Online assistance

A valued reader has spotted a change to one of the BBC's 'Sign In' screens - the offer to 'continue with Google' seems to have arrived not long after the acquisition of a new DG..... 

What price reputation ?

Magistrate Judge Enjolique Lett is powering ahead in Trump v BBC. The President's lawyers tried to have her removed from the case, because her past role in another one of his lawsuits "creates an appearance of impropriety."  She considered - and decided not to recuse herself. 

Yesterday at a hearing about 'discovery' of documents sought by both sides, she granted a motion by the BBC's legal team to compel the release of financial records held by the Donald J Trump Revocable Trust, which he created to manage his businesses while he is President.  “All of President Trump’s brand, properties and businesses are impugned or said to have been impugned. Reputational, economic damages, all of that is now at issue in this case”, she said. 

Donald's lawyer, however, is already trying to shift the goalposts away from 'money', saying his position has 'evolved' into seeking recompense simply for the damage to his 'reputation'.   The deadline for all documents is October 20th. 

Still at it

Sir Robbie Gibb still can't tell the difference between being a BBC executive and a BBC Non-Executive Director.  He chairs the England sub-committee of the BBC Board, and from the minutes of their latest meeting, he's pretty much sure he's in charge of business. 

Four to one

After all the arguments about which broadcaster has "won" the World Cup, when it came to a straightforward choice at the Final, the BBC had most viewers... 

BBC ONE (7pm-11.30pm) - average 9.7m (60% share)

ITV1 (6.45pm-12am) - average 2.3m (15.4% share)

ROI ?

I haven't written much about the BBC's latest Global Audience Measure, taking Auntie finally to Lord Hall's 500m reach target, at 502m, four years late.

There's not much level of detail available. We are told "The BBC’s news output in English across World Service English, BBC.com and the BBC News channel grew its audience to 208 million people weekly (up 5% year-on-year). "    One would like to understand how this works in terms of return on investment; clearly the BBC has given up on a domestic tv news channel and is cutting funding year on year to the World Service in English, but one might have expect a better trend given Jonathan Munro's further commitment... 

Qadeer's career

And so, Uzair Qadeer leaves Matt Brittin's top team as Chief People Officer, for the same job at BT. He joined the BBC in February 2023.   Clearly Uzair has been following his own advice. 

Gamer for BBC News

The BBC has acquired the services of tech-whizz-kid Brandon Relph, who will be part of the "Group Strategy & Transformation team", as well as the divisional head for BBC News.  Just turning 25, Brandon  co-founded goCreative Group LTD in 2014, at the age of 13.  It exploited his expertise at Minecraft, and got millions of viewers for his "How to Minecraft" shows. He exited as CEO via a management buyout in 2017.  Most recently, he's been with Accenture. 

Brandon went to The Bishop Bell Church of England Mathematics & Computing Specialist School in Eastbourne - renamed St Catherine's College after sexual abuse allegations against the Bishop. He completed his A-levels at Brighton, Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College.  He seems to have skipped a first degree, moving straight to a Global MBA with Cass/Bayes Business School, completed online, part-time, over two years. 

Peaked ?

All Perspectives, whose sole tv product is GB News, reached 3,897,000 viewers in June, according to BARB.   That's down from 4,047,000 viewers in May. 

On message

The BBC can't seem to help itself.  MPs follow the BBC's commercial rivals in questioning licence-fees being used to buy rights to Scooby Doo and Schitt's Creek; new DG Matt Brittin promises to take a look. 

Then, using the half-time slot in England v Argentina, a cascade of trails, including the announcement that all ten Spider-man movies will be on iPlayer from 19th July.  Great British story-telling... 

More Nandy

Some bits from Lisa Nandy's evidence to the Culture Select Committee, reflecting her conversations with BBC staff. 

"I cannot emphasise strongly enough the gulf between what I hear from BBC employees and the account that I am often given from BBC senior management, including the board, but also the senior executive team. It is really stark."

"I am going to share something with you that one of the reps said to me when we met: she did not feel that there was any meaningful way to make her voice heard or make things change in the organisation. That is quite stark. It is something that I have shared with the senior leadership. I know that the incoming director general takes that very seriously, but it would be wrong of me to come to this Committee and not acknowledge that that is how some of the staff are feeling at the BBC at the moment.

"One thing I heard recently from one of the staff I met as part of the engagement exercise was that she is the only staff member who works in their building. It is not open access to the public any more. They used to have school groups coming in. The BBC still invests hugely in things like choirs and orchestras and so on. But they used to have a lot of that—it used to be a very porous building that could be used for the community and commercially, but they do not even have a receptionist any more. There is literally nobody to go and open the door."