Thinking step

And, as Anna Rampton moves from Head of Output to Director of Better, so Emma Swain moves from Controller, Factual Commissioning, to Director, Future Commissioning, Channels and Online.

This is apparently a year long piece of work in which Emma will seek to answer the following questions: what kind of content will BBC Television be making in five years’ time across all genres ? What will be the balance of scripted and factual, and of linear and digital ? How will it be commissioned ? And how will the BBC make it available for audiences, when, where and how they want it ?

The Trust have been antsy about the production pipeline for some time - and you'd think, in the paperwork supporting the creation of BBC Studios, there might be a sniff of a five-year plan there. But frankly, the answer to all questions is as long as a piece of string, until you've got an idea about the next licence fee settlement. Then you make the programmes you can afford. Once you've paid for the 25 people on Danny Cohen's Television Board.

Staff in other divisions will be a little sniffy at the apparently all-encompassing nature of Emma's task, as they do online stuff too.

Meanwhile, Emma's new task brings promotion for Alison Kirkham (North London Collegiate and Wadham, Oxford) - a former broadcast assistant on the Today programme. Danny will have no problem with Executive gender balance, should he eventually step into Lord Hall's shoes.