Less is more

Here's one cultural change I'd like from new BBC Director General Matt Brittin. Ease off on the marketing-by-numbers.  Nearly every BBC1 junction features one 'branding' piece, one generic iPlayer 'awareness' piece and an old fashioned 'trail'.  The messaging is mixed; we proudly make programmes around the UK; we're very grateful to those of you who pay the licence fee; we are the 'home' of .... (fill in as necessary). Government information films might be less repetitive.  Add to this, trails masquerading as news on the 6.00pm bulletin, and The One Show, often 75% trails, at least half for BBC product. 

The emerging truth is that viewers are finding their own way to good content through the recommendations of family, friends and work colleagues, in the way we used to discuss books to read and films to see. The first episode of "Small Prophets", over the first seven days in mid-February, reached 4.4m viewers; it has added 2.2m viewers over the following three weeks.  "The Other Bennet Sister" started off at 4.7m over its first seven days.  I'll predict it'll add 2m over three weeks. 

Tall boy

Incoming BBC Director General Matt Brittin was spotted in the Temple of Doom main newsroom on the lower ground floor of Broadcasting House. 

I say 'spotted'; his 1.9m height was surrounded at its base by a rolling maul of News' 'Senior Leaders'....

All change

Students of how transformation happens at the BBC will have already discovered from declared expenses that COO Leigh Tavaziva, Chief Product Officer Storm Fagan and Peter O'Kane, now departed Chief Technology Officer, travelled to Seattle and Los Angeles business class in March last year. 

Deduction

The 1978 version of "Death On The Nile", with Peter Ustinov as Poirot, was out again on BBC2 this weekend (and thus for another month on iPlayer).  It would interesting to know it's cumulative BBC audience over 16 appearances. 

 

Ear ear

Radio futurologist James Cridland has just updated his very useful post about how to listen to BBC Radio abroad - network stations and local.  Live, not catch-up, available from a webpage that seems to have taken nine months to construct. 

Selling mugs

Yet another job opportunity with BBC Studios in New York, salary unspecified. You could be Director of Retail Development. It's an omnishambles, Brittin. 

The Director, Retail Development role will execute omnichannel retail development and marketing strategies to maximize brand presence and retailer support.  

The primary focus will be to expand and manage BBC Studios brands’ retail placement across mid-tier, value, off price, grocery, drug and new business channels in the US and Canada. Opportunity to support eCommerce, as well. 

Nomination time

Minutes of the BBC Board's Nominations Committee from 20th January reveal they - Samir Shah, Damon Buffini, Muriel Gray, and Caroline Thomson - chose Rhodri Talfan Davies as "the outstanding candidate" to be interim DG. 

They also decided, rather oddly, to appoint Chris Jones, an existing non-executive director to the Editorial Standards and Guidelines Committee. A wise man, no doubt, but an accountant. 

Then Dom Loehnis and Helen Crowley of headhunters Egon Zehnder joined the meeting for a discussion of the 'longlist' of potential candidates to replace Tim Davie.  Come on, guys, 'long' ? 

Mattpod

I'm grateful to Podnews for pointing me to the fact that incoming BBC DG Matt Brittin has caught podcasting, at least as a holiday job. 

Mr Brittin is paired with Hayaatun Sillem, who spent 20 years with the Royal Academy of Engineering, the last eight as CEO. The theme is leadership, and the title of the series is What We Don't Know. Guests include Andy Haldane, Chancellor of Sheffield University; Natasha Frangos of media accountants HaysMac; Hetti Barkworth-Nanton CBE CEO of Ploughshare Innonvations, formerly of Vodafone; former BP boss John Browne; Paul van Zyl of The Conduit; Navjot Sawhney, founder of The Washing Machine Project; all produced by Boxlight, the podcast brainchild of Jimmy McLoughlin. Watch out for appearances as BBC Neds....

The first episode is all about Matt. Not much new, though the BBC can expect some much needed prioritisation and 'velocity'. 

En pointe

Expect poise from the new editor of Today on Radio 4, Rebecca Keating. 

Rebecca (MacGregor State High School, Brisbane and Queensland University of Technology) was a young member of Ballet Theatre Queensland, playing The Snow Queen in The Nutcracker, and The Fairy (below) in 1996 and 1997. 

She started in journalism with ABC Online (her photos of parliamentary buildings are still credited online) and came to the UK in 2006, joining the BBC News channel. Then followed an number of roles at Westminster, before she joined R4 News and Current Affairs, first with the World At One team, then Today, and, up until now, World At One where she's been holding Sarah Montague's hand.  

In 2013, she married Nicholas Watt, then still Chief Political Correspondent at the Guardian. He moved to Newsnight in 2016. 

. 

Indeed Bernard. Great hair cutting by @RebeccaKeating using new hair clippers and scissors. Full family production line: I was followed by Theo (4) and Lily (21 months) https://t.co/J0ASv74YIB

— Nicholas Watt (@nicholaswatt) May 4, 2020

Bit by bit

Says the BBC yesterday: "We can confirm the BBC was made aware in 2017 of the existence of an ongoing police investigation, which was subsequently closed in 2019 with no arrest or charge being made.

"We are doing more work to understand the details of what was known by the BBC at this time."

Operation Winter Key's remit was "to investigate allegations of non-recent child sexual abuse, where the alleged abuse was committed before 2012", firstly when the alleged abusers were "people of prominence in public life". Some 80 officers developed 222 cases, based in temporary offices near the Stratford Docklands Light Railway Station.  The team had learned lessons from Operation Midland, the bungled Met investigation into the fantasy claims of Carl Beech. An inspection of Winter Key in 2019 said "The Winter Key cases all seemed to have been thoroughly investigated, and we didn’t find anything to indicate that the team had made poor decisions". 

It went on to praise Winter Key's discretion: "For example, wherever possible, they prefer to take a
discreet approach when dealing with high-profile suspects for non-recent offences. This often involves a process known as voluntary attendance, which means that the suspect agrees to attend police premises for interview. Interviews can also be conducted elsewhere (for example, at a solicitor’s office)."

Winter Key may have closed down in 2019, but the Met seems to have a better handle on its records than the BBC: 'We have been in contact with the man's employer on several occasions, between the start of our investigation in 2017 and the present day. It would not be appropriate to share the specific nature of these discussions.'

BBC News tells us that the director general at the time of the investigation, Tony Hall, did not know about the allegations. Who did ?  And did they know Winter Key was about child sexual abuse ?

An added complication: Hampshire Police said the sexual offences allegations were first reported by a third party in 2016, and that the force logged the details and passed on information to the Met for investigation.  Will that third party complainant reveal themselves to the press this weekend ?