Matt landing

It looks like it only the vetting hurdle to clear for Matt Brittin ahead of his announcement as next Director General of the BBC. 

Will it be a formal interview with a security team ?  Will it be harder than Mandelson's ?   Will they ask his last year's full salary at Google - he previously couldn't remember a figure in front of MPs ? Will they check his A Levels - did Geography or Rowing get him into Robinson College, Cambridge, to study Land Economy ?  Should they run the rule over his Facebook friends - Alan Rusbridger, Krishnan Guru-Murthy, balanced by Kamal Ahmed and Beverly Turner ?

Should he be forgiven for losing three Boat Races in a row ?  Particularly at a time when I liked to place a £1 double with that day's Everton result at the Ladbrokes on Highbury Corner ?

Easy to say

 I'm no Rubik's Cube expert, but have found 'solving' one side first doesn't help with the remaining five sides. 

Thus, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy on her plans for the BBC. "If the NHS is essential to the health of our people the BBC is essential to the health of our democracy.

"So while the terms, the structures and the funding for the BBC will continue to be negotiated every several years, we should seek to end the bizarre situation where if the Charter isn’t agreed in time, the BBC ceases to exist."

There's no clarity on how she'll achieve this. Perhaps burying A Grand Statement of Permanent Existence somewhere Mr and Mrs Tice can't sniff it out.  Even if they can't find it, the phrase 'to be negotiated every several years' isn't really the escape from a permanent argument about renewal that the BBC side had hoped for.... 

On the move ?

Copied from Linkedin, a photo of BBC Chief People Officer Uzair Qadeer and headhunters Korn Ferry CEO Kevin Cashman, catching up at Soho House last month.   Kevin to Uzair: "Someday I hope to be secure enough to wear glasses like you man!!"

Dismiss ?

The BBC's US lawyer in the matter of Trump v BBC, Charles D Tobin, has gone in hard ball with a raft of documents for the consideration of Florida judge Roy K Altman, saying "Because the Court lacks personal jurisdiction over Defendants – and the Complaint fails to plead valid claims – the Court should dismiss this case with prejudice".  "With prejudice" means no second go at claiming the same alleged defamation. 

The lack of personal jurisdiction, first.  Trump's lawyers aimed at multiple defendants - the British Broadcasting Corporation a.k.a BBC; BBC Studios Distribution Ltd; and BBC Studios Production Ltd. A statement from Martin Freeman COO of BBC Studios Production Ltd makes it clear they had nothing to do with the creation of the offending Panorama; a statement from Director of Digital Distribution Richard Cooper says there was no BBC channel offering access to the programme in  Florida. For the public service component, Director of News Content Richard Burgess explains that BBC offices in Coral Gables are not involved, being home largely to around 25 employees of a separate company, BBC News USA, running BBC Mundo, the Latin American language 'bit' of the World Service. 

The Trump charge claims the BBC filmed part of the Panorama documentary at Mar-A-Lago.  Executive Producer Leo Telling says those clips were licenced from other news organisations or picked up on the web. Mr Telling looks like being a key witness if it ever gets to trial... 

So now Trump's lawyers will have to produce evidence that a number of people in Florida actually saw the Panorama AND they were so influenced that it made them cut donations to The Donald and/or voted for someone else as a consequence.   Trump won Florida in 2024 with 6,110,125 votes, up from 5,668,731 in 2020. 

Cast list

BBC News, apparently short of money, deployed a small army to cover the Oscars in Los Angeles. 

I've seen or heard or read Culture Editor Katie Razzall, Entertainment Correspondent Colin Paterson, California-based reporter David Willis, LA Breaking News reporter Nardine Saad, Culture reporters Helen Bushby and Emma Saunders, US reporter Sakshi Venkatraman, Senior LA journalist Christal Hayes, Washington-based field reporter Cai Pigliucci, Washington 'Digital Fellow' Alex Foster, US reporters Ana Faguy and Laura Blasey, BBC Culture fashion critic Scarlett Harris, and LA reporter Regan Morris.  

Peak GB ?

All Perspectives, owners of GB News, reached 3,606,000 viewers across four screens in February, as measured by BARB. That's down from 3,878,000 in January,  3,963,000 in December,  4,138,000 in November, and 4,149,000 in October. A loss of half a million viewers over 5 months....

Articulation problem

The MPs of the Commons Public Accounts Committee are much less enthusiastic about the World Service than outgoing DG Tim Davie; in their latest report they suggest it's not obvious why the Government should pile more taxpayer funding into its future...  

"The BBC struggles to articulate how the World Service provides value for money to UK taxpayers and why it should therefore continue receiving government funding."

"The BBC World Service’s poor documentation means that the BBC cannot explain why it made key decisions and has hindered their ability to learn lessons going forwards."

"The BBC’s management of the World Service’s digital transformation had weaknesses which has

contributed to a fall in digital audiences of 11% over the period 2021–22 to 2024–25."

"The BBC’s approach to planning and implementing its World Service savings plans have not followed best practice. For example, the BBC failed to clearly document its rationale for key decisions made during

planning—such as which TV and Radio platforms to close—and did not set non-financial metrics to enable senior leadership to effectively track performance and understand the impact of its savings programmes on its audiences. "

"The BBC announced its move to a new international governance model in February 2025, but as of

January 2026 only one of six regional directors is permanently in post, so the benefits of clearer accountability and stronger audience trust are not yet secured." 

Cheers

Outgoing DG Tim Davie brought a 'sizzle' reel to the Royal Television Society for his farewell speech as a BBC employee. Since he got the job in 2020, the 'sizzle' reels have been pretty good, if necessarily focussed on tv.  And for that, Tim probably has to thank Charlotte Moore, in place as Director of Content since 2016 until last year.  Keeping good people in place is a DG's job.  Tim was less successful with Deborah Turness. 

In Tim's shaping of the organisation, BBC Design and Engineering was cut a different way in 2021, into Product and Technology. At the RTS he celebrated bringing them back together: "We have just established MediaTech, which brings together our world class technology, product and R&D teams right across the group. For the first time they’re one organisation."  Mmm.

For the record, the total average headcount (equivalent full time) of the BBC, public service and commercial, when Tim got the gig in 2020/21 was 22,219.   In the Annual Report for 2024/25, it was 21,773. 

Tim managed to get through the whole speech using 'jeopardy' only once. I think the marketing man within came to the surface with this 'vision', which I've not seen anywhere else before. "Our vision is simple: to be the only market-leading public service media organisation globally. In a club of one. Growing not declining. Our best days ahead of us."

More on the Tim balance sheet to come....

Tim sharing

One hopes Tim Davie's round of 'leaving' interviews goes beyond joining Marina Hyde and Richard Osman on their podcast The Rest Is Entertainment. Pre-departure Tim might have been a bit annoyed by the choice of an outlet that bolsters the economy of Gary Lineker, rather than one of the thousands produced for BBC Sounds. 

Does it suggest that the former marketing man is marketing himself, at 58, for one more big job ?  There's serious consolidation underway in media companies on both sides of the Atlantic, and Tim may well be networking rather than taking a round-the-world cruise over the next three months. Will he be able to burnish his CV with a quick knighthood ? The Government committee managing arts honours is currently without a chair, but features as members, Yolanda Brown (on Today again this morning - on a story generated by the BPI) Jo Twist, CEO, BPI and Lisa Opie, former BBC TV executive who managed to run a cafe in Hemel Hempstead on the side in her time with Auntie.  Will they brave the inevitable wrath of Danny Cohen ?

Meanwhile back at Broadcasting House, the stabilisers have been removed from the wheels of interim DG Rhodri Talfan Davies, allowed to chair this week's meeting of the BBC Executive Committee by himself.

Overlooked

We haven't done 'buildings' for a bit.  Developers have just revealed plans for a 70-storey tower in a cluster north of the Pier Head in Liverpool.  Could be a hotel/office block, or just a hotel. Designed by Simpson Haugh, of Clerkenwell/Manchester, it's the tallest in this visualisation by Infinite 3D...