Crying Wolf

CNN, still officially 'embattled' in the broadcast ratings, seems to be about to shuffle the presenter pack again. 76-year-old Wolf Blitzer may be moved from 6pm to 10am, and teamed with Pamela Brown. This would mean a move for Trump-teaser Jim Acosta, just as the Donald returns to the White House. 

Not under consideration

'General taxation is not something we're considering'. Culture Secretary Lisa Nancy to BBC Breakfast this morning, on future funding options to replace the tv licence fee. 

Which leaves council tax, or some sort of broadband levy....or perhaps, a levy on all streamers, rated by the amount of UK content they carry.  Mmm. Very Danish.

Branching out

12.10pm GMT.  BBC News Culture team hard at work. Presumably tipped off by the Munro-Follow-The-Sun team in Sydney.

Notes only

“The BBC have informed the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, Equity and the Society of Authors that as of April 2025 they will be making dramatic cuts to the output of Audio Drama on BBC Radio 3, completely eradicating audio drama from Radio 3. This change will see not only essential jobs and employment opportunities for creative workers slashed, but programming of new material and new performers totally gone."

We warned you this was coming in October.   Sam 'Classic' Jackson, the controller steering Radio 3 to music only, was a little more liberal a year ago, tweeting this 1 hour 19 minute special, actively commissioned by his team. 

The @grannyeatswolf team have done an amazing job with Gatsby in Harlem for @BBCRadio3. Pick of the Week in @thetimes; hear it at 8pm this Sunday, with a cast including Malachi Kirby, Ncuti Gatwa and Gugu Mbatha-Raw: https://t.co/9e2hg04B8K pic.twitter.com/wuBAz0QA9t

— Sam Jackson (@classicjacko) January 11, 2025

Choose your numbers

The apples and pears of tv viewing statistics have been on show again, with a piece by the learned Jake Kanter in Deadline. He noticed that, according to Barb monthly reach figures, Netflix audience reach overtook BBC1 in September, October, and November 2024. The BBC told him these figures were  “meaningless”; it was wrong to compare the entirety of Netflix with a single channel, and the BBC portfolio of tv channels and iPlayer had double the numbers of viewers of Netflix. 

I'm not sure about 'double'; BARB's monthly summary for December puts the BBC portfolio reach at 52.7m, and Netflix at 46.4m.  These are based on 'three minutes' consecutive viewing in a month; a rather narrow measure, given how much trouble people have navigating around both the Netflix  and iPlayer interfaces.  The BBC Annual Report in July 2024 used a 15-minute window. "BBC television and iPlayer viewing had a 61% weekly reach across the population aged over 4 years, based on viewing at least 15 minutes a week on any device."

On one measure, average daily viewing time, Netflix recorded 26 minutes in December, whereas the BBC portfolio scored 53 minutes - which looks closer to double. 

No licence ?

The weekend nudge from the Government that the tv licence could be replaced by funding the BBC directly from general taxation comes early in the process. 

Advantages are clear: it saves separate collection costs. In 2023/24, the cost of collecting TV licences was £145.4 million, 3.8% of the total revenue of £3.66 billion.  It ends increasing evasion, estimated at 11.3%, equivalent to £466m in 2023/24. On one swoop, if there was a like for like transfer, the BBC could be 15% better off.  It makes paying for the BBC a tad more 'progressive', i.e. related to income. 

But there would be additional costs; some form of new independent body would have to lead on setting funding in the future. 

In a world of streaming, the only credible alternative is to tax smartphone and broadband connections, and possible providers of free wi-fi. 

One way of adding to the general pot of taxation might be to follow the Danes. Since January 2024, there's be a 'cultural levy' 2% of Danish revenues imposed on all on-demand streaming companies, with an additional 3% surcharge for those investing less than 5% in local content.

Breakfast menu changed

Someone has decided that BBC Breakfast is not "news" as we know it. From Wednesday of next week, it no longer occupies its usual 6am to 9am slot in the schedules of the BBC News Channel. A rare and small financial loss to the growing empire of Breakfast editor Richard Frediani - and presumably some extra effort from News Channel hacks...

Reality check

The BBC News Channel reached 9.58m viewers in the UK across December, compared with 9.4m in November, and 11.02m in December last year. 

Sky News reached 8.05m, down from 8.25m in November, and down from 8.86m this time last year. 

GB News, still crowing about beating everyone everywhere, reached 3.40m, compared with 3.56m in November, and down on 4.08m last December. 

Ambition

New BBC boss in Scotland Hayley Valentine came to Westminster yesterday to appear in front of MPs on the Scottish Affairs Committee. 

She said she's already engaged with staff at briefings, set priorities for the year ahead, and claimed measures of approval for BBC Scotland are 'on the up'.  She said there were 'live discussions' about rights to cover Scotland's football internationals, and the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. 

She commended the new BBC Reporting Scotland half hour at 7pm (which some observers suggest looks like a Carabao Cup team version of the 6.30pm show on BBC 1) as 'warm and empathetic'.  A bit like Scottish politics...

Trying again

Weekend, with Rod Liddle and Kate Silverton, lasted six Saturday mornings on BBC2 in 2003, before it was replaced by repeats of old Wimbledon matches. I can find no video.

Now Rod has been signed by Times Radio for a three-hour slot on Saturday mornings...

🚨 BREAKING NEWS 🚨

Sunday Times columnist Rod Liddle is joining Times Radio 📻

He's got a brand-new show every Saturday morning, packed with engaging discussion of the big stories from the week.

Tune in to hear @LiddleRod this Saturday from 10am to 1pm. #TimesRadio pic.twitter.com/isYzB6xI9Y

— Times Radio (@TimesRadio) January 8, 2025