Leading Radio 4 on-demand show In Our Time is now recorded on screen for delivery on iPlayer. Wood panelling and books form the background. Host Misha Glenny has a short-sleeved t-shirt, and appears to be wearing shorts. He seems to read the introduction from autocue. In America, the video version is now available as part of the BBC Select subscription offering.
The first 7pm slot attracted 500k viewers. It boasted Neil Kinnock, Rory Stewart, Alva Ray of the New Statesman, and an extended interview with Kemi Badenoch. On YouTube, Newsnight is cut up into bitesize chunks under the banner BBC Politics, with added big capital letters. The Badenoch interview has so far achieved 19k views. Maybe it will build - Paxman v Russell Brand, from 12 years ago, has clocked up 13 million views.
Meanwhile Strictly launched with an average of 5.3m viewers, and a healthy 50% share (up from 42% in 2025)
2025 - 5.4m
2024 - 5.4m
2023 - 6.2m
2022 - 6.8m
2021 - 7.0m
2020 - 8.6m
The Newsnight team have invested a lot in promoting the 7pm Friday slot, including a three minute sizzle reel at the end of last night's show. But phrases like "Prime time" and "Peak time" are dangerous hostages to fortune, and people will be chasing the overnight figures for a quick judgement.
Channel 4 News has been the Royal Television Society's news programme of the year for the past three years. Yet it's coy about viewing figures. In the networks annual report, it talks about "an 8% linear growth in 2025", without hinting at a baseline. The same report baffles this reader with very big numbers for social media, without giving real confidence that the figures are better or worse than other similar size operations - make sense of this, if you can...
Digital triumphs aside, Mr Jackson, BBC1's coverage of this year's Last Night of the Proms drew in 2.2m (25.2% share), peaking with 2.8m. That's down on 2025's 2.9m (28.7%) and 3.5m peak.
BBC2's coverage of the first half of the concert averaged 930k viewers (10.2%). That's a tad down on 2025's 1m (9.7%)
BBC Corporate Affairs supremo Alice Macandrew is leaving, almost exactly on her four-year anniversary in post, with no news on her destination.
Alice, 54 (Mary Erskine School and MA History at Cambridge University, probably Downing College) is a member of the PR Hall of Fame. She had spells at Broadcast magazine, the FT Newsletter and Euromoney, before partnering at Finsbury PR. There she worked with James Murdoch, and eventually joined Newscorp. She departed in the aftermath of phone-hacking charges (Nick Davies said she had a half-hour shouting match with Rebekah Brooks), to re-emerge at Sky in 2012. Three years on, and she moved to Thomas Cook, only to leave after an 'horrific' time as the company failed. She came to the BBC from Primark.
Soon after joining, she was a player in the resolution of Gary Lineker's suspension for social media activities. She's tried to smooth paths to the UK Jewish and Palestinian-supporting communities.
In a Thomas Cook house mag of 2018 she shared a 'fun fact': "I am 100% Celt - 50% Scottish 50% Irish, no English blood in me, but I don't sound it until I drink. The more gin I drink, the more Scottish I become."
All those in BBC News facing an unwonted exit might brighten at the job ad for a Supervising Editor, Digital - Breaking News and Live, based in either Washington or Los Angeles.
But wait: "This is a local hire position and eligible candidates must be able to live and work in the US (US citizenship, Green Card or work authorisation). Previous applicants need not apply."
"At least 10 years experience in a daily digital news operation, with significant news editing experience and an in-depth knowledge of US and Canadian affairs"
"PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: $140,000 – $160,000"
Might one be mildly surprised that the BBC has suddenly found enough space in its yet-to-be-occupied Tea Factory in Digbeth for Birmingham City University to lease space to run courses in media, journalism, content creation, production and broadcast technology ?
The design was set with planning permission granted in March 2023, way after Covid. Occupancy was then expected in 2026. In December 2023, opening date was moved to 2027. Now this:
"Subject to final planning and landlord’s approvals, BCU will lease space within the Tea Factory and create state-of-the-art training facilities built to BBC specifications. These will include sector leading hi-tech studios, workshops, teaching rooms and breakout areas."
Is there something genetic in the ambition of the BBC's Nations & Regions, to build too big ? Large areas of Pacific Quay are empty; the Cardiff bus station-site for BBC Wales/Cymru is less penetrable. The BBC in Northern Ireland has had its transformation ambitions curtailed to a refurb, with the recent announcement of a studio/event space in the new Belfast Stories development, to come on stream in 2030.
All Perspectives, sole tv product GB News, reached 3,275,000 viewers in August, according to BARB. That's down from 3,597,000 in July, and down from 3,979,000 in August 2025.
The modern BBC is ... relentless. Do we really need another 'big' Saturday night quiz show ?
This is what's coming our way. The Spanish picked up the format, marketed by BBC Studios, a year ago, and have recorded but not shown a full series. "The Wisdom Of The Crowd", was renamed 'Los 200: Uno contra la masa'. The host is Carlos Sobera, actor, producer, presenter and former law lecturer.
I suppose most newsrooms in the UK, except perhaps BBC Verify, are using OSINT to identify where Harry and Meghan are staying, from their latest Instagram post. Or perhaps it didn't occur to Harry, a Sandurst-trained Captain in the Army, that he might be giving away his position....
