Doubling

I'm not sure who's advising Matt Brittin on pay negotiations (presumably never a big issue for him in eighteen years at Google), but it seems strange that the BBC's second offer in this year's pay round was double the first.  A move from 1% to 2%, still rejected by the unions, suggests the management side were playing hardball first time, and that Mr Brittin is heading for his first visit to ACAS. Perhaps he'll be able to remember his own salary when questioned... famously forgotten at Google when answering questions from MPs.

Extended

In Fort Lauderdale, Judge Kuntz has agreed with lawyers for both sides that Trump V BBC needs longer to sort out.  So the previous deadline to complete mediation moves from early November to early January 2027; and, if still going, both parties should be 'trial ready', by 6th April, rather than the previous 15th February. 

I suppose the BBC and its insurers can calculate the extended costs by a simple multiplication of the daily rate... 

Time for In Our Time

 Do we detect Matt Brittin kicking the traces over a bit of iPlayer/Sounds stubborness ?

This blog has noted the performance of In Our Time on Radio 4 as a catch-up/podcast since the BBC first started publishing Top Tens in November 2020.   When they also started highlighting programmes doing well with under-35s, there was Melvyn again. 

Now, In Our Time is to become a video-audio podcast from September 17th, available on BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds. It's an obvious move, but I'm guessing previously challenged by 'Whose budget pays ?'

One oddity, the video version won't be available outside the UK; you would have thought that BBC Studios would bite your hand off for it. 

People person sought

The BBC has finally posted an ad to find a replacement for Uzair Qadeer as "Chief People Officer"; he announced his departure for BT in July. The recruitment is being handled by Korn Ferry and contact should be made with Ellie Filler (left), clearly a product of nominative determinism. 

ARE YOU THE RIGHT CANDIDATE?
The BBC’s next CPO will be a transformational, Board credible executive, adept at navigating complex, high-scrutiny organisations either as the sitting CPO, or as a strong number two with sufficient Executive and Board level experience and ready for a step up.

Except, perhaps that Uzair Qadeer wasn't a full BBC Board member, and there's no guarantee of a place for his successor. 

Newsgathering

Another hit for the specialist weekend writers of BBC News Online: "Why more women carry the 'mental load' - and how couples can share it", currently standing at Number 3 in the BBC's own list of 'most read'. 

The first 'real' person cited is 'Mother of three Stacie Matthias'. From Linkedin (not the article) we learn that Stacie is a Social, Emotional, Mental Health Specialist at Cheadle Hulme School. 

Later we meet Sam Berry, billed as deputy head teacher, but also a 'content creator'.  From Linkedin, we learn that he's running a weekly newsletter called "Dads on Purpose".  From the States, the reporters talk to Zach Watson, "a married father of three and coach in the US on sharing the mental load", Yes, with a podcast and Youtube channel and a forthcoming book.  Wondering how they found Afua Williams, 40, a mother of two ?  Afua has recently launched a service called Afua's Home Reset, where, for £299, you get a 20-minute Discovery Call, a 90-minute Home Reset Zoom session, Your Home Reset PDF, made for you, and 4 weeks of message support... 

Seeing clearly

The BBC has finally caught up with management expenses and hospitality declarations from Quarter 1, 2025/26. 

Jonathan Munro, then merely Global Director of News, was, as you'd expect, travelling. A ticket from Heathrow to Islamabad via Doha came in at £6948.72. Heathrow/Warsaw return was £760.32.  Dhaka to Heathrow via Doha was priced at £3262.70. There were also claims for hotels in Bonn, Kuala Lumpar, Washington, Cardiff and London. 

Elsewhere, the then Director of Nations, Rhodri Talfan-Davies claimed £30 for an eye test and £60 for new glasses.  So did then Director of Wales, Rhuanedd Richards.  Let's hope the new specs helped with the six football matches she attended thanks to the Football Association of Wales. 

Omnichannel marketing

Talking about the capture of BBC management by marketing bollocks, I go away on holiday for a fortnight, and come back to find the Re-cuts of the Repurposed Raganathan Ad still running up to the 10 O'Clock News on BBC1. 

Someone will talk about value for money, but this cumbersome piece of work should be pushed to the archive fast.  It's 'over-messaging', with diluted impact now inducing customer fatigue; it looks back rather than forward, and there is no call to action. 

An agile BBC would make quicker promos, celebrating current sucesses - Small Prophets, Ann Droid, Murder 24/7. And stop continuity announcers from chanting  “This and everything across the BBC is made possible because we're funded by you. Thank you."  Particularly after episode 2,236 of Pointless.

Give us a clue (2)

A couple of small items from the BBC Board Minutes of April. 

"Directors discussed the relationship between network and local news. They emphasised the importance of accuracy in reporting the Nations, whilst also recognising improvements in integrating network and local resource to avoid duplication and better reflect local audiences. Directors also discussed the new  commissioning model."

A nod towards a continuing struggle for cash and control between the masters of the 6.30pm regional news teams, still cumulatively outperforming the 6.00pm national news bulletin, and the BBC News division. 

"The Board noted an update from the Chief Operating Officer including a status update on the East Bank project."

An update on the completion of the new BBC Music Studios in Stratford, unlikely to have included the words 'on time'. 

"The Board received an update on the legal action being brought by the President of the United States. It was agreed that any Board members planning to travel to the United States in future should request advice from the BBC’s legal team."

Careful, you may be kidnapped. 

Give us a clue

Not much to decode in the latest BBC Board minutes, from April - a meeting before Matt Brittin formally joined. The analysis of "where we are" as a broadcaster is clear, but there's no a jot on solutions... 

5.4 The Board considered the audience performance data for the quarter. It had been the best quarter of the year for Audience Scorecard performance with 14 of the 30 metrics green. Strong content across all genres was the key driver, along with a high level of audience engagement with News stories. In January-March, universality remained strong; depth metrics performed better and global reach was well ahead of its target,
driven by international news coverage. Overall online reach and accounts were at record  levels with seven out of 10 people using online services; this increase had been driven by the Winter Olympics digital offering and a strong iPlayer performance.

5.5 However, overall audience performance had not been replicated among young adults. Directors discussed the fragmenting youth audience and the challenges of attracting young people to the BBC, particularly given their greater preference for short-form content. Directors agreed that a briefing on how the brand power metric was comprised would be useful. 

...and there we have some of the problem. "Brand power metric" shows the current crop of BBC executives and their minders have been captured by commercial marketing blah-blah. At least, the non-executives were prepared to admit they didn't understand it.  Oh, for a BBC powered by the ideas, energy, horizon-scanning and risk-taking of the old school of public service broadcasting impresarios. 

So now we move into one of those embarassing periods for the BBC, where they follow, rather than lead. Think the creation of Radio 1, the sneaky arrival of Breakfast TV, the stripping of quiz shows and magazine programmes across daytime. Now, a helter-skelter race is on to hire Tik-Tokkers, Instagrammers and YouTubers, all dressed up in BBC 'commissioning processes', without any serious clue of where this sort of activity sits in public-service broadcasting, or, indeed, whether or not it deserves licence-fee funding. 

Up and at 'em

For all the acquired US expertise of BBC News Online, I think they mean 'Steinem'.....