Monday, March 31, 2014

Esecutiva

Former BBC COO Caroline Thomson, "always at the end of an iPad", has managed to maintain a connection with Italian state broadcaster RAI, as well as her current mega-portfolio of UK appointments.
















She was a panellist earlier this month at a RAI conference on women in Rome, and still seems to be on the Prix Italia advisory board.


Flashing blades

And so, au revoir to The Musketeers on BBC1 - with the tenth episode of the first series returning 3.98 million viewers in the overnights. Down from 7.4m for the opener.

Recommissioned. But will it hold on to a Sunday slot for Series Two ?

Sunday, March 30, 2014

Clang

Lord Hall's Arts Offensive is the victim of some friendly fire in The Observer. Catherine Bennett, partner of the totemic Today presenter, John Humphrys, lays into the strategy pretty comprehensively, ending with a quote from W. B. Yeats' poem, The Second Coming - "the blood-dimmed tide is [most definitely] loosed."

It's a poem that's inspired Star Trek stories, Woody Allen, Joni Mitchell, and an episode of The Sopranos.

Catharine cites the planned return of The Clangers to BBC tv in 2015 as a further sign of a broadcasting apocalypse.

Missing person

After teetering on the edge of my seat in wild expectation all last week, I've been told to calm down - there may not be news of a new BBC HR Director until after Easter. Trying to make something out of nothing, I can only speculate that this means negotiations with one (or two ?) outsiders are continuing.

Salary may be an issue. Lucy Adams left, as she started, on a package of £332,900. Reed UK (a supplier of contract staff to the BBC) says the current average UK salary for an HR Director is £90k.

And from an FOI response this week we learn that, as at 28 February 2014, the average full-time equivalent salary of a grade 8 employee within BBC People was £43,081. This figure includes London Weighting where applicable.  Taking London Weighting away, Ms Adams deal, four grades above, was nine times that average.

Powerful

It may not be true impartiality, but balance can be important in journalistic arguments. Thus, for those with a jaded view of Alan Yentob, I've discovered a blog post about his performance this week at a film festival in Montreal.

Our blogger many not have English/American as his first language, but has plenty of (occasionally mistaken) enthusiasm.

It's not often one comes face to face with a master of a film genre and head of "Creative" of the iconic BBC. For two hours the FIFA audience was mesmerized by Alan Yentob's tales of 20th century icons from Mel Brooks to David Bowie, Laurie Anderson to Orson Welles. Today Yentob holds one of the strongest positions in television. He is the controller of BBC 1 and BBC 2 therefore the most powerful programme controller in the UK and arguably in the world, being that the BBC is well THE BBC.

An unassuming man with no pretention
[sic] ........ Well, I'll leave to read on if you wish.

Saturday, March 29, 2014

Over

Shamrock twirler

Lord Patten, in his last full year as BBC Chairman, seems to have got his after-dinner speaking mojo back on. Last night, he was in Dublin, reports the Irish Times, for a chow-down of business leaders sponsored by PriceWaterhouseCooper.

And he revealed links that should secure further bookings: the paper reports that, on his father’s side Patten’s forebears left Ireland for Lancashire during the mid-19th century. And on his own father’s death, his mother married the family GP, a McCarthy from Mayo. Lord Christy O'Patten, eh ?

Friday, March 28, 2014

At Ten

A little Friday fun.

20

Here's a little narrow take on the first day of Five Live - a success because of many more people than can be mentioned here.

The suits were trickling in from 0430. I was trying to bash out a newspaper review, which required complicated application of highlighter pens, otherwise it would crash and burn. It often did, but it was fun. There was a quiet message - Jane Garvey's cab had failed to turn up, so it might be a bit touch and go. We concealed this from the suits. We kept them out of the studio corridors, one floor down from the production desks, and only BBC snapper Geoff Overs and a few trusties were peering through the windows at the very start,
with Jane Garvey, Adrian Chiles doing "the business" and Marcus Buckland on sport. Morning Reports was put together by Phil Longman's news team. Philip Eden did weather, and Jo Anne Sale travel.






Overnight, Mark Sandell had assembled the first Breakfast programme - our lead was US tornadoes. The indefatigable Simon Calder was lost in East Anglia on a live OB that never worked.

Jane is one of the funniest and sharpest people you'll meet. She'd managed to convey a bit of that to the Radio Times.









We had less success in getting a cheerful picture of Peter Allen - brought to Five Live at the suggestion of Mike Lewis, Peter put a spring in all our strides from his first pilot.









This picture, from Peter doing Breakfast with Rachel Burden only this week, is much more typical, and remains a tribute to his dentist, 20 years on.





The best bit of the day for me was the Evening Standard's take on the morning output - it sounded as if it had always been there.

Peter and Jane are back together on Drive today at 4pm. There's some sort of nostalgia fest at 12.

I missed both a London and Manchester party this week (London for a woeful Arsenal v Swansea). You can tell, however, from various Facebook accounts, that early Five Live was something we all thought made sense (that doesn't half help), as well as a place of genuine laughter, laced with inevitable mickey-taking, creating friendships that have very happily endured.

Gelato

There may be a continuing cull of senior managers at the BBC, no bonuses, and an ending of perks - but there's no longer (for some) a freeze on salaries.

In the latest online updates, many salaries were "adjusted" in August and November 2013; and at least two in February (presumably when the Executive was mulling over closing BBC3 as a linear channel). Mark Freeland, Head of Comedy, saw his package go up from £220,400 to £234,800; Sarah Jones, Group Legal Council rose from £212,800 to £227,800.

Some others have been on the same deal since 2009, including Ken MacQuarrie, running Scotland, and David Jordan at Editorial Policy. Alan Yentob's been on the same salary deal since 2008, though we are not privy to his presenter and pension income.

Of course, there are those who can probably bear a freeze. Peter Salmon, Director North, has been on £387,900 since 2009 - and, by my calculations (apart from "talent") is the third most highly-paid member of staff.

Thursday, March 27, 2014

Expenses

The latest BBC quarterly expenses figures are out.

My highlights: King of the Minicab Bal Samra rocked up £1337.62 over three months. I've seen deals where you could lease a BMW 330d automatic for £855 over three months, leaving you some headroom for fuel and insurance.

BBC Films' Christine Langan managed to spend £3895 on a return flight to Toronto; boss Alan Yentob was much more circumspect with planes, but spent £174 on entertainment associated with The Space; £46.69 on The Arts, and £92.25 on Hay.

Director of Strategy and Digital James Purnell managed a trip to LA for something over £2k, and rejected the Hollywood Standard boutique hotel for The Elan boutique hotel. Director of Future Media Ralph Rivera's return trip to LA at around the same time came in at closer to £3k; he was in The Elan already.

Director of BBC North managed a June trip to LA and San Francisco, staying at the Mondrian, amongst others, but the only flight claimed is from San Jose to LA.  He also needed to buy chargers, at £50.

TV drama chief Ben Stephenson also made it to LA, in September - £2412.45 return.

Danny Cohen spent £40 on flowers for someone, which he thought worth claiming.

No names

It pays to be a senior manager in BBC Television. Auntie has quietly updated figures for senior managers' pay by division in the past month.

Television has 89 bosses (beyond those who have both their names and salaries disclosed), sharing £12.7m a year - an average of £142k.

BBC North follows in second place, with 18 managers sharing £2.5m - average £138k. Next Anne Bulford's Finance and Business - 68 managers, £9.3m, average £137k. Then comes James Purnell's Strategy and Digital - 41 managers with a pot of £5.5m, average £134k, including one person above £150k. The HR department has 25 execs on a total of £3.3m, with an average of £132k.

Back to output, and there are 25 managers at Radio, sharing £3.2m, average £128k. They do boast one unnamed manager on a package above the magic £150k.

Data for BBC Nations and Regions hasn't yet appeared. So bringing up the rear is the News Group. Plenty of senior manager jobs there - 106, sharing £10.4m, making an average of £98k, with one on a package above £150k.

Sound woman

Congratulations to Louisa Compton, the first female Editor of Newsbeat in its 41-year-history.

Louisa helped BBC Three Counties to a Sony Award as station of the year in 2005, as well as picking up an "interactive" gold for her breakfast programme. Thence to Five Live, becoming Editor Daytime in 2009, with responsibility for Victoria Derbyshire, Sheila Fogarty and Richard Bacon on weekdays, as well as Saturday Edition. Energy, ideas and persistance.

Officer class

The BBC has a new Director of Finance. He's Ian Haythornthwaite, currently billed as CFO BBC North and Future Media.

In the new, meaner, tighter, McKinsey structure, Ian reports to Anne Bulford, whose post was initially stated as created to combine COO and CFO roles, following the departures of Caroline Thomson and Zarin Patel.  His new job, advertised as CFO, has now been renamed Director of Finance. But undoubtedly there will still be interest in where Mr H's new package is pitched - on a scale between his current £171k, Zarin Patel's old £337k and Anne Bulford's £395k.

There will also be some interest in where Ian will be based. Home is Preston, and his train, hotel and car parking expenses seem to have grown as he has acquired new responsibilities.

Twonked

And, the morning after W1A demonstrates the risks of announcing things on Twitter, the BBC reveals, on Twitter, that this weekend sees the end of The Review Show, a tv strand that has existed in various guises since 1994. Funny it wasn't mentioned at the Big Arts Boost news conference, eh ?






Spread out

Eventually, Godric, cascades of initiatives lead to hack fatigue. At the BBC in Birmingham, Tommy Nagra, head of business development, is trying to reassure the second city that things are on the move.

This week, Director of Strategy and Digital James Purnell announced the creation of a Guerilla Group

From later this year, a team of storytellers and engineers in Birmingham will begin to work across the BBC with a focus on engaging younger, more diverse audiences, and will be fully up and running from 2015. The group will have the creative freedom to produce experimental new forms of content for programmes and services, using the technology and approaches of the future.

You'll note - no pounds signs or staff numbers offered. Yet presumably they're paying rent on office/studio space at the Fazeley Studios in Digbeth. And the move hardly fills up the already-rented Mailbox.

Explains Tommy, to the Birmingham Post today, "It is an experiment, but there is a three-year commitment. We want it not to feel very BBC as we know it, which is why it is not in the Mailbox, so it is released from the corporate shackles. That is quite exciting and risky, but if we get it right could be powerful and give the Birmingham digital offer a distinctive flavour.”

 “We want the Guerrilla Group to be distinctive and unique. You can get drawn into ‘corporateness’ in the BBC, and we don’t want that to happen.”

Insidious stuff, 'corporateness'. I worry that a variant may have already stretched to Digbeth.

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Follow the money

Just to warm you up for W1A, Jonty Claypole, the BBC's new Director of Arts, has revealed that the Big Boost for tv arts this year is £2.75 million (and he's not a commissioner). I struggle with maths, but think this represents a swing of 0.07% of the annual £3.6 billion licence fee income. Here's Jonty on R4's Media Show, being interviewed by Steve Hewlett - the whole discussion, at around a quarter of an hour, with Gillian Reynolds and Peter Bazalgette, is well worth an ear.


Missing ingredient

I was wrong - there was added Yentob.
















Al conducted an on-stage chat with actress Gemma Arterton - Twitter last spotted them at a Prince concert in Shepherds Bush.

Wiser heads have pointed me to previous BBC Arts Boosts. I found one from 2006, when Alan Yentob and Hanif Kureishi launched The Fifty, with The Royal Court Theatre. 50 nominated writers got £1,000 and coaching. Alan Yentob was on the board of the Royal Court until 2002. Yesterday the Royal Court's Artistic Director Vicky Featherstone was announced as a BBC "creative leader".

I found another from 2009 in which DG Mark Thompson announced the creation of a "pan-BBC Arts Board".

"The aim of the board is to join up and maximise the programming that the BBC delivers in the arts and music space through better planning, creativity and collaboration across the whole of the BBC's arts family. This will include regular input from external experts and stakeholders as needed".

Television arts commissioner Mark Bell (Glenalmond College and Birmingham) was also anointed as Arts Co-ordinator of the BBC "with a role to co-ordinate and maximise the BBC's arts output across TV, radio and online". Presumably that job now goes to Jonty Claypole, and Mark can return to commissioning Imagine and The Culture Show.

In 2012 BBC Arts Editor (another part of the Thommo initiative) Will Gompertz (previous employer Nicholas Serota at the Tate, now appointed to head "a group of creative leaders who will act as a sounding board across the BBC") joined Richard Bacon on 5Live to discuss his job.

"I also get to sit on something called the BBC's Arts Board, which is hysterical. It's like being on an episode of Twenty Twelve, when people like Alan Yentob and all the rest of them come in. We talk about the BBC's arts strategy. And there isn't one, it transpires. It is great fun to talk about it."

The economics of multi-platform

That cheeky monkey Mark Thompson is back in London today, using an FT conference to help with the launch of a new subscription app from the New York Times. NYT Now, produced for smartphones by ten journalists, will offer a selection of the newspaper's top stories plus a morning and evening briefing, with no ads other than "native" i.e. sponsored pieces, for $2 a week, $104 a year.

At today's exchange rate, that's £62.87. Just over two-fifths of the BBC annual licence fee.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

Monstering the Arts

Plenty of width in Lord Hall's re-commitment to The Arts.

And a mixture of new and familiar faces.

Jonty Claypole has been appointed Director of Arts. His current BBC biog reads: Jonty Claypole joined BBC Arts in 2003 after a string of attempted careers, such as a musician, screenwriter, comedian, cameraman and chauffeur - all of which, particularly the chauffeur part, provided him with the necessary skills for production.  I expect it'll be beefed up shortly. Jonty is son of former BBC Radio News Intake boss Stephen Claypole.

Bob Shennan, Controller of Radio 2, 6Music and The Asian Network, (Lancaster Royal Grammar and Corpus Christi College, Cambridge) builds on his passion for country music, musicals and Britpop, to become Director of Music. Funny, only yesterday Controller Radio 3 and Proms Roger Wright announced his departure...

Alex Poots ('studied for a BSc in music at City University, London') and Manchester International Festival will become a creative partner with BBC Arts – encouraging and supporting new commissions, and new collaborations

Nicholas Serota, (Haberdashers' Aske's and Christ's, Cambridge) from The Tate, has been appointed to lead a group of creative leaders who will act as a sounding board across the BBC

Vicky Featherstone ('privately educated' and Manchester University)  from the Royal Court, will join the group of creative leaders. She will continue to work closely with Kate Rowland and the BBC Writersroom, nurturing and championing new writers across radio, TV and online.

Nicholas Hytner (Manchester Grammar and Trinity Hall Cambridge), formerly of the National Theatre, has been appointed to the BBC Executive Board.

Struggling a little still on the diversity front - and apparently all lacking added Yentob.

Short notice

BBC3 Controller Zai Bennett was on a BAFTA TV Question Time panel last night. Host Steve Hewlett asked him about his reaction to the plans to move his channel from linear to online only, and cut its budget by two thirds...



The "Save BBC3" petition now stands at 210,000 signatures, and the BBC has had 746 letters of complaint.

Golden oldies

In this week of Five Live 20th birthday celebrations, here's the original "up to the hour" jingle from 1994, part of a huge package created by Allan Coates (of late-ish era The Hollies, from 1981 to 2004) and Kim Goody (former cast member of ITV Saturday morning show No 73, alongside Sandi Toksvig).


Mike Lewis, Head of Sport, lighted upon Allan and Kim working as The Voice and Music Company, I remember the day the first tapes arrived, with various editors and Controller Jenny Abramsky assembling in Studio 1A, and ruminating on where to add the ident. Jenny, trained as a Studio Manager, felt a music edit was required, and razor blades flashed. I suspect she still might think her version was the one we used.

If you played the up to the hour jingle at 59.06 on the clock, it ended exactly at the top of the hour. We never used pips, but some programmes prided themselves on hitting the clock exactly. Whereas the drive time show, launched as John Inverdale Nationwide, was a programme you really couldn't set your watch to...

Allan and Kim went on to do launch stings for News 24, packages for Sky, At The Races and many more. They're still in business, now as Soho Square Studios.


















In rooting around the web for stuff from the launch, I found this picture of a car sticker. Simon Calder has written about the difficulty various add agencies had in finding an opening theme; the first wave of posters featured "Follow Mike", with the conceit that "Mike", a microphone, would take you to the heart of news and sport, on the end of a wiggly wire. It didn't last long...


Monday, March 24, 2014

Heavies


Foreigners

A hour of pulling teeth at the Foreign Affairs Select Committee this afternoon, as they interviewed BBC Trustee Lord Williams of Baglan and Director of News James Harding about the future of the World Service, as it sets off on its new voyage, sails filled with licence fees.

Lord Williams maybe shouldn't have been out on his own, musing plaintively about his personal concerns for those jailed and fined for non-payment of licence fees - and then appearing to suggest that the World Service in English is not available in the UK. Read this, my Lord.

In the UK, BBC World Service radio in English is available on DAB, online, mobile and on all digital TV platforms.

The channel numbers for the different digital TV platform are as follows:
Freeview 710
Freesat 711 
Sky  0115 
Virgin Media 906 

This is in addition to overnight transmissions of BBC World Service on Radio 4 frequencies.

James Harding committed the BBC to annual funding of the World Service of £245m plus "investment to innovate" until the next Charter, but didn't know when the budget for 2015/16 would be announced, while Lord Williams sat there bemused.  Ming Campbell asked what might be done to preserve the values and expertise of the World Service; Harding's turn to stumble for an answer.

The session end with a mild kicking for BBC News and World Service for failing to follow up the Committee's report on extremism in north and west Africa, other than online. James Harding said Friday was a busy news day, when he should have said it's a story that won't go away. 

The Wright man

It's uncomfortable to lose your key classical music executive the day before you announce more commitments to "The Arts"; unfortunate timing for the news of Roger Wright's decision to move on from Radio 3 and The Proms.

He's undoubtedly been a Good Thing for both jobs, despite the noises off from Friends of Radio 3. He took over Radio 3 in November 1998. His first quarterly audience figures showed a reach of 2.2m and a 1.4% share of the available audience; Classic FM's figures at the same time were 6.0m and a share of 4.3%. In the most recent quarter, Radio 3 returned as close as dammit to 2.0m and a share of 1.1%; Classic FM was down  to 5.6m and 3.5% share.

At the Proms, which he ran from the 2008 season, he's produced 453 concerts so far, and will have another 75 or so under his belt by the time his Last Night comes around in September. Average attendance for the main evening concerts in the last three series have run at 94%, 93% and 93%.

Over his tenure, the BBC has maintained the same number of orchestras; how long will that hold ?

Roger's home is north of Bedford (in a house that saw Glenn Miller's last ever private performance in this country), and he's famously used London hotels during the eight-week Prom seasons; from mid-September, the work journey is up from 60 miles to 100, to reach Aldeburgh, where he will be the new Chief Executive of Aldeburgh Music.

Sleep-walking

A generally good and positive interview with current (Radio) Five Live Controller, Jonathan Wall is featured in today's Guardian (from the pen of regular-Telegraph writer, Neil Midgley) as we head to the network's 20th Birthday.

However, I hope this remark, on possible cuts, is shroud-waving, and not serious: "We might have to play tapes overnight between 1am and 5am, instead of live news." By tapes, I think he means previously digitally-recorded items, i.e. repeats.

One of the greatest examples of creativity in the BBC over the past 20 years is how the Up All Night team have maintained engaging, distinctive and informative live broadcasting for four hours a night, year round, on an ever-diminishing budget.  If we're talking about national treasures, presenter Rhod Sharp is one, and Dotun Adebayo might, one day, become one. It's good stuff, and when something happens - Diana's death, a tsunami and more - it leads the way in overnight news coverage, against older, more established outlets. It sustains local radio and Radio Scotland and Ulster overnight. Take it away, and you are no longer a 24 hour news and sport network. Lay off now.

Scrambled egg

As the BBC awaits news of a new HR Director and Chief Financial Officer, here's a-so-far-unheralded appointment to another job creation. In what seems an increasingly militaristic take on titles, The Operations Wing of Anne Bulford's Finance and Business Division now has a "Chief of Staff".

The role (I can find no trace of an advert) has gone to Brij Sharma, a philosopy graduate from Leeds, who has risen through various technology roles at the BBC to, most recently, the post of Senior Strategy Adviser to the BBC Trust. Looking forward to seeing him in uniform....

Sunday, March 23, 2014

Brain dump

Here's an FOI factoid for you, about BBC online live streaming and catch-up of audio and video.

In 2013, 466 petabytes of data was transferred for live and on demand streaming media (both audio and video) to all devices across BBC Online.

We need some context (see - BBC trained !). According to futurist Raymond Kurzweil, the capacity of a human being's functional memory is estimated to be 1.25 terabytes. This means the memories of 800 human beings fit into one petabyte. So BBC Online delivered 372,800 brainfuls of data in 2013. Well done.

Making more cuts

Lord Patten in Hong Kong (again), preparing for a post-BBC-chair role, in which he replaces Claudia Winkleman as host of the Great British Sewing Bee. Or something.
















Back in London this week for the March meeting of the BBC Trust, which might just give us the missing annexe on alternative finance proposals for funding the World Service, with days to go before implementation. We'll let you know.

Return on investment

Could the way Sky works provide a solution to updating the licence fee for a world of IP delivery ?  In DG Lord Hall's speech to the Oxford Media Convention last month, he said "Our view is that there is room for modernisation so that the fee applies to the consumption of BBC TV programmes, whether live on BBC One or on-demand via BBC iPlayer."

Sky subscribers have to use their account number to get the smartphone and tablet apps that give access to Sky satellite content "on the go".  I'm not clear whether this number can be applied to unlimited machines; you could imagine extended families creating quite a demand via a single subscription. According to Ofcom figures from last August, the average household now owns more than three types of internet-enabled device, with one in five owning six or more. I'd say that was already way out of date.

But, if sensible controls could be made to work, a licence fee tied to households would still have some traction. The alternative - a licence per device - seems unthinkable.

The trick now for the BBC is to use the 12 months of thinking about decriminalisation (for non-payment of licence fees) to deliver some concept of a BBC household account, that comes with a basic web interface piece of kit included in the fee. Most politicians know that there's still tons of money to be saved in public services by shifting to online interaction with users - in health, tax, education and much more.  It may also be worth ruminating on a future world of secure online voting that might come in the next fifty years - could a BBC household account provide the mechanics ?

Just to be clear - a BBC funded by optional subscription turns it into a commercial organisation. It is the (plus or minus 5%) certainty about funding over six-year periods that means the BBC can deliver on quality, engage with most of the population and take a few risks. The UK punches above its weight in most creative fields around the world because of the licence fee; generally, well-intentioned custodians of the BBC have demonstrated to successive generations that the world of imagination has more to it than formulaic cartoons, cheap game shows and hackneyed soap operas - and have trained and encouraged people to keep this modern success story going.  Commercial broadcasters have had to respond with quality output to deliver a meaningful share of the audience to advertisers.

This only-in-Britain cultural asset delivers an estimated £8 billion in economic impact every year. Long-term, if we keep it in good shape, the returns will last longer than fracking.
 

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Get out of jail free

Entertaining twitter spat this morning between Guido Fawkes and Ray Snoddy on the planned de-criminalisation of licence-fee non-payment. Here's a sample.




The Government has signalled it's prepared to spend a year considering options that will deliver de-criminalisation. This could be when James Purnell earns his crust....readers with ideas, please share !

Friday, March 21, 2014

Studio change

Quietly, some time in February, Alan Yentob has been replaced as non-executive director of BBC Studios and Post Production. The role has gone to Dominic Coles, Director of Operations. No sign, as yet, of salary adjustments.

BBC S&PP is still without a chairman, since the departure of former strategy guru, John Tate.

Ugh

I sometimes think my home drag of Upper Street in Islington is used as a sort of fast-food lab. Here's another new arrival - not the first branch in London of this frozen yogurt emporium, but can't see many of us pensioners popping in here on a regular basis...

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Paper boy

Faisal Islam, currently with Channel 4 News where his head is full of economics, will step into the generous shoes of Adam Boulton as Sky News' next political editor.

Faisal, 36, describes his first job in journalism as delivering the Manchester Metro News, aged 11. "Second job aged 15 was counting the newspapers at family shop. Third job was aged 21 as a researcher at The Observer". This via Manchester Grammar, Trinity College, Cambridge, and City University post-grad in journalism.

Tradesmen

Anyone concerned about The Telegraph's Five Pillars and whether or not they'll ever support an Entablature, is, apparently, invited to The Plumber's Arms in Lower Belgrave St, SW1 tonight.

The newspaper's NUJ chapel is meeting from 6.30pm, and "snacks" are on offer; all are welcome, "members or not", to raise issues of concern.

Comparing (2)

Whilst we're on about benchmarking BBC Executive pay, the New York Times Company paid Chief Executive Mark Thompson $4.58 million in 2013. That included a salary of $1 million, "non-equity incentive plan compensation" of $1.5 million and stock awards of $2.06 million.

At today's rates the package is worth around £2.8m; Mark's final year deal at the BBC was £622k.


Comparing

Now might be a good time for the BBC's Anne Bulford to conduct a remuneration benchmarking exercise against ITV.

I'm not great with spreadsheets, but it looks like chief executive Adam Crozier got a basic salary of £841,000, but a total package of £8.3m. Finance director Ian Griffiths' package was close to £3.4m. Click to go large (see what I did there ?)


Clincher

Clearly BBC2 mockumentary W1A will do wonders for BBC tours of Broadcasting House. But how will other nearby premises be feeling ?

The venue for the lunch attempting to woo Carol Vorderman into co-presenting Britain's Tastiest Village with Alan Titchmarsh was Great Portland Street wine bar and restaurant Iberica. I have to warn you that the tables are generally more tightly packed than in this picture, but there are some good food deals.













The Daily Stew is £7 at lunchtime, the Daily Stew plus one Tapa from a selection is £10, and three courses of selected Tapas come in at £15.  I highly recommend the black rice with cuttlefish, prawns and alioli (Catalan spelling), as long as you are not surprised with the digestive consequences.

Cheapest wine by the bottle is a white Navarra, at £20; most expensive is Pingus, a tempranillo from Ribera del Duero, at £800.


Duty spoiler

(A post of rather specialist interest - or perhaps not when we get the overnight viewing figures. If you're Noel Edmonds or only watching Line of Duty on catch-up, do not read on....).

So, for series 3 of Line of Duty, creator and writer Jed Mecurio offers a new anti-hero: Matthew 'Dot' Cottan, played by Craig Parkinson.

In last night's Q&A on the BBC TV Blog, Mercurio confirmed: To answer a common question: the ambush was set up by Cottan, acting as an intermediary between Tommy's criminal associates and corrupt officers Akers, Prasad and Cole.

Why did Denton change direction driving in the flashback to make Akers and Thomas say, what is she doing, Why were they all killed?

Lindsay got cold feet about going along with Akers' plan. We always felt there was a danger this particular story point might not be clear to everyone, but it was very important to understand how much she regretted the ambush, and why she fought so hard to conceal her complicity.

But why was Akers killed in the ambush but not Denton - as like Denton she had been corrupted.

Prasad in his testimony at the start said that Akers was killed because she knew too much about the plotting of the ambush. Cottan asked Akers if Denton wanted to know details, and was satisfied that she didn't.....The plan was to kill Tommy and anyone who knew about the conspiracy to kill him. Denton was spared because she was ignorant of who was behind it all. 

In the scene between Akers and Lindsay, Akers said Tommy would be handed over to the criminals who wanted him silenced. Obviously something bad would befall him but Akers and Lindsay would have to live with that. Akers had no idea she would be targeted, due to her knowledge of the conspiracy. Akers could have made up any story to make Tommy move to somewhere he'd be vulnerable to an ambush, but she chose to involve Lindsay, having caught Lindsay questioning Tommy about Carly's disappearance. Akers took the chance that Lindsay would cooperate due to Lindsay's desire to help find Carly.


In the end, we felt that it was credible that the conspirators didn't kill Lindsay. Even if she was investigated, she knew nothing about who was really behind the ambush. After all, her best guess was that it was Mike Dryden, which was completely wrong. And, having taken Akers' bribe, Lindsay had a lot to lose by coming clean to AC-12. These discussions went on for hours, sometimes days!


The ambushers approached the cars head on. How would a tracker help? Were they planning to chase after them on Crown Avenue. If that is so, wouldn't they be nearer the junction ready to turn onto Crown Avenue?

Thanks for considering this point in detail. In constructing the logic of the ambush, we never specified the location where the ambush would have taken place if Lindsay hadn't taken the detour. This was deliberate. It provides the flexibility to place the ambush vehicles on a parallel road at the time of the detour. Seeing the tracker signal deviate, they were able to choose a route to intercept the police convoy, and this happened to lead to a head-on convergence of the vehicles. We actually mapped all this out at the location where we filmed the sequence in case we needed to shoot scenes to explain it in detail later in the series. As it turned out, none of the editorial team felt this was necessary, but I respect the fact that you may disagree.

Was Ackers call to [Kate] Fleming just a red herring?

This was one of two phone calls (the other being Dryden's call to Lindsay on the night of Carly's disappearance) that we had planned to explain if they became very important to the overall conspiracy, but in the end we decided not to include these scenes in the series. We shot the scene of Dryden's call to Lindsay but it didn't make the final cut.

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

Wednesday quiz

Q: What's all this ?

Jim Naughtie           £15 to £50
Jeremy Paxman       £15 to £50 (only 7 left at £35)
Lord Bragg              £11 to £25
Gavin Hewitt            £11 to £25
Alan Titchmarsh       £11 to £25
Ed Stourton             £11 to £25
Jim al-Khalili            £11 (sold out)
Peter Snow              £11 (26 left)
Kirsty Wark             £11
Count Arthur Strong £11

A: The various costs of tickets to have a broadcasting "sleb" flog your their latest book at the Oxford Literary Festival which starts this coming weekend. Tickets are available at all prices online, except where stated

Creative carpets

Life continues to mirror art at the BBC, as we await tonight's first episode of the comedy/documentary, W1A.

A member of staff has complained to staff organ Ariel about garish new carpets on the sixth and seventh floors of New Broadcasting House, replacing those just 18 months old, and the appearance of railings around a kitchen area.

A chief adviser to Danny Cohen (how many advisers does he have ?) replies that the changes are in response to staff feedback that the areas in question "did not feel like creative spaces, and lacked character".

"Once the work is completed in the next month, the sixth floor will have a 'Welcome to Television' theme and the seventh floor will have the feel of an outside street scape. The committee also made the decision to change the flooring to give these areas a unique sense of identity and the previous carpet is being re-used elsewhere in the building. The railings around the hot desking area on the seventh floor will be part of 'Albert Square' with the outside of the meeting room branded as the 'Queen Vic'. We want to make our space feel inspiring and creative - a home for BBC Television that reflects our ambitions as the very best broadcaster and producer in the world."

I remember workshops from more than five years ago when we sort of agreed that the BBC was too territorial and impermeable - staff moving between departments found hostility if they walked through "other people's space". All this set dressing is nonsense - especially trying to enshrine "tv" spaces when the future is, we are told, multi-platform.  I try not to be too rude here, but I suggest people will know that the sixth and seventh floors belong to television because they get busy late, finish early and close at weekends.

Correction costs

Apparently, the Daily Star has apologised in print to former BBC CFO Zarin Patel over allegations of encouraging tax dodging - but, given the whacky world of Express Newspapers online, I'm blowed if I can find it.

An FOI discloses that the BBC spent £6,520.00 (excluding VAT) supporting Ms Patel's legal action. She claimed a Daily Star leader back in July 2012 meant she "had devised or connived in the BBC's deplorable practice of ordering its star employees, under pain of dismissal, to dodge tax by creating personal service companies so as to allow the BBC to save millions of pounds".

BBC internal legal effort is not costed in the response; letters secured a print apology from the Daily Mail over a similar story with days - a rare thing to come so quickly out of Derry Street.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

Where ?

Congratulations to Penny Marshall (St Helen's, Northwood and LSE), visiting professor at City University and formerly Social Affairs Editor at ITN, on her appointment as Education Editor BBC News; and to Hugh Pym (Marlborough and Christ Church Oxford), BBC's Chief Economics Correspondent, now appointed Health Editor.

The ads invited candidates for both roles to explore whether or not their work "could be wholly or partly based in either Birmingham or Salford". News staff and others threatened with moves from the capital will be interested to discover the outcome of those discussions.

Scales of justice

The politicial antennae of the BBC's Public Affairs team must have been pointing the other way, when backbench Tories, probably with a little light prodding from Justice ministers, cooked up the idea of de-criminalising non-payment of the tv licence fee. Now there's frantic defensive activity - today comes the enthralling suggestion of a DCMS/BBC/Min of Justice working group on the issue.

If this is a carrot, it's a poor spavined thing. The stick, wielded by James Purnell, is the idea that the BBC could lose £200m a year in income, threatening BBC4, CBBC and CBeebies. Sadly, all Tories can think of other ways the BBC could save £200m before cutting more channels - probably including Jim's department and its Public Affairs team. And they recognise de-criminalisation as an arm's length way of clipping the BBC's wings without taking much blame themselves for the consequences.

The BBC has generally done well out of running the licence fee since the move from Post Office collection. Sharper systems, tendering of the collection process, easy payments, and a growth in the number of households have all delivered more income to the BBC over the last 20 years. Now, the BBC seems to be left bleating for some sort of income support.

Meanwhile, the so-called horror stories of the magistrates' courts need debunking. Supposedly 10% of the courts' work, calls to attend are issued in batches of 50 (via Capita, not the Ministry of Justice)- very few turn up, most choosing to pay up in advance, and payments are also taken in corridors outside courtrooms if needed. Is that so horrible, and such a great burden on the Ministry ?  Perhaps there's another explanation - maybe most bailiffs are Tory voters.

Monday, March 17, 2014

SW13

Even the presence of Vinnie Jones couldn't boost BBC1's Musketeers last night - down a further 200,000 viewers to 4.3m in the overnights. Next week, a family in Barnes will probably improve things a little, with Alice Patten joining the cast as Sister Helene.

Student X

The BBC Executive has accepted the censure of the BBC Trust Editorial Standards Committee over Panorama's filming trip to North Korea last year. Reporter John Sweeney pretended to be an academic on an LSE trip, organised by his wife Tomiko, an LSE graduate employed by Panorama as a researcher/producer. In what might be an attempt at mitigation, the Executive notes that only 4 of 21 complaints were upheld - but you have to say that they were pretty serious. And I make it 5.

In respect of complaints made by Mr X on behalf of student X, the programme was found to have breached four guidelines:

6.1 "The BBC strives to be fair to all - fair to those our output is about, fair to contributors, and fair to our audiences. BBC content should be based on respect, openness and straight dealing. We also have an obligation under the Ofcom Broadcasting Code to “avoid unjust or unfair treatment of individuals or organisations in programmes”."

6.2.1 "We will be open, honest, straightforward and fair in our dealings with contributors and audiences unless there is a clear public interest in doing otherwise or a need to consider important issues such as legal matters, safety or confidentiality."

6.2.2 "Individuals should normally be appropriately informed about the planned nature and context of their contributions when they are asked to take part in BBC content and give their consent, unless there is an editorial justification for proceeding without consent."

6.4.1 ""We should treat our contributors honestly and with respect. Our commitment to fairness is normally achieved by ensuring that people provide ‘informed consent’ before they participate. ‘Informed consent’ means that contributors should be in possession of the knowledge that is necessary for a reasoned decision to take part in our content…the more significant their contribution, the more detail we should provide."

In respect of Tomiko Newson's role, The Trust found "her ability to make decisions solely in the best interests of the students had been compromised", thus breaching guideline....

15.2.3 "The BBC must be satisfied that individuals involved in the production of its content are free from inappropriate outside commitments and connections."

And, returning to student X, they ruled that the provision of information was insufficient and inadequate to enable her to give her informed consent to running the risks involved in the trip. "The Committee emphasised that securing informed consent should normally be the priority where a conflict arises between the need to minimise risk and the need to secure informed consent from people who put themselves at risk for the BBC.", and thus there was a breach of this guideline...

2.4.1 "The concept of editorial justification…is central to the application of our values and standards. It is a judgement on the particular circumstances of each case, balancing the editorial purposes of our output or actions with their impact on our audiences and people in our output (or, where relevant, those closest to them)."

Does it matter ? I think so. Panorama's been kicked by The Trust before, but this was the first kicking issued on Lord Hall's watch - and there was a direct appeal to the new DG to drop the programme in April last year.

Meanwhile John Sweeney, who might have known this ruling was coming, tweeted thus, a couple of days ago.

The Singing Director

Oh my word. Peter Horrocks, the BBC's Director of Global News, on Ghanaian TV. Specifically with the self-styled King of Prime Time, Kwaku Sintim-Misa. It starts at around 5.50 on the clock. There is toe-curling "singing" at around 15.30. All over by 17.30.


    

From Bedlam to Newsnight

I've been skimming the web for info on Newsnight's new economics editor, Duncan Weldon, so you don't have to. He likes graphs, measuring the government's financial reputation through gilts, and Star Trek. I find much of what he has written as a prolific economics and politics blogger very difficult to understand.

As a student at Somerville College, Oxford University, he banked with Lloyds, and has made plain his annoyance with their overdraft charges.  Amongst his contemporaries studying PPE was Will Straw, now nursing Rossendale and Darwen for Labour, next to his dad's constituency in Blackburn. Both were officers of the Oxford University Student Union.

In March 2004, he was part of a rally at Oxford Town Hall in support of University lecturers, representing the Oxford University Labour Club : "It is important that academics and students stand together to oppose the privatisation of Higher Education".

Later in 2004, he was working at the Bank of England in the policy advisory unit.

In 2006 he joined Bedlam Asset Management (yes, named after the asylum) as an investment analyst. In 2008 he followed three Bedlam managers who set up Senhouse Capital LLP, where he was a partner until late 2009.

In December 2009 he was mentioned as a possible Labour candidate as MP for Wansbeck - he was born in Ashington, and went to Hirst High School. Nothing materialised. During 2009, he began writing for Will Straw's website Left Foot Foward.

In January 2010, he took a job as Research Officer with the Labour Party, spending five months working in the Policy and Research Division in Victoria Street in the run-up to the election. In May 2010 he stood for Labour in council elections in the Crouch End Ward of Haringey, picking up 1,300 votes, but still coming fifth, behind three (elected) Libdems, and Richard Messingham, for Labour.

From May to July 2010 he was an economics adviser to Harriet Harman, in her role as acting Labour leader.

In July 2010 he joined the International Transport Workers Union as a "strategic researcher" based in London.

In September 2010 Duncan voted for Ed Balls as his first choice as party leader, when Ed Miliband won through. He then backed fellow-Keynesian Balls as Shadow Chancellor.

In November 2010, he signed a Liberal Conspiracy letter of support to Harriet Harman about the expulsion of Phil Woolas, thus: "Duncan Weldon, Hornsey & Wood Green CLP".

In September 2011 he joined the TUC as Senior Policy Officer covering macroeconomics.
In November 2011, he was mentioned by Lord (Maurice) Glasman, prime mover of 'Blue Labour', as one involved in discussions, along with James Purnell, now the BBC's Director of Strategy and Digital : "Just so people understand the context, there’s a number of people – Jon Cruddas, Marc Stears, Duncan Weldon (an economist at the TUC), James Purnell, and others – who are part of this conversation".

Here's a link to the BBC guidelines on conflict of interest and politics. I suspect he's been asked to leave his politics "at the door", and if James Purnell can get away with it, so can Duncan.





Charlie

The BBC expects attacks on alleged profligacy from commercial competitors. There's a new, and more dangerous one this morning, from the vastly experienced Lord (Charles) Allen, former boss of Granada, former chairman of ITV and EMI, now chairman of Global Radio, and worryingly, a Labour peer who's chairman of the Executive Board of the party, appointed by Ed Miliband.

Here's a quote from an interview in today's Independent.

"I bumped into Tony Hall [the BBC Director-General] yesterday and said ‘I want to get you in and have a look at how we work’. Do you know, BBC Radio 1, 2 and 3 have a combined content budget of £123.6m, and Capital, which is up against Radio 1, Heart, which is against Radio 2, and Classic, which takes on Radio 3, have a combined content budget of £19m. Look at Radio 4 in the morning. On LBC we will have a presenter like Nick Ferrari and a producer, and that’s about all – and we’re all the better for that.”

Experience does not always lead to understanding.

Sunday, March 16, 2014

Bexpo

Clearly the major broadcasting event of the week is going to be the first episode of W1A, in which a team of BBC comedy producers, born and bred, assembled under Jon Plowman, get to expose the BBC b*llocks which has been the bane of their lives for years. No need for much invention, no need to make it up - just write it down, and away you go.

Oddly, the grandest period of BBC b*llocks came under plain-speaking Greg Dyke - the Common Man, after John Birt's Thomas Cromwell in A Man For All Seasons. The messianic side of Greg seriously thought he could change the culture he found on arrival at the BBC - an organisation, it was said, at each other's throats in a complex and costly internal market, laden with bureacracy, and with such low staff morale that it was hard to find a pulse.  At his side was Professor Gareth Jones, of the Henley Management College, who became for a period, Greg's HR supremo - and so the great lab experiment began. Trouble was, Greg and Gaz didn't have much time for hard pounding, preferring pints of Guinness in the King's Arms, Great Titchfield Street, where nobody knows your name. And so, a range of people took the simple idea of cheering the place up and making better programmes, and turned it into a gargantuan "project", festooned in b*llocky phrases, that in time, became as meaningless as anything concocted by Birt.

So first, we had "One BBC", and a new structure diagram, showing divisions as petals. Then, after many BBC executives had enjoyed trips to the West Coast of the USA, came "Making It Happen". This had seven "major themes";  Inspiring Creativity Everywhere (without mind-expanding drugs, necessarily); Connecting With Audiences; Valuing People; We Are The BBC (?); Great Spaces; Lead More, Manage Well; and Just Do It.  "Making It Happen" was then taken to all staff in a series of sessions called "Just Imagine" (how great the BBC could be if we all worked together to change it).  This was the bit that was supposed to be 'bottom up'; 24,000 staff coming up with change ideas.  Some of them contributed to a workstream called "Values", and if anyone was Head of Values, it was Roger Mosey, then in News, now at Selwyn College, selected to collate these thoughts and shape them into a totemic mantra for the most creative organisation in the world.

Here they are.

  • Trust is the foundation of the BBC: we are independent, impartial and honest.
  • Audiences are at the heart of everything we do. 
  • We take pride in delivering quality and value for money. 
  • Creativity is the lifeblood of our organization. 
  • We respect each other and celebrate our diversity so that everyone can give of their best.
  • We are one BBC: great things happen when we work together.
The values were eventually printed on the back of everyone's staff id cards. It wasn't the end; there followed The Big Conversation, The Big Brainstorm, a mahoosive leadership training initiative, Audience Insights, a drive to appraisals and performance management, and much much more. 

Then came Gilligan and Dr David Kelly, and Greg Dyke personally managing the BBC v Alastair Campbell. In the end, to nobody's surprise but his own, he lost to Blair, Hutton and the BBC Governors. 

I leave you to judge whether or not the Dyke lab experiment worked long-term, (without, for example, mentioning executive pay-offs, Respect At Work, DMI, attempts to close 6Music and BBC3 etc) and hope you enjoy W1A in a more informed way.

  • 2pm Monday update: A regular correspondent notes that the BBC Values replaced instructions on what to do in case of fire on the back of identity cards. Thankfully there is so far no reported incident of people being unnecessarily burned as a result of the change. 



Tightening up

ITV's latest rescue job seems to be Loose Women - down from peaks of around 2m to 700,000. The turn-round guy is former GMTV reporter-turned-news editor Martin Frizell, aka Mr Fiona Phillips.

Martin (Hillhead School, Glasgow and NCTJ, Napier University Edinburgh) left GMTV in December 2009, when ITV moved in on the ailing beast. He spent two years as UK correspondent of Sunrise on Channel 7 in Australia.

Two years ago, he emerged at PR firm Golin Harris UK, as executive director of media in charge of its "connector" team of 16 dedicated media specialists. You could tell he was chuffed: ‘I see the team of connectors at GolinHarris as journalists because they all have that gut instinct for a good story and have a deep understanding of the media landscape.’

This appointment, taxing though it may have been, still left room for the odd appearance on Sunrise down under; here, hirsute Martin is discussing the Loch Ness monster, in August last year. Can he still do this, and save Loose Women ?













  • In 2011, Mr and Mrs Frizell scraped together £900k to buy out the Greyhound Inn, in Sydling St Nicholas, Dorset, bringing a new management team to run the gastro-pub with rooms. 











Saturday, March 15, 2014

Winning

As Piers Morgan's weeknight chat show drifts to a finale on CNN, he's proud to point out that he topped the cable news ratings this week. Charisma or news ?

CNN has been monstering the disappeared Malaysian airliner. For three days in a row, CNN has topped MSNBC, and come second to Fox News. On Wednesday night, Piers, running totally on flight 370, scored 452,000 viewers aged 25 to 54, beating Megyn Kelly on Fox by a clear 31,000.

Friday, March 14, 2014

Builders

The BBC's plans for a new outdoor set at Elstree, for EastEnders, need a finance manager, as well as a programme manager and a programme director. It's all coded E20 (a postal code, not yet an estimate in millions). In the extra stuff about the job, we find there's an element of me-too-ism about the project:

EastEnders is one of the BBC’s most popular programmes and plays a key role in the BBC One schedule. It is also unique in connecting with audiences the BBC finds hard to reach. Furthermore, ITV have built expanded lots for Coronation Street and Emmerdale which offer significantly expanded creative and storyline opportunities.

Wasn't BBC3 connecting with audiences the BBC finds hard to reach ?

Pushing the boat out

It may not be as old as the Boat Race itself (1829) but the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race New York City Dinner, first held in 1933, is the longest-running annual dinner event shared between the two universities. So you be delighted to know that this year's guest speaker is the ascetic BBC chairman Lord Patten.

Tickets, for Thursday April 10 (when we'll know which shade of blue won the non-eating event) are still available at $175 to $225, dependent on age, not wealth, and dress is black tie or boat club blazer. The venue: The University Club of New York City, just off 5th Avenue at W54th Street.




Thursday, March 13, 2014

Minutiae

Not much to learn from the latest set of BBC Trust minutes, except that, by Janaury, the DG was not ready with his "tough choices", i.e. closing BBC3 as a liner broadcast channel, so we'll have to wait for February minutes for that. Did things really move that fast ? Are we talking sudden black hole ?

This is the Trust getting grumpy about diversity statistics, and lack of progress towards not-very-challenging targets. "Trust members discussed the report with the Executive, agreeing that, while some progress had been made, it remained very slow. They agreed this was caused by a number of factors, including the low turnover of staff in some departments".

Elsewhere, we glean that Sir Howard Stringer is on board as a new non-executive with the Trust, and it looks like Brian McBride will move aside when Tone and Jim find someone else - he's got a one-month extension, having been in the post just a year.

Portal


The SaveBBC3 petition has just broken through 200,000 signatures  - 203,043 as I write. Holt town councillor (and would-be Labour county councillor) 25 year-old Jono Read is the organiser, and, as befitting a digital media advisor to the University of East Anglia, has set up a website to go with the campaign.

Hang on, Jono, don't make it look too good. We want it to stay linear, don't we ?

Wednesday, March 12, 2014

Danger man

It looks like the Yentob birthday bash is still to come. Yesterday was pretty standard; to the Charlotte Street Hotel for Terry Gilliam's private screening of "The Zero Theorem", which completes the trilogy with Brazil amd 12 Monkeys. Thence to the Groucho.

Somewhere along the way, Mr Yentob celebrated 67 years by breaking the law. Cycling on the footway (pavement) is an offence under Section 72 of the Highways Act 1835 as amended by Section 85 (1) of the Local Government Act 1888.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

Trusted guide

My grumpy side feels an obligation to translate some stuff for you.

"As the rules of fixed durations and transmission slots fall away, we want the finest British talent to come on a creative adventure with us, to pioneer new forms of iPlayer-first storytelling that will delight and surprise our audiences." (Victoria Jaye, Head of TV Content, BBC iPlayer).

We've asked some people on BBC contracts to make short videos, you know, a bit like YouTube. But they're on iPlayer, which is, of course, quite different and  "a new creative canvas for storytelling". No. I've no comment on fees paid, or how we'll judge success.

Years roll by...

Alan Yentob is 67 today. As soon as I find out where the party is, I'll let you know.

Is he the oldest member of staff ? I doubt it, but there's a widening age gap to middle managers below. Once again, BBC students of demographics and pension changes will notice that a lot of late 50s/early 60s colleagues have been holding farewell parties as the new financial year approaches.  Could it have anything to do with changes to the lifetime allowance defining the tax-advantaged pension savings that an individual can accumulate over their career ? From April, the limit is cut from £1.5m to £1.25m.

  • One soon-to-be-former BBC employee Lucy Adams is a long way from whatever pension she accumulated with Auntie. So it's little surprise she's topping up income with another keynote HR speech, this time at the 9th Annual Congress of the Strategic HR Network (created by an events company called Middleton Burgess as a networking opportunity, and now run as a stand-alone firm). It's a one day event tomorrow in London (delegate cost £699 + VAT) and Lucy's on at 1600.

Monday, March 10, 2014

Fresh never frozen

Unit 2, Ground Floor, of the modesty-named Digital World building on Salford Quays should ease date nights at MediaCityUK soon. It's about to open as a 100-seat Nando's, bringing the noted Afro-Portuguese casual dining experience into the heart of this waterfront destination of digital creativity, learning and leisure.

The BBC Trust has almost certainly taped up its windows along Great Portland St, W1, since the arrival of Nando's as a neighbour. Thankfully Lord Patten will only have to endure one more summer...

Trunk call

The British media has had a long love-affair with the elephant, on and off screen. Only one of the these pictures was posted yesterday via Twitter. 


Wordle

Previous Newsnight editor Peter Rippon (a former colleague) has dipped his toe in the tricky world of blog-writing again. This time, it's about his work as Editor, Online Archive for News.

I worry he's caught a slight case of new media-speak; it's about one of these "Connected Studio" events, where start-ups brainstorm ways of mincing up existing BBC data and making new sausages.

Peter ruminates towards the end thus.

Finally archive also has really potency to drive nostalgia and connect with audiences emotionally. Social networks, and the instinct that drives people to share content, is often driven by a similar emotional power. So how can we exploit that apparently similar sensibility ?

Run that past me again, would you ?

Layering

Eschew sudoku. Join with me in a love of BBC organogram puzzles.

Technology staff have been told that there will soon be an advert for a new Chief Technology Officer, to replace John Linwood, once minder of the Digital Media Initiative. The new incumbent will report directly to Anne Bulford, Managing Director, Operations and Finance, in a bid to simplify reporting lines.

Since October 2012, Dominic Coles has been styled Director of Operations (no trace of an advert). This followed Caroline Thomson's unwonted departure as Chief Operating Officer, after losing out as DG to George Entwistle. Dominic was given responsibility for technology, distribution, archive, property, and a bunch of other stuff - on a package of £307,800.  He keeps responsibility for son-of-DMI, "End-to-end", now rebranded as trendy text-speak End2End, but, overall, taking away technology looks like a job scope reduction. No doubt Anne will wish to benchmark Dominic's new portfolio pretty soon and adjust salary accordingly. This would cheer up James Purnell, on a mere £295,000, stuck with not much to do til after the election, according to Maria Miller.

Meanwhile, with just three weeks left til the new financial year, there's still little detail on the "bonfire of the boards". If your board/working group/pan-BBC advisory group has been deemed unnecessary on voyage, please let me know.

Douze points

It may not be as bad as the Eurovision Song Contest, but some still small voices tell me that the annual Royal Television Society journalism awards are continuing to demonstrate interesting voting patterns.

The make-up of panels endeavours to provide representation from across interests, and then there's the scrutiny of senior judges, etc. But tribal backgrounds are powerful things, and flex in scale.

Over the years, for example, Sky News has provided programming for Channel 5, but it's now brought to you by ITV. As is Channel 4 News.

All of this is by-the-by to James Harding, Director of BBC News, who left with slim pickings this year. I suspect next year you'll see plenty of nominations involving reporters and corrrespondents more obviously brought to you by the new regime at Broadcasting House.

Sunday, March 9, 2014

Counting time

Who saved 6Music ?  I think it was a generation brought up on the Matthew Bannister/Trevor Dann version of Radio 1, from the mid-90s on. They enjoyed the blood-sport of destroying dinosaur DJs, and liked the idea of new British music by new British artists. Say they were at school then, they probably watched Byker Grove in the afternoons on BBC1; either Live & Kicking on BBC1 or CD:UK on ITV on Saturday mornings; the move of Top of the Pops from Thursday to Friday in 1997, meant a clash with Corrie, and so perhaps they sneaked out of single-telly households for a cheeky bottle of cider then. The audience for Top of the Pops sank through scheduling.

In their twenties, in the middle of the UK housing boom, came 6Music, giving them continued lifestyle support and CD suggestions.

When closure was proposed, this was the generation of Facebook and Twitter. No need for envelopes to mount a campaign. No need even to get out of bed; tweet from your mobile - 140 characters clarifies your thinking. The Trustees had to listen, and saved 6Music.

Is there a constituency that will save BBC3 ?  The presenters' union is at it, and some comedy writers. The online petition is up to around 150,000. It ought to be doing better - BBC3's weekly reach is 15.6m, admittedly measured by three minutes consecutive viewing, but, nonetheless, 27% of the population. That compares with 6Music's reach of around 700,000 when it was first threatened.

Perhaps the truth is that the BBC really lost "yoof" in the Thompson custody period. Children's telly gone to channels with embarassing names for the pre-pubescent, replaced with quizzes for Granny. Top of the Pops gone; Saturday mornings given over to posh cooking. Live music represented by Jools Holland, turning 50. Radio 1 fronted by good-time Chris Moyles, talking, talking and talking.

It may have to be the Trust alone this time - and they might just do it. Something for everyone is the bedrock of the licence fee and the Trust's view of service licences. Otherwise, let's pack it all in and go for subscription; you'll end up with the National-Trust-TV we seem to be heading for anyway - all Farrow and Ball, antiques, midwives and niceness; no skateboard parks, loud music or rude words. You're welcome.

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Thin

The current edition of Private Eye is excoriating about the new editorial regime at Telegraph Towers. Jason "Mekon" Seiken is making everybody an editor of something, and there are fewer and fewer people around who are actually writing stories.

This doesn't matter so much when you're running print editions with reduced pages (apart from short-changing readers) but is a little more noticeable on the website, particularly at weekends, where you can almost feel the tumbleweed blowing through the wide open spaces.

This may be in part explained by the recent Telegraph ad for a weekend portal editor on a six-month contract, at £100 to £150 per shift, depending on experience. Note: this position is part time, involving working between 4 and 8 weekend shifts per month (a maximum of 16 hours per week unless otherwise agreed.)

Lovely

It's not strictly (geddit?) as interesting as Susanna Reid moving to become the Sister Mary Clarence of ITV breakfast output, but we can confirm that Isabel Webster will be the new partner for Eamonn Holmes on the Sky News Sunrise sofa.

Isabel has a degree in Politics and Theology from Bristol University, and a postgrad diploma in journalism from City University. Her pedigree includes Radio Bristol and Points West.

How did she get the big gig ?  Here's an extract from Clifton Life magazine, as recently as September last year, where Isabel was answering questions...

Q: Who is the loveliest person you have met in TV ?

A: Without question it has to be Eamonn Holmes. After we presented together for the first time he emailed some nice feedback to my boss at Sky News. An endorsement from a veteran broadcaster like that has the capacity to change a career, and I will be forever grateful. 

Crikey. And Fiona Fullerton thought Ms Reid determined. You can only fault the use of 'veteran'; please, someone, pass it on to the auld fella.

Dodgy

Rich. In the "a bit rich" sense. Pleading 'poverty', Culture Secretary Maria Miller and Justice Secretary Chris Grayling have let it be known that one of their conditions for BBC Charter renewal will be de-criminalisation of licence fee evasion. Non-payment will be made a civil offence.

They are taking their lead from a Commons amendment to the 2003 Communications Act tabled by Andrew Bridgen, Conservative MP for North West Leicestershire who argues "For those in real hardship who cannot pay the television licence fee, the current legislation is effectively criminalising them for being poor, which cannot be right..."  This from a party that has removed Council Tax Benefit, saving £414m and seen a 30% increase in prosecutions for non-payment in the first six months (is anyone doing the balance sheet on that move ?) This from a party that recognises that tax evasion costs this country £14bn a year.  This from a party that now has a standard £100 fine, non-returnable, for not filing a tax return on time.

First offenders in front of magistrates for not having a tv licence are liable for a fine of up to £1,000 and costs. If poverty is pleaded, the usual deal is £200 fine and £200 costs, to be paid off at £4 a week. I can't believe Charles Moore, former Telegraph Editor, pleaded poverty when he went to court over non-payment in protest over the Ross/Brand affair - he had to cough up just £262, plus £503 costs. Attitudes like Moore's have spawned a wide informal network of sites, discussions groups and forums on how to spin out the process at little expense to the evader - and the BBC admits evasion is a growing problem. Making it a civil offence trebles the opportunity for the "clever" to tap dance around the system.

The logic here, if there is one, is that compulsory payments short of "proper taxes" are difficult for the "poor", especially when fixed or "regressive"; offenders are harmless and should be pursued through the civil system. I look forward to the parallel manifesto pledges on vehicle excise duty, unauthorised use of trade marks and rail fare evasion.


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