Lucky Jim

Next question. Who will take Lord Hall's shilling and make James Purnell look good minding radio. Bets not taken on Bob Shennan.

Prize day

Two BBC News hacks will be shortly be chosen to spend five days at Stanford, as part of what is called "Leadership Development Experience".

Selection will depend upon the way you answer the following three elegantly-crafted questions.

1. Identify what you will gain from this development opportunity; how it will help you in your current role; and how this supports with [sic] your career development ambitions over the next three years. (500 words max)

2. Develop ONE of the two topics below. Identify recent innovations, analyse the editorial considerations and explain the likely direction of further developments considering business need and audience benefit. We are looking for informed research and pan-broadcast industry perspective. (750 words max)

• use of drones to gather news footage 
• development of editing software for use in the field 

3. Detail an innovative project you have achieved within your department and the benefits it has delivered to your team and audiences. Identify your personal skills used to deliver the results. (500 words max)

Consideration will be by written application only. Please also upload a 1 page CV.

Start up costs

CBS Radio plans to buy itself out of its mighty parent by taking on $1.46bn of debt. The division owns 117 radio stations, including all of the top 10 as ranked by Nielsen Audio, and reckons to reach 72 million listeners each week. The move is being led by CBS Radio president Andre Fernandez.

One of a kind

I'm not sure which groover at the Department for International Trade has doshed up the BBC for the first "BBC Music presents" tour of the United States. Could it be funky Dr Liam Fox or perhaps Happening Greg Hands ?

The tour will feature artists who've been supported early in their careers by the BBC - Spring King, Izzy Bizu and Sundara Karma. Three more tours will follow.

The venues - in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Detroit and Chicago - are own by third partner Live Nation, through its House of Blues chain. The BBC shares some of their aspirations unedited in its press release notes...

House of Blues Entertainment is the country’s pre-eminent live music venue collection featuring state-of-the-art sound and lighting technology in one-of-a-kind custom-designed environments aimed to bring fans and artists together in unparalleled musical environments

Engineered wood

Rehearsals are continuing in Sky News' new glass box studio. Colin Brazier and Jayne Secker seem not to have chairs, never mind sofas. And is that all the floor there's going to be ?

Promises

I'm still dying to know what happens if you enter a postcode that's not your own in order to acquire a BBC iD. Here are some more new pledges I missed from yesterday...

The BBC has updated its privacy policy. This is based on three promises: 

Transparency – the BBC will only collect data needed to give audiences a better experience, improve its services and fulfil its responsibilities as a public service
Choice – it will let users manage or delete their BBC account at any time 
Trust – the BBC will never sell personal details to anyone and only use data commercially when people are using commercial BBC services, like BBC Store

Months ago

On days when your indefatigable blogger is struggling for content, reliable delivery of BBC Executive Board minutes, however dull, occasionally helps. Last set issued May....

Chasm

Before it kicked off

Replays of the Royal Television Society spat between James Purnell, BBC Director of Strategy and Education, 46 and Jay Hunt, C4's Chief Creative Officer, 49, suggests Little Jimmy was more on the front foot than fast-talking combative Jay - and the fight crowd sounded more on Jay's side.

Does this matter ?  Well, it comes in a week when Roger Mosey, former BBC Editorial Director, suggested James Purnell was being prepared long-term as a candidate for DG. And sadly, James waved his cv too early and wildly at Jay, noting he had been a Culture Secretary and created Ofcom. Playground stuff, and James did himself no favours in the broadcasting community.

Canada Dry

"While the U.K. is preparing to cut itself adrift after a majority of its citizens voted to leave the European Union, the BBC is going the other way: Searching for new territories to colonize, in a brash effort to build a news and content empire after the country’s political one shrank to nothing."

An amusing account of bbc.com's Canadian launch party (corn hushpuppies, vegetable samosas, and chilled prosecco) in the Toronto Globe & Mail.

What's your name and where're you from, love ?

BBC Director of Radio Helen Boaden may be winding down towards early retirement, but she's still the project sponsor of myBBC, picking up the pieces from a distracted James Purnell.

So it is Helen who today explains the BBC's new requirements of users of its key online services. From next Tuesday,  you'll need to enter a postcode to receive the many and varied blessings of a BBC iD. And from next year, you'll need a BBC iD to access the iPlayer. It's not clear whether any old postcode will do - I'm sure many will test that out next week.

Helen's explanation is pretty straight-faced.

"Some of you might be thinking that this is driven by the changes to the so-called ‘iPlayer loophole’ which means you now need a TV licence to download or watch BBC programmes on demand on iPlayer. It’s not – it’s about giving you a better BBC. As we said earlier this month, we’ll carry on using our existing enforcement processes and techniques which we believe to be adequate and appropriate. In fact, early TV Licensing data shows that – as we expected - significant numbers of new people have bought a licence since the new rules came into force. We will keep our processes under review to make sure they are effective. The Government has asked us to review whether a verification system for accessing the iPlayer will be required in the future."