Building regulations

Broadcast magazine tells us that the BBC's Chief Content Officer Charlotte Moore is about to commit to a new way of organising tv commissioning - by genre, rather than by channel.

My take is that this a centralising move, rather one of liberation, with an eye on saving money. If you pool the content spend across BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4 and Daytime (with a little bit of current affairs) you end up with £1.3bn a year. (This will shrink closer to £1bn by the time we get a new licence fee deal). Then you have commitments - public promises about the hours of drama, science, religion etc - largely agreed with Ofcom. Within that framework, traditionally, the Controllers of the Big Spenders, BBC1 and BBC2, jointly sign off new programmes with genre commissioners. 

Bringing it in to one pot, ostensibly to reflect the growing importance of iPlayer, allegedly enables you to compete with Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney. There, you simply spread blockbusters over the year, usually quarter by quarter, and churn the back catalogue in the hope that subscribers don't notice how much old stuff there really is. 

Two analogies of what might be lost in this new system. If programmes are the building blocks of channels, channel controllers can shape them ahead of delivery to site, to make their palaces more distinctive and memorable. In this move, controllers become assemblers, choosing from a limited range of bricks specified in size and shape by someone else.  Assembly work has been a feature of the lockdown, as schedules have been propped up by reclaimed bricks. 

My second analogy takes us to the High Street. BBC1 as John Lewis, BBC2 as the old Laura Ashley, BBC3 as JD Sports, BBC4 as a second-hand bookshop, and Daytime as Warner Leisure Hotels. You can get all this sort of stuff via Amazon - but you have to know what you're looking for. And I'd argue shopping online is never as satisfying.