Reinvention, re-basing and resolution

The BBC Board spent its May meeting chipping away at the Executive.

In discussing performance over the year "Directors agreed that the executive should come back to the
Board with a plan of how to better serve youth audiences across all of the BBC’s services, and how best to signpost those programmes across the BBC’s network of services. The Board also requested a session on audience perceptions of impartiality at a future Board meeting and a breakdown of BAME/C2DE audience data under the fourth purpose. "

(For new readers, the fourth BBC purpose is "to reflect, represent and serve the diverse communities of all of the United Kingdom’s nations and regions and, in doing so, support the creative economy across the United Kingdom")

The Executive came cap in hand to the Board for new money to make Eastenders, and to 're-base' the project to give it a new set (last publicly estimated at £15m). The Executive also came back with reduced costs for the plan to move the BBC Maida Vale operation to Stratford, and got it, but, in a scenario familiar to viewers of W1A, was told "to develop a full proposal around reinventing the BBC Orchestras for a new generation."

The troubles with IR35 - are presenters staff or freelance ? - rumbled on, with top Beeb lawyer Sarah Jones and Bob Shennan making a special appearance. "The Board approved a mandate enabling the executive to help resolve historic disputes about the tax and National Insurance Contributions due on fees paid by the BBC to its on-air presenters." Here, I think 'resolve' is used in the traditional BBC sense of 'sort out with licence-fees'.