill the gap. The obvious route, replacing Charlotte with Kate Phillips, confirmed as Director of Content in June, has clearly been spurned. 

Now the full board is down to two from the Executive side, with the resignation of News CEO Deborah Turness leaving about-to-depart Tim Davie and COO Leigh Tavaziva as the only representatives of the business side. 

There's also a redaction in the minutes around the recruitment of a replacedment for non-executive director Shumeet Banerji.