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."

New tone

The BBC's latest annual report features 'challenge/s' 52 times, (excluding programme titles like University Challenge and The Challenge Cup), and 'challenging' 29 times. 'Jeopardy', beloved of Tim Davie gets just one outing.  "Critical/critically" is there 39 times. 

Interview rate

On the face of it, Nick Robinson has taken quite a salary hit.  In 2024/25. he was on £410k+. In 2025/26, it's £330k +.   The difference in his reported commitments - the Panorama 2024 General Election Leader interviews.   Seven interviews, for a mere £80k. 

When I'm calling you....

 

The current outbreak of call and response between Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and BBC DG Matt Brittin continues tomorrow, with Mountie Matt appearing before the Lords Communication and Digital Committee.  

Nandy's terms

Lisa Nandy has been telling MPs what she expects next from the BBC. She thinks the bulk of its management should move to Salford; and that the "Nations & Regions" element of the BBC should be more granular and more powerful. Perhaps, I'd guess, a bit like the old ITV structure that relied on Granada TV for a large part of its weekday output; the same structure that gave a career to her step-father Ray Fitzwalter and her mother Louise Nandy. 

She wants more money spent on 'innovation', particularly stuff that delivers a media-literate youth audience. 

She's ready to drop 'political' appointments to the BBC Board, in return for more regional oomph; and expects worker representatives as well. 

Some big asks for a new system of government-guaranteed no-opt out funding. 

Fwire ?

Perhaps it was heat, or exhaustion, or something, but this overnight news headline from BBC Online seems to have escaped review by writer and/or curator.  Or AI ?

AI application

If you're stuck indoors with a fan and a laptop, you have until tonight to apply to be the new Director of News at the BBC. 

Your application has to be directed to headhunters Spencer Stuart. They were founded in Chicago in 1956;  In 2009, the Wall Street Journal described the firm as the U.S. government's main resource for finding replacement executives for companies bailed out during the recession.   Google's AI overview tells me:  "Spencer Stuart frequently collaborates with Google on industry research, marketing leadership, and organizational culture."  In 2019, Spencer Stuart helped Thomson Reuters find Steve Hasker as a new CEO. Last year, they helped Channel 4 light upon Priya Dogra as their new CEO. 

Yes, it's busted

And, as you'd expect at this level of operation, Matt Brittin's succinct view that the BBC Licence Fee is a busted flush was endorsed by Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy this morning on the Today programme; one might even think it was choreographed. All they've both got to do now is soften up the voting public, who will be whipped up in opposition to a TV Tax by the majority of this country's newspapers... 

Mr Brittin showed a strong mastery of stats in his performance at the Culture Select Committee, and should build on that - the number of pupils using Bitesize, the performance of BBC brands on YouTube, and, if they exist, some good numbers from Instagram and TikTok ought to pepper future performances.  He also clearly knows a bit about YouTube II, coming in a couple of years - that should be useful. As should a meaningful alliance with C4 - a huge catalogue of output on a shaky app. 

He also remains frank about improvements needed from BBC iPlayer.  How fast can Product deliver ?

Busted flush

Matt Brittin successfully moved up to 'stroke' at the BBC with his performance at the Culture Select, politely steering Culture Select Committee MPs away from 'a reformed licence fee' to some new model of universal household impost. The licence fee: "It is yesterday’s model. It is a busted flush."

In doing so, he's probably had to gamble that a new, per household payment won't work out at much more than it is now, and that he will have to reshape the BBC into a smaller suitcase to ensure it's onboard Andy Burnham's Easyjet UK future. 

So now the Treasury should take the lead from the DCMS in working out how money might flow from, say, a combination of council tax and/or utility bills (a broadband and smartphone levy has always been this blogger's favoured solution); Reeves can work on exemptions; and Nandy needs to concentrate on a a vaugely independent mechanism that sets the BBC's income, ideally over rolling five-year periods.  

Executive travel, twice

BBC response to a Freedom of Information enquriy

"The total amount spent on business or first-class travel for BBC Executive
Committee members, whose expenses are funded by the licence fee (BBC Public Service)
and do not include our commercial subsidiaries such as BBC Studios who are not covered
by the Freedom of Information Act, for the financial year 2024/25 is £5,271 (rounded to
the nearest pound). Please note that the costs relate to two occasions:

1. a business class flight and

2. a first-class railway journey.

In relation to the first-class railway journey, we would like to clarify that initially a
standard class ticket was purchased but due to train cancellations, and lack of availability
in standard class, a first-class ticket was then purchased. "