Sickies

BBC FOI response: Total number of days absence for sickness and average number of days per employee for the financial year 2016/17

The total days lost is well down on 2015/6's 91,991.

The BBC asks people using the data to include this line....

“The employee average is broadly in line with the national average according to figures published by the Office for National Statistics. We take the health and wellbeing of our staff seriously, like any responsible employer, and provide a number of health related support schemes”.

The ONS UK average days lost per worker through sickness for 2016 was 4.3. So Nations & Regions and News are above average.

US focus

Top Gear America dropped completely out of the list of 150 top cable shows on Sunday, as America kept checking news and weather channels for Harvey news. That probably means it registered less than 200k viewers.

• With six "front page" features on Harvey currently festooning the BBC News Online site, I expect some re-calibration on the devastation caused by floods on the Indian sub-continent as soon as a grown-up comes back from holiday to run the newsroom. 

How things might have been...

US business-sharing-software-portal firm Slack has taken the top two floors of Yalding House, Great Portland Street, formerly home to Radio 1. ODOS Architects have given them a largely monochrome makeover. Groovy, eh  ?

Leaving the field of play

The Murdoch decision to pull Fox News in the UK cuts off a flow of funding to UK compliance specialists, trying, largely unsuccessfully, to defend the channel against various breaches of Ofcom rules.

Some of the spin behind the decision was poor viewing figures, at around 2,000 a day. The latest BARB figures show a daily reach of 70k, and a weekly reach of 244k. RT, formerly known as Russia Today, gets a daily reach of 142k and a weekly reach of 513k.

Capacity

There was always a suspicion that the BBC's Big Glass Box with Sandstone Steps at Pacific Quay was way too big. So it's interesting that the BBC has found space "to host" the National Film and Television School of Scotland - that's as well as launching a new tv channel next year. Projected annual student numbers are expected to be in the region of 450 (100 full time, 50 part-time and 250 on Continual Professional Development courses) with more than 1500 students expected to graduate from the facility within five years.

The students have also been found space at the BBC's Dumbarton studios, home of Still Game, converted from a former J&B whisky bottling plant. Maybe the National Audit Office is on patrol.

Barely visible

Hopkins Architects (of Portcullis House and Glyndebourne) have developed a nice restrained pastel palette for their images of the proposed new ITV building on the South Bank. The big money is in a residential block at 104m (up from the current 88m). If planning permission is timely, work might start in 2019 - which will leave GMB and This Morning at Television Centre for nearly five years.

Touching

The casualisation of the BBC workforce continues apace. BBC Worldwide has so many freelances it now needs a "Contingent Workers Co-ordinator", the first sighting of this unpleasant euphemism I've seen in BBC job ads.

Exciting tasks to fill the day for the successful candidate ? "Input of contract information to Peoplefluent Contractor Management System."

Small houses

US cinemas took a big weekend hit in competition with Hurricane Harvey and the McGregor-Mayweather fist fest. Box office takings, at $65m, were the lowest for the same weekend for 16 years, down 45% year-on-year, and down from $132m the previous weekend.

No major new releases made it worse - and distributors are also skipping the forthcoming Labor Day weekend - with the next biggie "It", Stephen King-making-clowns-lovable, opening on Spetember 8.

Too soon

When are the summer holidays "over" ?  ITV launched Autumn on Sunday night with the first of a new series of Victoria, when returned just over 4m viewers according to the overnight ratings - last time out all episodes were above 5m.. That'll be disappointing for Kevin Lygo, but his offering was somewhat steam-rollered by yet another Diana Doc on BBC1 (5.6m) and the JK Rowling thriller Strike (5.5m). Even the BBC1 News bulletin scored 4.9m.

Chums

Those worried about Mel Brooks, 91, cavorting around the UK with a new go at Young Frankenstein: The Musical (first on Broadway in 2007), will be re-assured to know that Young Alan Yentob is with him.

Last night the show opened at the Theatre Royal Newcastle (the first complete run-through, according to director Susan Stroman). Mel thanked the cast at the end, and took part in the encore. Comedian Ross Noble is cast in the Marty Feldman role as Igor, and the troupe head to the Garrick in the West End for a long run after a week in the North East.

Holiday work

Ofcom's Novitiate Curate of Content Kevin Bakhurst has handed in his re-sat paper on the proposed Fox/Sky merger, having had his summer holibobs reduced to a Bank Holiday weekend.

Culture Secretary and cardigan model Karen Bradley thought the first attempt to assess the loveliness and trustworthiness of The Family Murdoch had missed a few emerging details.  Referral now more likely.

Earning it

The Sun produces a formulaic BBC harrumph story this morning, complete with outrage from Tory Andrew Bridgen and the Tax Payers Alliance. 1,763 BBC employees has a pay increase of more than 10 per cent last year - they make up 9.1 per cent of the BBC’s 19,357 full-time staff in the UK.

The BBC mildly expostulates that the increases are the result of promotions or people taking on extra responsibility - nowt else. Currently there are also a whole range of union agreements about "growth in job", reaching "fully effective salaries", which mean managers have an obligation to review those placed at the low ends of salary bands when they start, and, taken with genuine promotions and a whole load of new digital stuff to do, the figures seem reasonable.

Any chance Rebekah might share The Sun's figures ?

Constant change

Another insight from the Edinburgh TV Festival: BBC Entertainment Commissioning Editor (one of seven or eight) Pinki Chambers, 37, told delegates “What we are not looking for is any more panel shows. Anything that feels like it could have been done five to ten years ago in that entertainment-panelly-sort-of-quiz-sort-of-space.”

Ms Chambers' cv indicates work as an executive producer on Have I Got News For You ? (in its 27th year), A Question of Sport (in its 47th year), Would I Lie To You (a mere 10 years old), Mock The Week (12) and University Challenge (the BBC version has been with us since 1994).

The sort of turnover that must make Ms Chambers' in-tray hard to manage.

Sarah smiles

Congratulations to BBC Scotland editor Sarah Smith, who is to succeed Andrew Neil as the national presenter of The Sunday Politics, presumably from London.

Whlst she may not work six days a week, it's possible this may move Sarah from #notonthelist of BBC talent with salaries of over £150k, to #onthelist.

Good game

TV bigshots Kevin Lygo and Jay Hunt usually put on a good show at the Edinburgh TV Festival, displaying dry humour and plain-speaking. And yet, that instinct for the obvious and commonsense option seems a little missing over the rest of the commissioning year.

ITV's Kevin, when asked what his network was missing, said "Some more f**king hits, please". Asked about the outlook for scripted comedy, he offered "Bleak". Would the 10pm talk show come back ? "Not at 10pm". Did it work ? "No. A different host every week made it very difficult for the production team." Will Love Island move the the main ITV channel ? "I think it’s best kept on ITV2 where it’s the stand out, most-talked about show of the summer.”

Jay Hunt, departing in September from C4, revealed she'd loaded Noel Fielding into the GBBO presentation team (I'm sure Love Productions were delighted). On her own future, "I'm not going to be retraining as a dry cleaner, I'll be staying in telly". In terms of comparative pressure at her previous employer: "At the BBC if you're on front page of Mail it's war cabinet time; at C4, I used to cut it out and stick it on the wall".

Fading

Top Gear America (re-booted by BBC Worldwide) on BBC America is drifting in the overnight ratings. This Sunday's offering was watched by 187,000 (compared with 301,000 for the first episode of this series). NBC's live coverage of the Tottenham v Chelsea match scored 629,000.

Experience

The fact that the Cambridge University Press got into such a tangle over acceding, however temporarily, to Chinese censorship demands, is all the more surprising when you remember that their CEO, Peter Phillips, spent 13 years with the BBC; he was also a trustee of Article 19, the press-freedom-campaign group for 4 years, and he is a member of council of The Publishers Association.

There's a place for us....

A chance to spend time with Sir Richard Rogers at the LSE on Wednesday 6 September, under the title "A Place for All People". Also on the panel will be his architectural muse and regular holiday companion, Alan Yentob.

The programme notes list many of Al's various job titles at the BBC; all are presented with a closing year, except Creative Director.

Making plans

The second set of minutes from the new BBC Board are out - they go back to May. At six pages, they're quite full compared with the last days of Executive "summary" minutes.

There's quite a lot going on, and, on occasions, it seems the new non-executives are actually probing. They quiz James Harding about the case brought by Sir Cliff Richard; they discuss the business model for BBC Studios and note that "further discussion around plans for the BBC’s commercial services would return later in the summer. "

And they discuss the draft Annual Plan. "Directors requested more detail around the proposed performance measurement framework, around the strategic challenges to public service broadcasting and in the proposals for distinctiveness by genre and service. The Annual Plan would return to the June Board meeting for approval." And when will we finally see it ?

Naming conventions.

In general, I'm against turning the Broadcasting House piazza into a colonnade of statues of broadcasting legends. (I was never comfortablee about furtive committees deciding who deserved have a meeting room named in their honour.)

I suspect the idea of a Bruce Forsyth statue will have some momentum, but let George Orwell be the only, quirky contribution in cast bronze or chiselled stone outside the BBC's headquarters.

There is, however, an opportunity at Television Centre, where Studio 1, the original home of Strictly Come Dancing, is about to re-open for business. The Sir Bruce Forsyth Studio. (Unless our commercial colleagues at BBC Studioworks have already given naming rights to some online betting group or lager brewer).

Puffery

The tangled ball of elastic bands that is the UK publicity eco-system is illustrated today by Jeremy Vine in the Daily Mail.

With the issue of BBC top presenter pay still alive, Jeremy has freshened up his forthcoming part-memoir with a few thoughts, and lo, the Mail, which needs the BBC to fill pages almost as much as it despises it, has published a generous extract.

It turns out Jeremy deemed himself underpaid as a Newsnight presenter, and when Radio 2 beckoned, he hired an agent (Alex Armitage of Noel Gay) and "told him to charge at the facing players like a fly-half after ten espressos."

Now he's on somewhere between £700k and £749k, which also covers Eggheads, Crimewatch, Points Of View and election graphic dancing - the BBC's fourth-highest-paid directly-employed presenter. His current view on BBC Management ? "The organisation seems to navigate by crashing into things."

Jeremy's book is called "What I Learnt: What My Listeners Say – and Why We Should Take Notice" (is there a possibility Jeremy has dispensed with the services of an editor ?) and is published by Weidenfeld and Nicolson, part of Hachette. Hachette also published regular collections of Daily Mail crosswords on the Hamlyn imprint.

Meanwhile Alex Armitage's outfit, Noel Gay, represents a range of BBC presenters who don't make more than £150k, including Emily Maitlis, Sarah Montague and Katie Derham. The Christmas party will be fun this year.

Coming together

The upcoming Royal Television Society's Cambridge Convention now has a pretty stellar line-up, and plenty of opportunities for some interesting side conversations.

Jay Hunt, outgoing Chief Creative Officer of C4 and Bake-Off borrower, can catch up with the BBC's James Purnell. (The Sun today suggests that BBC TV is still being beastly to Love Productions, who took their cakes away). James Murdoch can demonstrate how supremely fit and proper he is to run the whole of Sky to Karen Bradley, with illustrative clips from Fox News.  R4 Today editor Sarah Sands, who is barely yet a radio expert, never mind tv, takes her place in the list of speakers, supporting her boss and promoter, James Harding.

Michelle Guthrie, currently under Governmental hammer at Australian ABC, can catch up on defensive tactics with Lord Hall. And Andy Wilman, producer of The Grand Tour, might share some viewing figures. If not, why not ?

Hand holder

"We are seeking a Senior HR Business Partner to join the Deputy Director General Group and support HR4HR."

The BBC's Human Resources department needs an HR person to look after them.

Prisms

BBC Director of Arts Jonty Claypole says the long-awaited Civilisations is now slotted for February 2018, very close to its fourth birthday as an idea from DG Lord Hall - main presenter Simon Schama thought it was coming in the autumn of 2017.

Jonty told Brian Appleyard of the Sunday Times: “It’s not rigidly chronological, it’s thematic and chronological. Civilisation is an important part of the BBC’s history, and there is an exciting intellectual challenge in coming back to some of those core questions Clark raised, 50 years on, not trying to attempt a remake. I don’t think that would be wise. Instead, we’ll be engaging with some of the intellectual inquiries Clark was … We’re taking a global view of what art means to humanity over time and in different civilisations and cultures. Art is a prism through which we see what we have in common as human beings.”

 No, I don't know what he's on about either.

More

500 years since the start of the Reformation; 260 years since the birth of Thomas Telford; 150 years of the RNLI in Sheringham; 50 years of Milton Keynes; 40 years since Elvis died...all given coverage by BBC News.

Not long now

Around four weeks to go to the new look BBC Weather. It can't come a moment too soon - the Countryfile forecast on Sunday with Louise Lear was among a number of recent bulletins on the old system to hit the crash barrier.

Still the new system is in the hands of Creative Director, Yael Levey; she's created "6 personas" so that the design development serves a range of different needs. The personas are Jenny, Jade, Tim, Tony, Helen and Imran.

Happy anniversary

Is it just me, or is the BBC awash with anniversaries ?

I had a boss once who said that "anniversary journalism" was a cop-out - either a story was worth re-visiting because something had changed, or it wasn't. I think he was right. It's also a rather lazy way of commissioning tv and radio programmes - especially as there's apparently a limitless number of significant years.

Radio 1Xtra is marking its 15th birthday; we've had BBC1's Diana, to mark 20 years since her death; BBC Sport Online has special features for 25 years of the Premier League; Radio 2 is celebrating 50 years; we've got the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act; we've just had 60 years of Test Match Special; 70 years since partition in India; the Proms marked composer John Williams at 85; 100 years since Passchendaele.

(This item marks 9th anniversary of my first blog posting)

Transferred

STV have come south of the border for their new CEO, hiring ITV strategist Simon Pitts, who will join in January.

Simon (BA Modern Languages and International Studies, University of Bath and MA European Politics, Economics and Law, College of Europe) started out as an advisor in the European Parliament before joining ITV seventeen years ago. He was among insiders tipped to succeed Adam Crozier - until the appointment of Carolyn McCall from Easyjet last month.

Jiw jiw

A tad late on this, but the BBC has almost apologised for the Newsnight discussion on the future of the Welsh language.

"Whilst different perspectives were included in this item on the Welsh language, the discussion of such an important subject would have benefited from more thorough analysis and debate.

"We regret that, but believe it was important to look at this topic and we will do so again in the future."

Even the BBC's leading Welsh speaker was uncomfortable with the casting.

"I have no difficulty with people speaking it". We Welsh speakers are deeply grateful for your genial benevolence. @BBCNewsnight

— Huw Edwards (@huwbbc) August 9, 2017

Subscription drive

Deeply anxious about Saturday nights on the BBC this winter.....there's a raft of "audience participation" shows coming down the pipeline, like clustered buses.

As well as The Generation Game, we'll have..

Ready or Not ? Each week a roving team of hosts head out to surprise members of the public in a series of quick-fire quiz 'hits' to win cash or prizes on the spot, "from a shopping centre to the seaside, from Loch Ness to Liverpool".

Wedding Day Winners (working title). Two couples take part on their actual wedding day. Before they say "I do", friends and family must compete in a series of games to win prizes on their behalf. Each couple then go head-to-head for a chance to win a luxurious honeymoon. Once the games have finished it’s time for each couple to celebrate at their own wedding reception.

Getaway for Winter (working title) Are you planning to leave the UK over winter 2017/2018 to rent a property abroad? If so, we want to hear from you! We’re looking for people to take part in an exciting new BBC One series following people who live in the UK that are planning to spend the winter abroad.

Netflix and Amazon Prime will be delighted.

Facial hair

How we roll in BBC Radio and Education. Below, close to £1m of talent (or maybe more).

Still here

Overnight tv figures say 9.9m of us were watching for the 4x100m GB gold at the World Championships....a remarkable 15% of the population. Even more remarkable considering we're in peak holiday time. Last year 56% of people took a holiday abroad sometime over the twelve months.

What's the point ?

Sad days for those of us used to "point" sizes for typefaces, eg 7pt, 10pt etc. The BBC's new typeface, Reith, has gone for names not numbers, becauses the end size depends on the online device displaying the text.

So, in descending order of size, the new Global Experience Language offers

Canon
Trafalgar
Paragon
Great Primer
Body Copy
Pica
Long Primer
Brevier
Minion

Will they stick ?  Who put the Minions in there ?

Scandi-drama

Exciting days ahead for beleaguered Johnston Press, who have attracted the attention of 55-year-old Norwegian investor Christen Ager-Hanssen. His Custos Group, with offices in Mayfair just north of Berkeley Square, specialises in "disruption". So far, they've bought 5% of JP's shares (probably for less than £750k). Mr Ager-Hanssen says he has a scheme for reducing the interest on JPs debt - they're currently having to pay 8.6% on a bond whilst still making losses; he says he can help re-finance at 3%.

I've no idea what he's saying here (from last year), but it gives you a flavour of his style. I think you can here "incompetent" towards the end.

Portfolio

A busy week for agent Mark Cowne, CEO of Kruger Cowne, adding model Chloe Ayling to a client roster that includes BBC World Affairs Editor John Simpson and BBC editor and presenter Alan Yentob.

So much happening here @krugercowne around @chloeayling - incredible & intriguing story. Remarkable how this has caught the Worlds attention pic.twitter.com/tk5tr50WmI

— Mark Cowne (@markcowne) August 11, 2017

OMG! I forgot 2 tweet happy birthday 2 @krugercowne client and fabulous friend @JohnSimpsonNews 2 days ago. Happy Birthday John! Cheers! pic.twitter.com/h05ZzlvNxJ

— Mark Cowne (@markcowne) August 11, 2017

Jim v Tom

Off button. Radio 4's Feedback was pre-recorded, presumably to let the platitudinarian presenter Roger Bolton patronise people abroad.

It could have been a splendid punch-up, at the least between Jim Al-Khalili and Tom Fielden, billed as Today's Science and Environment Editor, over the appearance of Lord Lawson on the Radio 4 flagship this week.

.@BBCTomFeilden, I'm guessing you had no say in this. Did you know @BBCr4today were bringing Lawson on to tell us world wasn't warming up?

— Jim Al-Khalili (@jimalkhalili) August 10, 2017

Family life

The role of Radio 4 artswallah James Runcie, creator of Grantchester, part-time professor, director and literary curator, in the to-ing and fro-ing over the network's Saturday Review is unclear, though he seems to have approved its eventual preservation.

Here you go...very pleased for the decent and brilliant @tds153 https://t.co/vUjREPVurM

— James Runcie (@james_runcie) July 26, 2017

Meanwhile, James is having a busy August - this week, he's at the Dartington Summer School. "James Runcie examines English identity and revolution in John Milton and William Blake, and directs creative writing classes in crime fiction."

Meanwhile Mrs Runcie - Marilyn Imrie - directs at least one of Mr Runcie's Henry James' season on R4.

There's also this at the beginning of August.... pic.twitter.com/daEVqikbPx

— James Runcie (@james_runcie) July 27, 2017

And, over at the Sunday Telegraph, daughter Charlotte selects Henry James as her pick of the week.

Coming soon

The Justice League of the BBC.

Central casting

A couple of unforced editorial errors at the start of August suggest some key eyes off the ball at BBC News.

This morning the Today Programme played leading climate change scientist Lord Lawson in response to an appearance by Al Gore. Even Lord Lawson thought the BBC had banned him on this topic. Maybe Sarah Sands' induction has been incomplete.

Last night, Newsnight staged a "debate" on prospects for the Welsh language, with two people who don't speak Welsh, and, on the evidence of the discussion, who occasionally struggle with English. It was all introduced cheerily by Evan Davis, who may in retrospect wish he had been better briefed.

• Friday update on Today from BBC spokesperson "The BBC's role is to hear different views so listeners are informed about all sides of debate and we are required to ensure controversial subjects are treated with due impartiality.  This split segment started with an interview with Al Gore, at 0710 and at twice the length of Lord Lawson's interview, and concluded with Fisher Stevens responding after Lawson, who as chairman of the Global Warming Policy Foundation had set out their position on the economics of subsidising green energy. It was introduced by our environment analyst who will be examining some of the claims further on tomorrow's programme."

Changing gear

Just catching up on how the re-booted Top Gear America is doing for that key brand extension, BBC America. The first edition went out at 8pm on Sunday 30 July, and was watched by 301,000. That puts it at number 81 in the list of 150 top cable original shows for the night. The only other entry for BBC America that day was the 1995 Scorsese movie, Casino, watched by 332,000.

Top of the chart was Game of Thrones, watched by 9.2m.

Freedom in numbers

How's the transparent BBC doing on Freedom Of Information requests ?  For the calendar year 2015, it received 2235; information was withheld entirely in 982 cases - some of them because they were outside the scope of the Act. 1235 were answered fully or partly.

There were 58 appeals about BBC refusals made to the Information Commissioner's Office; 18 cases were upheld, either in whole or in part, requiring further information (including advice and assistance) to be provided.

Steadying the ship

The dinghy that is BBC Arts seems to be tacking into the wind. First, R4's Saturday Review is cancelled, in favour of a sixth edition of Front Row, featuring highlights from the previous week. Then, after steam rising from august bodies such as the Critic's Circle (Membership by invitation only), the BBC magic money tree is shaken, and Saturday Review, at 7.15pm, is saved. Yesterday, we learnt that the Front Row team has sufficient effort to co-produce a BBC2 version (for at least seven weeks), also to be scheduled on a Saturday night. It will include "some shared interviews conducted by the BBC Radio 4 Front Row presenters".

Complicated enough ? Try this. "The Front Row TV series was commissioned by Patrick Holland, Controller, BBC Two and Jonty Claypole, Director of Arts. It will be produced by Scotland-based Pacific Quay Productions, part of the BBC’s commercial production arm BBC Studios and will be Executive Produced by Tanya Hudson [London-based]. The Editor is Alice Feinstein [of Front Row, W1 1AA]."

There must be another money tree in Glasgow, or somewhere.

Excited about this... https://t.co/r8nJIS2YIx

— James Purnell (@jimpurnell) August 9, 2017

Orison Hungerford RIP

Readers steeped in tv nostalgia have asked me to mark the death of Orison Whipple Hungerford, better known as the actor Ty Hardin.

He most famourly played the title role in Bronco Layne, which first showed on the BBC on Monday 1 June 1959, at 1955 - sandwiched between Juke Box Jury and Panorama. The billing: "A new Western series starring Ty Hardin as Bronco Layne, the roving cowboy adventurer. When Bronco saves a young man from death by snake-bite he does not realise that he is helping one of the deadliest gunmen in the West. Even with Bronco's help and friendship the young man finds it tougher to live down an old reputation than to build a new one."

Orison came to acting after service with the US Airforce, flying "Bird dogs" (Cessna L-19) in Korea; he'd come back to work as an engineer with Douglas in Santa Monica. He was spotted by agent Milton Lewis as he went to hire a costume for a Hallowe'en party. He got a further boost after a chat with John Wayne, who recommended him to Warner Brothers. They picked his name - Hardin was from the outlaw John Wesley Hardin (given a spurious final 'g' by Bob Dylan).

In retirement, Ty had a spell as a minister with Chuck Smith's Cavalry Chapel, whose leader predicted the world would end in 1981. The church survives....

Bronco's theme was written by Jay Livingston, with lyrics by Mack David, Hal's older brother.

Glenn Campbell RIP

Before real solo success, Glenn Campbell spent four months touring with the Beachboys, starting on Christmas Eve 1964, covering for one of Brian Wilson's breakdowns; he'd previously been hired as a session musician recording with the band. Brian returned the compliment by writing Glenn a song.

Anxious

As the USA (and the rest of the world) ponders the problem of letting their President spend too much time with working Generals, one wonders who is steering the BBC through August ? My guess is Lord Hall is in Italy, Charlotte Moore a long way away, and James Purnell is tweeting from the office. No spoor for James Harding and Anne Bulford.

Let's hope North Koreans understand playground rhetoric.

Great

As widely predicted, Euryn Ogwen Williams will lead the Government's independent review of S4C.

Independent in as much as Euryn was the first Director of Programmes when S4C was set up in 1982, and rose to deputy CEO from 1988 to 1991.

Euryn was born in Penmachno, in the heart of Snowdonia (perhaps that's where the 'Ogwen' comes from), when his dad, a reciter and member of the Gorsedd in Eisteddfod circles, was head teacher there. He moved with the family to Mold, and thence to the University of Wales in Bangor to study philosophy and psychology. Clearly the perfect preparation for a role as a TWW presenter, his first step into media.

He's currently based in a neat modern villa above Barry-Bados' Pleasure Beach; he already has a reputation as a digital thinker. I'll take a mild side bet that he recommends a little more investment in S4C. Below, a tribute video made for Euryn last year. Bits are funny, even if you don't speak Welsh. (Some of the speakers can find no Welsh synonym for "problem".)

Angus unheard

Broadcast reports that Ewan Angus, selected to be BBC Scotland's first head of Multiplatform Commissioning, has decided to stand aside for personal reasons.

Ewan, 25 years with the BBC, was already a key gatekeeper, in charge of commissioning Sport, Drama and pretty much everything else on BBC Scotland tv screens - the next step was running radio as well.

Trust me - I'm British

An entertaining survey of close to 9,000 Americans carried out by the Reynolds Journalism Institute at the University of Missouri places a number of British sources at the top of a league table of "most trusted". The Economist heads the list, with Reuters in third, the BBC fourth and The Guardian seventh. "Public Television", which comes in second, often carries BBC bulletins.

The sample is a little self-selecting, and there's probably a lot of serious news junkies in there, asked to list their three most trusted and three least trusted providers. The big networks, CBS, ABC and NBC are all clustered just the wrong side of the middle.

Covered

Here's another distinctive offering from the risk-taking BBC. A one-off Saturday night special featuring tribute bands. To make it more appealing, your host is Paddy McGuinness, who says, perhaps with the help of a press officer, "This show is a belter! A talent show that’s only about the talent - with the best tribute acts from around the world singing their hearts out. You'll never have to fork out for expensive concert tickets again. You've got front row seats!"

But wait - it's not just a one-off. There's a Christmas special too. Which is perhaps why the whole shebang is blessed with a "series producer".

Here's the full list of those you need to get a pub night organised at the BBC.

Even Better Than The Real Thing has been commissioned by Charlotte Moore, Director, Content and Kate Phillips, Controller, BBC Entertainment Commissioning. Rachel Ashdown, BBC Entertainment Commissioning Editor is the Commissioning Editor. It is produced by BBC Studios Entertainment, Music and Events in Salford; the Executive Producers are Andrew Cartmell and Kieron Collins, Managing Editor of BBC Studios Entertainment North. The Series Producer is Maisie Maguire.

Jay flies off

Weather forecaster Jay Wynne is leaving the BBC's employ. He takes with him a stack of qualifications: Ardingly College, a degree in Environmental Geography from Aberdeen, an interlude in Japan teaching English, an MSc in Applied Meteorology from Reading, and full Met Office training.

The applied bit ? “I have been known to drive around after night shifts, waiting for the sun to come up. At night it’s difficult to tell what kind of cloud there is on satellite pictures, so I like to see if I was right. More often than not, I am.”

Jay likes playing the blues on guitar, but says he needs more practice.

His departure does no favours to the BBC's on-screen diversity.

Proportionally

Here's a tantalising one, buried in a Freedom of Information response about BBC talent pay.....

"We can disclose that 30 of the 96 on-air talent paid more than £150k are employees of the BBC."

So 66 are contracted in some other way, that the BBC is not disclosing. And the 30 presumably have jolly nice pensions.

Font dipping

As so, as the BBC installs its own online font to save money, the internet giants are defaulting to the fonts that are already in your device...

On Facebook, if you use Windows, the text is Segoe UI; for Macs and iPhones and Pads, you get their San Francisco, and on Google/Android devices, it's Roboto.

For Twitter, on desktops and pcs you'll see Helvetica Neue; but on mobiles, it's the system font - San Francisco for iPhones, and Roboto for Android.

Not invented here

If, as constantly exhorted by the BBC elsewhere, you visit BBC Sport Online, things should be clearer from now on. The site is the first across the BBC to use a new font, called Reith, said to be easier to read, especially on small devices.

According to Colin Burns, the BBC's Chief Design Officer, Design and Engineering, (£195k p.a.) it makes business sense. "We also expect it to save us a significant amount of money. We have to pay for licences to use other fonts at the moment, but we won’t have to do this for BBC Reith - so it’s better value as well."

In case you'd forgotten, the BBC uses Helvetica as its main body font for online; unless, of course, your device doesn't have it as a standard system font, in which case it'll probably default to Arial for Windows and Roboto for Android.

August

Prepare for a month or so of Camila Batmanghelidjh. Her book, Kids, written with journalist and fan Tim Rayment, is published on August 31st. There's a first puff in The Sunday Times. She reveals her charity work has continued: “I have been working with a small team in the last two years, stabilising the kids we could reach after Kids Company closed, because the local authorities were not picking them up.”

“When the book comes out you will see the other story. I think right now there is a great injustice perpetrated against these trustees. People are not aware of what happened behind the scenes with the government.”

Sex

Not sure what's happening to David Holdsworth's bonus this year. He looks after BBC Local Radio, where there's supposed to be gender equality at breakfast. This is the schedule for Monday, and, ignoring deps, I make it 29 men play 22 women. Gawd knows where the salaries end up (tho Vanessa probably helps).

Berks: Andrew Peach
Bristol: Emma Britton
Cambridge: Dotty MacLeod
Cornwall: James Churchfield & Pam Spriggs
Coventry and Warwickshire: Trish Adudu
Cumbria: Mike Zeller
Derby: Ian Skye
Devon: Gordon Sparks
Essex: Sadie Nine
Gloucestershire: Mark Cummings
Guernsey: Jim Cathcart
Hereford & Worcester: Elliott & Toni
Humberside: Lizzie Rose & Carl Wheatfield
Jersey: Ashlea Tracey
Kent: John Warnett & Anna Cookson
Lancashire: Graham Liver
Leeds: Liz Green (Richard Stead sits in)
Leicester: Jim Davis & Jo Hayward
Lincolnshire: Scott Dalton
London: Vanessa Feltz
Manchester: Alison Butterworth (Michelle Adamson sits in) and Phil Trow
Merseyside: Lisa Marrey (Paul Beesley sits in)
Newcastle: Alfie & Anna (Steffen and Stephanie sit in)
Norfolk: Nick Conrad (David Whiteley sits in)
Northampton: Stuart Linnell
Nottingham: Andy Whittaker & Sarah Julian (Verity Cowley sits in)
Oxford: David Prever
Sheffield: Toby Foster (Paul Walker sits in)
Shropshire: Eric Smith & Clare Ashford
Solent: Julian Clegg
Somerset: Claire Carter
Stoke: Liz Ellis (Lee Thomas sits in)
Suffolk: Mark Murphy
Surrey: Mark Carter & Lesley McCabe
Sussex: Joe Talbot
Tees: Neil Green & Amy Oakden
Three Counties: Andy Collins
Wiltshire: Ben Prater (Graham Rogers sits in)
WM: Alex Lester (Richie & Louise sit in)
York: Kay Crewdson

Brands at work

Missing live competitive football ?  Tune to BBC Alba tonight at 5.30pm for coverage of Hibernian v Partick Thistle. Highly Gaelic. And no idea how much it's costing you....

Or, if in the States, how about a slice of the home country on BBC America, showing Star Trek all day til 10pm ?

Nibbles...

The Sun says it has paid 'substantial damages' to former EastEnders producers, Sean O'Connor.

Meanwhile the Mail has tales of behind-the-scenes unpleasantness at the Asian Network.

🎉 The weekend has arrived! 🙌 Start it in the best possible way with @PanjabiHitSquad's awesome Love Friday Mix 📀 https://t.co/Y3bb71n3yf pic.twitter.com/u7uoG3tbhN

— BBC Asian Network (@bbcasiannetwork) August 4, 2017

Clarity

BBC Content is looking for a Diversity & Inclusion Specialist.

"Sitting at the heart of content you will be the Disability on-air and on screen focal point with the support of the Content Disability Champion, Head of Diversity and Inclusion and Content Diversity Lead, champion disabled talent and disability-related production projects as well as helping the BBC achieve its 2020 disability portrayal targets."

"Please note: The advertised Job Title is Diversity & Inclusion Specialist, however the role sits under our HR Job Family structure, in line with our CareerPath Framework Programme, and the contractual job title will be HR Specialist. "

All clear ? Questions ?

Target practice

BBC Director of Radio and Education James Purnell has set his first target, published on medium.com, but presumably also shared via an all-staff email.

"Four years ago, we were reaching 95% of 15–44 year olds. Now that’s 92%. We want to turn that around so we continue to serve all audiences.

"In my division, Radio and Education, we’ve set ourselves the goal of stopping that decline this year and starting to grow the year after."

The latest RAJAR quarterly figures show the reach of BBC Radio amongst 15-44 year-olds down year on year, from 56.4% to 56.2%. Commercial radio is reaching 73% of the same age group. James promises to deliver a new metric which will show reach to under-16s.

It may be August, but the talk around Broadcasting House has already turned to DG-succession; you may not have heard the starting gun, but the race is on. Team Harding are expected next on the track with some News stuff, mid-September.

Bits

Odds and ends from Ofcom's annual Communications Market Report.

Total expenditure for all 21 commercial local tv services broadcasting in 2016 was £18.3m. The total income for all 21 services broadcasting in 2016 was £10.5m. BBC funding accounted for almost a third (30%) of local television income in 2016, up by 1% on the previous year in real terms. An average of over 1.8 million UK households per week (7.0%) watched a local television channel over the year.

The BBC spent £471 million on radio content in 2016-17, a decline of £11 million in real terms since 2015-16. BBC 1Xtra and BBC 6 Music enjoyed the largest proportionate increase in content expenditure between 2015-16 and 2016-17, with real terms increases of 40% and 35% respectively, while at £5.2m (at March 2017 prices), BBC Radio 2’s increase in content spend was the largest in absolute terms, at £5.6m.

And finally, a chart which, in my humble view, seems to show BBC Radio super-serving older males, which can't be good.

Coaching

Has Vanessa's appraisal worked ?  Yesterday internal memos revealed concerns about Ms Feltz's ability to cope at Radio London breakfast, and audience figures were down to 161,000, from 208,000 when she started in January 2016.  Now the latest RAJAR figures show a weekly reach of 307,000. It's a majestic transformation by editor David Robey; weekly reach for the whole station is up by 111,000 year on year, to 621,000.

Elsewhere at breakfast, Chris Evans has dropped to 9m this quarter (from 9.47m a year ago), while the Today Programme is up to a record high of 7.66m (up from 7.35m a year ago). Nick Grimshaw at Radio 1 is up a tad year on year - from 5.43m to 5.5m.  Nicky Campbell and Rachel Burden on 5 live are down to 2.27m - at LBC, Nick Ferrari reaches 1.2m across the UK.

Across the stations, year on year, Radio 1 is up 131k, to 9.58m; Radio 2 is down 414k to 14.88m; Radio 3 is down 139k, to 2.06m; Radio 4 is up 44k, to 11.55m; Radio 5Live is down 541k, to 5.31m, and 6Music is down 31k, to 2.23m.

BBC World Service in the UK is up 139k, to 1.59m.

BBC Wales is up 75k, to 103,000; Radio Cymru is up 25k, to 128,000. Radio Scotland is down 41k, to 888,000.

Thinking time

There are interesting choices facing those the Insolvency Service seeks to disqualify as company directors.

You can give The Insolvency Service a ‘disqualification undertaking’ - this means you voluntarily disqualify yourself, and there's no court action. Or you can wait for The Insolvency Service to take you to court to disqualify you, and fight your case in the Companies Court, down Fetter Lane. It's the equivalent of a civil trial - with all the legal costs that entails. The letter from the Insolvency Service will say clearly why they think you're unfit; you have to work out if they've got it right. Grounds might include proving that the insolvency resulted from unforeseeable misfortune outside the director’s control; or an unexpected loss of key staff, rather than negligence or incompetence.

Disqualification doesn't just mean standing aside as a company director You can’t be involved in forming, marketing or running any company You could be fined or sent to prison for up to 2 years if you break the terms of the disqualification.

Buying time

Is Johnston Press turning a corner ? Half-yearly results are a mixed bag, dragged down by the continuing decline in classified advertising. If you're prepared to ignore that, digital revenues are up, and the iNews venture, aqcuired for £24m, has produced returns of £3.7m over the six months.

Surely confidence could be boosted further by a few director deals ? CEO Ashley Highfield's last trade was to sell 6,802 shares at 41p each in April last year. Re-investing that cash at today's price would bring him over 25,000 shares.

Contented content

Is it just me, or is the brave, new, creative, risk-taking world of BBC Content picking from a rather restricted gene pool ?

Our Autumn evenings will be enlivened by Claudia Winkleman and Mary Berry doing cooking; Claudia Winkleman doing makeovers; Zoe Ball doing family cooking; Zoe Ball leading a new singing talent show; more cooking from Nigella; Len Goodman with a zany quiz show; Mel and Sue with The Generation Game; Katherine Jenkins doing Songs of Praise; and endless new quiz shows from Richard Osman. Familiarity etc.

Performance

A difficult morning for David Robey, editor of BBC Radio London for close to 18 years. An email has strayed into the hands of The Sun, evaluating Vanessa Feltz's performance as the station's breakfast host since January 2016.

In terms of current key indicator, value-to-audience, the figures suggest it's not working. Weekly reach for the three-hour-a-morning show is down to 161,000, from 208,000 the previous year. Vanessa is currently on £350k-plus a year, but it's not clear how much of that comes from her Radio 2 contract, playing records from 5.00am to 6.30am.

This morning's Radio London chat about the newspapers covered Ubers, Angela Merkel's holiday wear, Tatler's views on the use of "Pardon ?" and old people reminiscing. Technophobe Vanessa ended the discussion by re-stating that she's, as yet, never sent or received an email. I bet she reads this one.

Oldies

BBC News is getting older.

28% of the staff in Network News were over 50 in 2016; in 2017, the percentage rises to 30.6%.
27.4% of the staff in English Regions were over 50 in 2016; in 2017, it's up to 30.8%.
Even the youthful World Service Group, where just 25.7% were over 50 in 2016, saw a rise to 26.7% in 2017.

I know where I'm going

Increased certainty at the BBC, about religion (and atheism). Stats from the Annual Equality Information reports...

Brand BBC

As part, presumably, of its mission, BBC America launched Top Gear America, made by BBC Worldwide in America, on Sunday night. Here are some reviews...

"I just felt like the show was grinding with its constant Americana references, about how we work hard and do things differently than the rest of the world, and like stuff AMERICAN BUILT and AMERICAN TOUGH.

"Where the British Top Gear show has American punching bag Matt LeBlanc, this show has a British punching bag in Tom Ford. They really wanted you to know this was red-blooded AMERICAN Top Gear.

"It’s going to sound contrived and repetitive for me to say this about a Top Gear show, but the dialogue and studio scenes feel contrived and repetitive, with the same general grievances I hold with British Top Gear, which did get better last season, and the old Top Gear USA"   Justin Westbrook, Jalopnik

"Top Gear America just has us wondering why the plug was ever pulled on Top Gear USA. It doesn’t demonstrate why it’s any better than its predecessor. Especially with BBC America still airing reruns of the original Top Gear as well as the UK reboot, it’s going to have to do a lot more to get viewers’ engines revving."  Brittany Frederick, Fansided.