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. "

The money makers

 BBC Studios went to Cannes Lions.  Here's a flavour.  Make your own mind up.

Yankee Dollar

"ITV News and Sky News will remain distinct editorial voices, continuing to provide trusted journalism to audiences across the UK."

I'm not sure this assurance, from the Sky side of the ITV takeover, is a guarantee that they'll operate entirely separately. Equally, the assertion, from Sky CEO Dana (pronounced Day-na) Strong that ITV will remain a “deeply British” business is just an assertion. Sky will be part of the NBC Universal empire once the company is spun off from Comcast.   NBC Universal's CEO will be Michael J Cavanagh (BA Yale and |JD, Chicago) a J P Morgan Chase alumni. 

Where ?

Just to provide the always-important context, there will be a few readers familiar with the setting for BBC Explainer In Chief Ros Atkins' piece on the price of beer.  Ros is sitting opposite a corner of the Stag's Head W1 known as "The Banquette", which has comforted the posteriors of some of the greatest BBC editorial, production and technical thinkers of the past 50 years. 

Step forward, Brittin

Next Wednesday at 10am sees Matt Brittin, BBC DG, in front of the MPs of the Culture Select Committee. 

He has experience with the Public Accounts Committee; in 2013, he was hounded over the amount of tax Google pays in the UK; and in 2016, he famously couldn't be exact about his salary. 

Normally a first appearance with the Culture Select Committee is a fairly gentle probing; however this has the billing of being a full-on contribution of evidence to the MPs about Royal Charter Review, and, as with Andy Burnham, MPs will want clear answers of Mr Brittin's views on future funding, linear channels, BBC local radio and The World Tonight. 

News values

Would you rather have BBC News effort directed to these sort of stories - or perhaps you'd like a Midnight News bulletin on Radio 4 ?

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