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."

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 ?