Let's meet again

The chaotic end to 2025 required no less than two BBC Board meetings in December. It's hard to tell from the consistently opaque minutes which particular governance issue required meetings on the 11th and 18th December. Remember chair Samir Shah was in and out of Lisa Nandy's office, probably for sessions on the naughty step, with meetings on 1st, 3rd and 16th December. 

On 11th December the major items were reviewing Caroline Thomson and Richard Sambrook's changes to the Editorial Standard and Guidelines Committee's remit and procedures - it had signally failed to engage formally with the bombshell Michael Prescott/David Grossman dossier.  The Board asked for some re-drafting ahead of the 18th meeting. The 11th also signed off a large spending commitment on the production of Casualty. 

The big business on the 18th was money; a strategic decision to let BBC Studios spend more to make more )where have we heard that before ?) and a first-look budget for 2026/27. Proposed organisational changes clearly spooked some non-exectuives, who asked for a full zero-budgeting exercise to report back in March. One element lacking clarity - how much the BBC is prepared to spend on the World Service, a detail still missing from last week's annual plan. 

One little item: The Board noted an update from the Chair on succession planning for the DirectorGeneral.  This a matter of 39 days after Tim Davie's resignation. 

Say what ?

 

The Oxford English Dictionary offers six pronunciations of Iranian. The BBC seems to be sticking to the top left, apart, dare I say, from Jeremy Bowen, who is, frankly, a model of inconsistency, too often straying to the right hand side. Perhaps the Pronunciation Department will draw an isogloss around him. 

Creative thinking

He's done it before.  Tim Davie was appointed co-chair of the Creative Industries Council by Culture  Secretary Matt Hancock in June 2018; at the time he was CEO BBC Studios. He succeeded Nicola Mendelsohn. (Nicola Mendelsohn is now "Head of Global Business Group" at Met, based in New York).  

Tim stepped down in December 2021 (Nadine Dorries appointed his successor, Peter Bazalgette). 

When Lisa Nandy first appeared at Culture, Bazalgette's tenure was extended, and Baroness Vadera joined him as a 'directly-appointed' co-chair; there was talk of a major recruitment exercise to replace them in 2026. 

But this looks like another direct appointment, which, under Whitehall rules, should only last for eighteen months. One presumes that Nandy still rates Davie, despite her talk of 'a problem of leadership' at the BBC of last July. A working address in 44 Belgrave Square looks like a good perch for Tim to pick up a bundle of non-executive roles.... 

Question

Media studies GCSE 2026. Q16. There were fourteen formal meetings between Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and BBC Chairman Samir Shah in the last three months of 2025. 

In your opinion does this mean:

a) they get on well together and enjoy exchanging ideas ?

b) she doesn't trust him an inch, and wants regular deliveries of homework ?

You again

 A new record number of meetings between Culture Secretary and BBC Chair in the last three months of 2025. 

Matt and Sid

Matt Brittin (Hampton and Robinson College, Cambridge) likes to point out at least some working class connections, writing at the turn of the year:  "Sadly my dear Dad Sid, died this autumn. He grew up in a condemned corner shop between St Pancras and Euston, his world of technology was a wireless radio for BBC news and entertainment. "

Sid went to Holloway County Grammar School, off Camden Road, Islington.  A keen footballer, cricketer (63 for the 1st XI v Chobham), his street soccer skills were honed during the blitz, later having trials for Brentford, QPR and Chelsea, though National Service blocked his route to professional football.  In the 1950s he played for the old boys' team, the Old Camdenians. 

Sid made it to Senior Manager for Lloyds Bank in a 36-year career, starting in Harlesden in 1955, and travelling through Islington, Golders Green, Hendon Central, Covent Garden, Finsbury Square and Bromley. However the progress was at one stage marked by a breakdown as he found himself overwhelmed with 'targets'. The tale was told to Clive Anderson, in a 2009 Radio 4 documentary "What became of the bank manager ?" 

Sid took early retirement in 1991. He kept busy from his base in suburban Staines, playing bowls for Ashford, and writing features for the Thames Guardian, a quarterly magazine of 'topical and historical stories about England's greatest river.'

He was also a regular letter writer to The Telegraph, perhaps countering son Matt's support of The Guardian.  

January 2014

SIR – When I was working in a bank in the Eighties, a customer complained bitterly after our banking hall was redecorated.

It transpired that he had written his pin on the wall next to the cash machine and it had been covered up with paint. His view was that his number was no use to anyone so long as he had the card.

Sid Brittin

Staines upon Thames, Surrey

Platform ticket

 The second wave of John Birt's BBC revolution was the rush to digital; the first wave - 'production modernisation' had seen nearly 10,000 jobs shed, and producting support 'professionalised'.  Before that, the technology side of the BBC had an 'army' feel to it. Engineers were climbing transmitters for maintenance, floors were full of copper wiring, and concrete was the favoured building-material. 

At the start of the second wave, Birt visited the West Coast, saw the light, and started holding evening parties for digital 'movers and shakers' in the Council Chamber, where sushi and pizza was ordered and delivered in real time !   It seemed obvious from that point that the BBC should acquire some American talent to help drive through these changes.  Birt tried wooing Craig Fields, a founding director of Perot Systems and Network Solutions, an internet technology company - he turned down Director of Technology, agreed to come as a two-day-a-week adviser, but did not stay long. 

Towards the end of Birt's tenure, Mark Frost, with AOL in his cv, came over to kick start the wider BBC online operation. By that time, BBC News Online had quietly roared ahead without US influence, and, when Greg Dyke arrived, was given custody of BBC Sport Online as a reward. Frost left after a year. 

Under DG Mark Thompson, the BBC imported Erik Huggers from Microsoft (though he turned out to be Dutch). Among those who claim to be the key driver of iPlayer, Erik probably has a good case.  Then followed Ralph Rivera, with a pedigree in games at AOL. 

Now we have the man from Google arriving. Does he have a platforms strategy already in place ? And who will help him deliver it ? 

US domestic

 Whoever emerges as custodian of the BBC's news values, I'd like them to explain how 1,200 of directly comissioned words entitled "The Bachelorette's messy break-up with its unlikely star Taylor Frankie Paul" fits with any of the Public Purposes. It appeared this weekend; American news sites posed the question "Why is Taylor Frankie Paul trending ?", and pointed to an unedifying viral video of a domestic fracas. Is today's BBC so competitive for US clicks that we have to join in ?

Raring to go

Matt Brittin is already getting plenty of advice on what to do with the 3-D chess pieces of the existing BBC management structure, ahead of his formal arrival at Broadcasting House. Indulging in a Premier League analogy, does he come from Google like Nuno Espirito Santo, demanding jobs for at least five others on his coaching team, or does he travel light, like Jose Mourinho ?

The BBC conversations will have started a long time ago, and Brittin clearly made good use of the BAFTA coffee area and members' bar before shaping his presentation for the big interview.  A relieved Samir Shah and Caroline Thomson will have already debriefed him on the bits they did and didn't like.

There is little doubt that he should appoint a Deputy Director General, as a lightning conductor to absorb the thunderbolts of error and omission of news and programme-making before they end up as existential challenges to his own tenure. He also has a vacancy at the top of News.  At least one of these should go to a woman.

He might take time to consider the general state of 'transformation' much bruited at BH, where expensive consultants and deep HR thinkers have recently brought those working in broadcasting software and hardware back together again, to save money.  He will certainly want to build a better top table. 

There's a clear impression he wants to get going, and Interim DG Rhodri Talfan Davies may be left to one side, to shepherd the Annual Report to publication, while Matt gets his teeth into the good stuff.... 

99 and out

The CBS Radio news service started in 1927, a precursor to the whole network. The C came from late investor Columbia Records, giving a full title of  the Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System. A year later the record company pulled out, and William S Paley bought it - it became the Columbia Broadcasting System. It was 'home' to Edward R. Murrow's rooftop reports during the Nazi bombing of London during World War II. 

These days, CBS News Radio provides material to an estimated 700 stations across the USA and is known best for its top-of-the-hour news roundups. The service will end on May 22, the network said on Friday.