S-s-studios

The searing insight team at the NAO have applied their huge brains to BBC Studios, and have come up with a recommendation for improvement that is frankly incomprehensible.

"Review the effectiveness of recent improvements to governance over BBC Studios, including whether the September 2019 changes to relevant terms of references have successfully clarified the role of the main BBC Board, BBC Commercial Holdings Board and the Commercial Group strategy sub-committee of the Executive team in setting the strategic objectives for BBC Studios and the BBC’s commercial strategy and in subsequently holding the BBC to account for the delivery of these."

There are some simple points in the NAO's report. It notes a "cultural gap" between the distribution-and-DVD-sellers of BBC Worldwide, and the producers of tv content that came from BBC Content. Hard to believe that, with two nice guys like Tim Davie and Mark Linsey at the top. There's a slightly Mao-ist response from the BBC side, promising the early launch of a "three-year culture and engagement plan to improve the overall experience of working at BBC Studios."   The overall staff engagement score on the production side was as low as 55% in April 2019; the NAO points to high numbers of staff on short-term contracts.

The problem for the producers, says the NAO, is the lack of new, big, strands.  Its current
performance relies on old-timers, such as Doctor Who and Top Gear, with only four of its forecast top 16 revenue-generating in-house produced shows in 2019-20 dating from after 2010. And the NAO notes a load of  money was lumped on a second series of His Dark Materials, way before the first could be assessed financially.