Moneymaker

Matthew Moore in The Times says BBC DG Tim Davie is contemplating floating off the production teams working on sport, radio and children's. And why not ?

Tim was there at the creation of BBC Studios, first publicly mooted as a commercial subsidiary in August 2014 by Pat Younge. Supporters argued that they could maintain all that good public service ethos stuff AND be more agile and effective, competing for programme slots against the emerging big indies. It would also take salaries and contracts, small and large, away from the detailed public scrutiny sought by Tory MPs. 

There's a longer piece on headcount, but broadly, in 2015, a year before BBC Studios went commercial, 300 jobs out of 1900 were cut. In 2016, the remaining 1600 transferred to the new venture. By 2017, they'd grown to 2,000 - and then came the merger with BBC Worldwide, who at the time employed 1,700. Another 700 jobs quietly went, as the new merged Worldwide/Studios emerged with a headcount of 3,000. 

Let's see where we stand on headcount next week. Staff in sport, radio and children's programming will be interested.