Information glut - 2

Mark Byford did not go alone to the World Cup.  Three others had tickets provided by FIFA, according to this FoI answer...

• Dominic Coles, Chief Operating Officer, Journalism
• Barbara Slater, Head of Sport
• Richard Deverell, Chief Operating Officer, BBC North

By way of background, we are happy to volunteer that Mark travelled to South Africa in his capacity as the Chair of the BBC World Cup Steering Group. FIFA issued an invitation to the BBC to attend the tournament, and the Director General and Director, BBC North (BBC Sport is now part of this Division) asked Mark Byford to represent the BBC during the Final weekend. Dominic Coles was accompanying Mark Byford and during their trip both visited production teams, news partners, South African officials including the government minister of communications, FIFA representatives and the BBC News Bureaux in Johannesburg and Nairobi. Dominic is FIFA’s main contact having negotiated for the BBC the rights deals covering the event.

Barbara Slater has overall responsibility for the production including setting the level of investment, scheduling, talent, production plan and business continuity. She was in South Africa to inspect and ensure the effectiveness of the operation, meet right holders, talent and key partners and understand the configuration of the host operation in relation to future events.

Richard Deverell is operationally responsible for BBC Sport and Radio 5 Live and the multi-platform coverage of major sporting events they cover across the world. As the new technology at BBC North will play a key role in the future delivery of sports content, Richard accompanied Barbara in order to better understand the challenges and opportunities faced by teams in the field covering a major sporting event like the World Cup - the biggest global event before the 2012 Olympics. As well as helping identify and learn about some opportunities around delivery operations, Richard met with some of the partner organisations with whom BBC Sport work.