News shuffle

The nice guys at Ofcom have smiled on a request from Channel 5 to move their news bulletins out of peaktime. They are currently committed to two half hour bulletins, Monday to Friday, at 1700 and 1830; they want in future to produce an hour at 1700.    

They point out that their 1830 is up against the two most popular news slots in the schedule - the BBC's regional news bulletin, often topping the daily ratings when you add up all the editions around the country, and the ITV bulletin (audiences between 3 and 3.5m). The current Channel 5 1830 bulletin has approximately a 0.72% share as compared to 30% for the BBC and 21% for ITV.  5 plan to keep their later headline service, currently at 1955 and 2055.

If you disagree with Channel 5 and Ofcom, write to them before 21st July. 

Conveyancing

The BBC is edging closer to getting some cash from the sale of Caversham. The former HQ of BBC Monitoring (and the US spooks on the top floor) has been on the market since 2017. 

Beechcroft Developments have signed a contract with the BBC to renovate the site for "high quality retirement housing", which will also include a care home, and affordable housing for sale and rent.  Beechcroft says it will consult on its proposals in the autumn, and submit detailed plans to Reading Borough Council by the end of the year.

How many ?

Yesterday marked the first birthday of Times Radio.  You might have thought that they'd share some encouraging listening figures. They didn't.  The official RAJAR quarterly reports are 'frozen', stuck on the three months ending March 2020.   They say so much of their data comes from face-to-face market research, and that hasn't been possible in lockdown. Privately, of course, radio stations have plenty of data from listeners on apps, online and smart speakers, but they've chosen not go public.

Here at Tradingaswdr Towers we're getting pumped up ahead of the impending BBC Annual Report. However, there may be some deflation - my favourite charts are "costs per user hour", and without RAJAR data, there may not be that calculation to pore over. 

Making do

Broadcast tells us that the BBC has abandoned a hunt for a Group Director of Corporate Affairs.  It was advertised back in October, with the involvement of top headhunters Russell Reynolds (non-executive director Lord Patten). At the time, the steer was that the successful candidate would play a pivotal role in the mid-Charter review and next licence fee deal, with a board seat and all that stuff.  

Now it seems DG Tim Davie is happy-ish to soldier on with the team he inherited from Lord Hall. 

Bleary-eyed

The UK tv audience stuck with European football in general last night, with an average audience of 7.52m watching France v Switzerland on ITV, more than double the number of those who stuck with the travails of 34-year-old hip replacement patient Andy Murray on BBC1. 

And loads of us stayed up late: the ITV peak was 11.26m, recorded at 10.43pm. 

Take up

The BBC, dumped on by the Conservative government to implement a government policy, sounds pretty pleased with the public reponse to the ending of most free licence fees for the over-75s. 

It calculates that 9 out of 10 households where an over-75 needed a free or paid licence have sorted themselves out.  3.9m needed to act; 2.8m now pay for their own licence; 709,000 have got a free licence, because they are on Pension Credit, with another 74,000 being processed.  41,000 have decided they don't need a licence. 

A light warning to the remainder: "The extended transition period we put in place due to Covid-19 will end on 31 July 2021. And in line with general policy, anyone who watches or records live TV programmes on any channel, or downloads or watches BBC programmes on BBC iPlayer, must be covered by a valid TV licence. "

Seconds in it

The latest four-week figures from BARB are encouraging for GB News, especially considering it was only active for two of them. 

Reach over the month was 2.8m, and average time spent per viewer 16 seconds. BBC Scotland reached 3.1m, but for an average of 12 seconds. Sky News reached 8.2m, who spent 1.10secs with them, while the BBC News channel reached 12.3m, who joined for an average of 2 minutes. 

The Power of Women

 ...that's the title of June Sarpong's book, first out in paperback in 2018. Now she's added new chapters, and seeks promotion.  Where else, for the BBC's Director of Creative Diversity, other than The Graham Norton Radio Show with Waitrose on Virgin Radio ? 

 "I believe in meditation and I think particularly as we get older and our bodies change and we're sitting there looking at our lumps and bumps and thinking, oh god, I don't look the way I did 20 years ago. 

"I think it's important to be naked in front of the mirror and just appreciate what you have. So I suggest women do that - actually, everybody do that - once a week because otherwise you're constantly sitting there thinking about all the things that you're not and I think you have to counter that.”

More for Marr

The Andrew Marr Show seems to have benefitted from a Saturday-night-news-hole. There was a two minute news summary covering Matt Hancock's resignation, run at 1928, just before three hours and ten minutes of Italy v Austria, including extra time. 

So clearly a number of rubber-necking viewers delivered a 2.4 million average audience for Marr at 0900 on Sunday, giving the programme a 42% share of viewing. 

Wide boy

There are a number of questions that might be put to Sir Christopher Stephen Wormald KCB, Permanent Secretary at the DHSC since 2016. 

Sir Christopher, 52 (Rutlish School, Merton and St John's College, Oxford) describes himself as "a classic Civil Servant", like his dad. He joined the "Fast Stream" straight from college. He spent 15 years at the DfE – including stints as principal private secretary to education secretaries Estelle Morris and Charles Clarke. His talents were admired by Lord Adonis, saying he "combines engaging wide-boy charm with bureaucratic mastery”. 

Has he retained that mastery at the DHSC ?  Where was he when Gina Coladangelo was appointed as a non-exec to the DHSC Board ?  How long has he known that Matt Hancock was conducting business on a private email account ?  How many employees and contractors at Victoria Street have access to CCTV footage of the Secretary of State's office ?   

Traction

The second week of GB News gave the newcomer a marginal edge over Sky News in the overnight ratings covering the hours between 6pm and midnight. From Monday, June 21 to Friday, June 25, GB News averaged 54,600 viewers, a 0.4% audience share. Sky's figures for the same primetime period were 52,100 - a share of 0.38%. 

The BBC News channel averaged 127,600 (0.94%).

Personnel

A fortnight in, the GB News schedule now features Nigel Farage not as commentator but presenter.  He co-hosted the slot called "Political Correction" with Dehenna Davison, the Conservative MP for Bishop Auckland. And guest at 10.10am - on-leave company chairman Andrew Neil, with a suspiciously Provençal backdrop, opining that Matt Hancock's political career is at an end, and that Boris Johnson should have sacked him.

Decisive

It's not possible that our immensely capable Prime Minister is waiting for the outcome of opinion polls, as ususal, and perhaps particularly from Batley & Spen at present, before deciding on whether or not the Health Secretary deserves to stay in post, is it ?

The first Tory MP to call for Mr Hancock's head was North Norfolk's Duncan Baker, defined as "family man" on his Twitter handle; followed by no-fan-of-lockdowns Esther McVey. 

The Commitments

To the surprise of many, Newsnight went up against Channel 4 News last night.  The Friday edition was shifted to 7pm, to make uninterrupted space for re-runs of Radiohead and R.E.M. at Glastonbury. 

Faisal Islam was the host, for a full Hancock's Half Hour. The relative viewing figures will be interesting, but might never be shared. 

Healthy family

Gina Coladangelo's dad, Rino, specialised in gastroenterology as a doctor, used to run an NHS Trust, and is now CEO of Rephine, a company that audits manufacturing quality at pharmaceutical companies. It's headquartered in Stevenage, with offices in Italy, India and China. The family home is a Grade II listed farmhouse, with bits from the 14th Century, outside Steeple Morden. 

Her brother, Roberto, used to be a brand manager for Paddy Power, but has now developed a care-at-home concept called Youla; "The Youla Observation and Reporting Information Service (YORIS) uses AI learning from both remote sensors and carer records to deliver improved on the ground interventions to prevent hospital admissions and also enable faster hospital discharge."  Mum and dad are company directors. 

Composition

In September 2020, there was a changing of the guard at the Department of Health and Social Care Departmental Board.  Secretary of State Matt Hancock bade farewell to Professor Dame Sue Baily, OBE,  specialism psychiatry and national health policy; Michael Mire, ex McKinsey; and Professor Sir Mike Richards, the NHS' first Cancer Director and a former Chief Inspector of Hospitals. 

In came Doug Gurr, recently departed from Amazon UK; and Gina Coladangelo, a PR specialist with charity experience. 

"A Non-executive Board Member is responsible for constructively challenging, and providing guidance and support to, the Executive Board."

Your Home Made Perfect

DG Tim Davie's review of the plans to change Broadcasting House in Belfast has cut nearly £30m from the project. The vision, in 2019, from architects Sheppard Robson, was costed at £77m. Now the figure is £48m, which clearly implies a big chunk of 'value engineering'. 

Everything must change

When a BBC job looks tricky, get a deputy. It's taken new Chief Operating Officer Leigh Tavaziva five months to realise she needs a No 2, who will be called Director of Operations and Transformation, and act as  'strategic thought partner' for Leigh. Once in post, the successful candidate 'will lead and be accountable for a small to mid-sized team.'

I note the role requires some drafting skills, perhaps of clearer job ads. Try this guff: 

The key success of this role sits at the heart of striking the right balance between inspiring and driving delivery of change, between short term improvement and long term value and ensuring that the accountability for the delivery of all change programmes and workstreams including the Critical Projects Portfolio (CPP) remain with the relevant identified Executive owners to deliver results quickly and effectively.

Tress test

We mentioned Gina Tress, nee Coladangelo, last November. Like a good horizon scanner, she follows 788 Twitter accounts, many of them journalists, but, oddly, no-one from The Sun. 

Away from the hacks, the mother of three tracks most members of One Direction, a number of high street fashion brands and magazines, some accounts about life in South West London, and DHSC Appointments, a specialist account pointing to non-executive vacancies in the NHS. 

In 2016, she described her fashion style to the Mail. 

• I have about seven minutes to get ready in the morning, so shirts bring a crispness to my usual outfit of skinny trousers and ankle boots.
• I have around 20 shirts, which I buy from Oliver Bonas, Whistles, & Other Stories and Cos. I love the strictness of Céline-style granddad cuts as much as something more feminine with a print.
• To avoid looking mumsy, I add a funky shoe: silver brogues, Vans or Nike Air Max.
• I would never wear a shirt with a cardigan (too school-mistressy) or with a short skirt (too secretarial), but love them tucked into a midi skirt.

Holiday news

After nine full one hour shows, company chairman and iconic presenter Andrew Neil, 72, is taking some leave from GB News.

"That’s it for tonight and from me for the next few weeks. But I leave you in the safe and professional hands of Colin Brazier. I’ll be back before the summer is out and when you least expect it, so stay tuned.

"But before I take this break, let me say this; Yes, we had a bit of a rocky start with the launch of GB News. We’re a start-up, they’re always a bit rocky these start-ups. But we are up and running as you can see, we get better every day and there’s clearly an appetite for what we’re doing.

"And in two short weeks, we’ve already built a loyal audience which has beaten all of our expectations, it’s often bigger than the other news channels and it’s growing. That’s the real story about GB News to date and you won’t often read that in the papers.

"So on behalf of GB News, I say to all of our viewers, thank you. We won’t let you down and you ain't seen nothing yet.

The normalisation of the channel, dedicated to new voices, was complete yesterday, with a first appearance of travel journalist Simon Calder, the hardest booking in news. 

Neighbours

In a bizarre Morris Dance of property deals, ITV's London staff - 2,000 of them - are heading to the Broadcast Centre, White City, originally built and occupied by the BBC.

The ITV teams will start moving in early 2022, coming from Waterhouse Square in Holborn and 200 Gray’s Inn Road. They'll join the daytime ITV production teams already at WestWorks in White City, producing shows out of the studios at Television Centre. ITV have taken a 13-year lease on 120,000 sq ft - which still leaves plenty of space for Beeboids. 

Buonasera

Busy 2021 so far, surely, for the BBC's Royal Liaison Officer, Graham Ellis, with the death and funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh, William and Harry laying into the BBC over Bashir's fake documents, DG Tim Davie trying to reaching out to the Royal Household to make it better, and Royal correspondent Jonny Dymond caught up in the row over who said Lilibet first and why. 

Then there's the matter of cutting jobs and winning commissions for BBC Audio, which he also runs.

So, much relief as Graham finds time to attend, as President, the 2021 Prix Italia ceremonies at La Scala, Milan, earlier this month. And deliver his opening speech in Italian (43 minutes in). 

Reaching out

GB News is beginning to show up in the bits of audience information that BARB shares with the public. 

One measure it uses is 'four-week reach'. In the four weeks up to and including June 13th, GB News was broadcasting a test card, then some loops introducing the presenters, and finally four hours of real live programming. Reach ? 1.0m.  Over the same four weeks, the BBC News Channel 'reached' 12.4m people, and Sky News 8.2m.  

It will get better, but a million finding the right button with no real content isn't a bad start. 

Relics

George Osborne is the new chairman of the Board of Trustees at the British Museum. 

In their last set of minutes, from December, Trustee Minouche Shafik reported on the search for a new chair. She's formally known as Nemat Talaat Shafik, Baroness Shafik, of Camden in the London Borough of Camden and of Alexandria in the Arab Republic of Egypt, introduced into the Lords in October 2020. 

In March 2014, Chancellor George Osborne announced the appointment of Dr Nemat Shafik as the Bank of England's new deputy governor for markets and banking, after widespread criticism for his failure to appoint any women to the Bank's nine man Monetary Policy Committee.

Interviews for the Museum gig were scheduled for 1st March, to be conducted by outgoing chair, Sir Richard Lambert and Lord Chartres, who, as Bishop of London, moved George Osborne to tears with his sermon at the funeral of Margaret Thatcher.   Mr Osborne moved the Bishop to anger when, in his omnishambles budget of 2012, he imposed VAT on alterations to listed buildings, like churches. 

Greening

I didn't sign up for the event, but some reports of last night's Media Society event on the topic of GB News say that Kevin Bakhurst, from Ofcom, said there was a difference between a news programme and a magazine show. 

I hope this doesn't mean that there will be lower standards of accuracy required from, say, the Dan Wootton Show or Dewbs & Co, than say, Today on Radio 4.  In 2017, Ofcom rebuked Today for allowing two unchallenged and uncorrected assertions from Lord Lawson, Honorary President of the Global Warming Policy Forum.  In the first week of GB News, Andrew Montford of GWPF made appearances with both Dan Wootton and Michelle Dewberry; Lord (Matt) Ridley told the Great British Breakfast that the world is getting greener thanks to CO2 emissions. 

Help wanted

Some new vacancies at GB News. My italics.

"We need a brilliant news producer to work closely with our UK-wide team of reporters to ensure the delivery of the highest quality content for all platforms from across the country."

"As we continue to grow, we are looking for an additional 8 producers to join us. ...You will be skilled and energetic with a forensic eye for detail and accuracy. You will be full of ideas both for stories and for how they are told. You will be highly adept at producing video, graphic and live sequences and casting debates in an original way, constantly seeking out fresh and compelling angles. You will not rely on the same faces saying the same things."

Morning, morning meeting

How exciting that the press and BBC were on board HMS Defender. Of course, a major news organisation would never like to feel itself used in a propaganda war.  That's why the BBC has Jonathan Beale on board, and Frank Gardner at home, discussing the strategic issues. 

What's missing is an analysis of the different between 'navigation routes', which Defender says its defending, and 'shipping routes'.   True, there are some RoRo ferries operating between Odessa (Ukraine) and Batumi (Georgia). But the major traffic route across the Black Sea is from the Russian port of Novorssiysk, which the Russians have been steadily building up over the past 20 years. Oil and gas pipelines are also of interest in this dispute, with Ukraine enjoying substantial Russian money for pipelines across its land. These pipelines could be sidelined by new routes in the Baltic. 

And perhaps the BBC could provide us with an update on the part Russians and Ukrainians in the UK are playing in British politics ?  

Thee and thine

On October 1970, Joan Yorke hosted the first ever edition of You and Yours on Radio 4. Now Radio 4 Controller Mohit Bakaya has put the slot out to tender, looking for "timely, ear-catching information on, and scrutiny of, every aspect of the economy as it impinges on the life of citizens. "

(You and Yours, introduced under Controller Tony Whitby, aggregated an number of existing programmes with equally gripping titles - Can I Help You ?, Money Matters, Listening Post, In Practice, Parents and Children, and the seminal You and Your Money)

If you can knock something up for £8k an hour including presenter fees, get in touch, as they say. You get the full hour on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. On Thursday they want the same magazine format, but for half an hour, to be followed by something they can re-use as a 25 minute podcast. Lord knows what we're going to get on Fridays. 

High peaks

Broadcast magazine says, by its analysis, the first week of  GB News, across all hours, was watched by an average of 50k viewers, with peaks of 70k. This, it says, is 'nip and tuck' with Sky News' figures over the same period, whereas BBC News averaged 92k, with peaks at 121k. 

50k is roughly the population of Clacton-on-Sea. 

Exponential

Another recruitment surge is about to start at the BBC's New York offices, starting with a three-month vacancy for a recruiter. In turn, the successful candidate will "handle full cycle recruitment efforts for 15+ open positions which range from Assistant to SVP level."  

If you're amongst those losing their BBC employment in this country, please note you have to have legal authorisation to work in the USA before you can be considered. 

Let's hope this US tail doesn't start wagging the UK dog, eh ? 

Ignoring the bottom line

It almost looks as if neither Oliver Dowden nor John Whittingdale can read a balance sheet. The latest Channel 4 Annual Report, spookily held up somewhere in Government until yesterday, preceded, by a matter of hours, the latest Government move to consider privatisation. 

Channel 4 hasn't and doesn't require 'public money', but, in the judgement of these two culture warriors cannot survive in the new media landscape without serious 'investment capital', only available via an 'alternate ownership model'.  In 2020, Channel 4 turned in a profit in the pandemic by spending less on content. 

Top formats don't have to be expensive. Gogglebox, Jamie Oliver's Keeping Cooking and Carry On, Grayson's Art Club together cost less than an episode of The Crown. Smart investment saw Film 4 supporting double-Oscar winner The Father, and the excellent re-take of David Copperfield. 

This, in reality, is part Government fundraiser, and part punishment. The trouble is that, to back the received Tory view that C4 is a wing of the Labour Party, they need some Ofcom judgements they don't have, or a successful court case against the allegation that Boris Johnson is a 'known liar'. 

The findings of the latest Reuters Institute annual report on news consumption will probably distress Dowden and Whittingdale even more.  It shows weekly reach of Channel 4 at 11%, ahead of the Daily Mail at 7%.  In a survey of 15 UK news sources, Channel 4 News scored 58% for 'trusted', compared with  43% for The Telegraph and 26% for the Mail. 

Where did that come from ?

Channel 4 CEO Alex Mahon seems to have pulled off a pandemic miracle. The broadcaster ended 2020 with a surplus of £69m, compared with a deficit of £25m the year before. 

Over the twelve months,  they identified a pot of £95m in cash savings in projects and investments (it's not clear whether they needed them all), made £150m savings in delays and full-stops in planned content spend, and later invested £16m in fast-turnaround Covid-19 programming (like Jamie Oliver cooking at home). 

This makes it difficult for Conservatives to argue that the operation needs to be privatised because it's struggling. 

The affordable bit

One of the key BBC assets of the last century - the multi-storey car park along Wood Lane just south of Television Centre - is being knocked down. (There was a time when the BBC's dedicated Architecture and Civil Engineering Department had its own dedicated car park specialist). 

Stanhope, Mitsui Fudosan and AIMCo are going to build 142 new affordable homes (at a suitable distance from the posh stuff in the Centre proper) for Peabody in two new buildings to be called Macfarlane Place.  Demolition will take at least 35 weeks and construction of Macfarlane Place will start in 2022, with completion expected in 2024.

4 Money

Channel 4, threatened with privatisation by the Culture Secretary, this afternoon comes under the laser-focus of the Culture Select Committee and its living-angry-emoji leader, Julian Knight MP. 

The Times seems to have private access to the company's latest annual report, claiming that CEO Alex Mahon's salary has risen by £50k to £991k; and Chief Content Officer Ian Katz added £8k to £536k. The highest managerial salary at the BBC belongs to DG Tim Davie, currently reduced to £450k, though set to rise to £525k in September. 

Ofcom and GB News

Here's a bold move - Ofcom Content and Media Policy Group Director (and Board Member) Kevin Bakhurst is joining a Media Society Zoom debate this Wednesday evening on the topic "GB News - how's it doing and what impact will it have ?". 

This is what Kev wrote in January.

"Our rules allow broadcast news channels to explore issues from their own viewpoint as long as they comply with some key principles: news presenters and reporters must not give their own views on politically controversial matters (and news channels must report the facts with due accuracy); whereas in non-news programmes, presenters and reporters can express their own opinions. However, in all programming, these channels must reflect alternative viewpoints. How they do it is up to them."

Will Kev opine on whether or not Dan Wootton counts as a 'news presenter' ? Alexandra Phillips ? 

In the GB News corner on the panel will be Alastair Stewart OBE.

 

Accounting

We're less than a month away from the traditional publication date of the BBC Annual Report, the first under new chairman Richard Sharp.  Last year's was late - delayed to mid-September, because of Covid, and signed off by barely-in-post new DG Tim Davie. 

The new report will come out in the middle of the mid-Charter review of the BBC, which is expected to include a new licence fee deal.  To encourage the BBC to think hard, the DCMS has turned its attention to sticking pins in Channel 4, which clearly has to be punished for Channel 4 News, The Last Leg, not-really-moving-to-Leeds and many other sins of wokery.  Ostensibly in the lead is Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden, given spine and resolution by old nice-but-tough-guy John Whittingdale and No 10 enforcer Dougie Smith. Cui bono, I hear you ask, if Channel 4 is privatised ?

So the tone of the Annual Report will be interesting, as will those perennial favourites, salaries over £150k, headcount and outstanding pay grievances. Expect, also, detailed celebrations of programmes not made in London, but few clues to the actual emerging strategy for the next five years. 

Improvements ?

Incremental changes this week at GB News. The breakfast output, so far hosted by four people at the desk where you sign your furniture hire purchase deal, is now brought to you by two people sitting on the brown sofa of uncomfortable presentation. 

And 'regular' commentator India Willoughby, born Jonathan, 'resigned' last night on air, during the Dan Wootton Show. 

Balance

Yesterday's big stories were at Wembley and Chesham & Amersham. The racy boys and girls at BBC News tv bulletins decided to devote the first 12 minutes of a 28 minute early evening slot to football - before the match had kicked off. Naturally, the result needed a measured and thoughtful response, so at ten o'clock it was again 12 minutes into a 32 minute bulletin before we got to the Libdem by-election victory. 

Newsnight was at the heart of it - coming from the set used by BBC Breakfast in MediaCity. Local rules seem to mean that, while lightbulbs can now change some colours, the red sofa can't be moved, draped, or covered with cushions.  By the way, Faisal, the programme's political editor is Nicholas Watt, not Watts. 

Senior moment

More change at Radio 4, where Chris Aldridge is stepping down from the post of Senior Announcer, held since 2003, in succession to the late Peter Donaldson.  He won't be entirely lost to the microphone, working on a freelance basis. 

Chris (Collyer's, Horsham and BSc Maths, Bedford College, London) notes a childhood fascination with the wireless. “The radio was always on in our house and I was brought up on programmes like Just a Minute, but when my parents gave me my own transistor radio as a Christmas present at the age of 11, I fell in love with it as a personal medium." 

Hospital radio experience at St Mary's helped him get into the BBC as a studio manager. His duties included archiving many hours of Hitler's speeches from the 1930s; spending the whole day on a crutch in a Radio 3 Drama studio as the sound effect of Paul Eddington's wooden leg; and being one of Steve Wright's Afternoon Boys.  He tried producing, working on Danny Baker's Sports Call during on the first incarnation of Radio 5, and also doing continuity announcing on the network.  

But when it became 5Live, he went back to studio manager for a year, before moving to the Radio 4 announcing team. 

I've started shouting at the radio a lot over this particular pronunciation. Is it time I retired?

— Chris Aldridge (@chinaysa) March 22, 2021

Scandinavian

From the website of Mediability, based in Media City, Bergen, Norway

"GB News aired for the first time Sunday night 8 PM London time! 

We congratulate the whole GB News team, our partners & team and all others involved in building up the new news channel in Britain.

At the core of the news production at GB News is journalist tool DiNA by company 7Mountains, integrated with Mimir by company Mjoll for media management and AI.

Stay tuned for more information about the journalist workflows and technical solutions GB News."

Staying tuned....  

Confidence

How long does it take to become a thought-leader in UK education ?  I note that next week's online conference hosted by the Higher Education Policy Institute is bracketed by two keynote addresses. The first is from Education Secretary Gavin Williamson, and the second from James Purnell, President and Vice-Chancellor, University of the Arts London, five months into the gig. 

Wider still...

The relentless search for new, unheard voices continues apace at GB News. Last night, Dan Wootton featured Calvin Robinson, a regular panellist on his old TalkRADIO show, and Daisy McAndrew, who is the partner of Director of News and Programmes, GB News, John McAndrew.  

Sony "Radio" back...

The Great Podcast Goldrush continues. The Sony Music group has bought one of the UK's longest established radio indies, Somethin' Else, formed in 1991. They want their podcast expertise, but alongside they've bought a position as one of the biggest providers to BBC Radio, making over 40 regular shows each week. 

Somethin' Else currently produce Gardener's Question Time and The Kitchen Cabinet for Radio 4, Trevor Nelson's Rhythm Nation and Fearne Cotton's Sounds of the 90s for Radio 2,  Kermode and Mayo's Film Review for Radio 5Live, Rickie, Melvin and Charlie for Radio 1 (moving to mid-morning from September) and J to Z for Radio 3. 

Expect the recent recruitment drive for production talent at their Old Street HQ to continue apace.  

Moving on

Former BBC Gaza correspondent Alan Johnston is among the latest lists of journalists taking redundancy rather than indicate preferences for new ways and places of working. 

Johnston, 59, was born in Lindi, Tanzania and went to Dollar Academy in Clackmannanshire. He has an MA in English and Politics from Dundee University and a diploma in Journalism Studies from the University of Wales in Cardiff. 

He joined the BBC in 1991 as a sub-editor in the World Service Newsroom, becoming Correspondent in Tashkent from 1993 to 1995, and Kabul Correspondent from 1997 to 1998. He was posted to Gaza in 2004, and, just two weeks before his contract was due to end, was kidnapped and held for nearly four months by a Jihadi organisation called the Army of Islam. He was the only Western broadcast journalist living and work in the Gaza Strip at the time. The BBC mounted a major international campaign to try to secure his release, and he was eventually freed unharmed on 4 July 2007. 

Sated ?

It might be the content, it might be the way it's being delivered, but it seems only around half of GB News's first full day audiences are prepared to give it a second go.

Monday's Great British Breakfast averaged 79,000 between 0600-0900 (1,000 higher than Kay Burley's 78,000 on Sky News). The Tuesday GBB was down to 46,000. 

Andrew Neil's flagship 8pm hour averaged 153,000 on Monday; on Tuesday, it was down to 72,000. 

Glorious plurality

Last night on GB News, Andrew Neil cleared the decks a little early for the arrival of Dan Wootton. We heard Dan, out of vision, ask "Can anyone hear me ? I need to know if I'm going to get Autocue". Cut to an extended ad break, and Dan was back, in sound and vision, at 21.04. His guests included the rarely heard Nigel Farage; a first GB News outing for Darren Grimes; Lady Colin Campbell; and Allison Pearson. 

I'll lay tenpence that tonight's Andrew Neil interview with Rishi Sunak is pre-recorded, and not at the Paddington HQ.  Pardon ?

Fresh thinking

The BBC's bold streaming venture, BBC Select, targeted at posh people in the USA, is not beyond a little light strategic buying. BBC Select has picked up rights to some history shows made for Channel 5 - Nuremburg: The Nazis On Trial and The Great Plague. 

Still searching

An excellent and most welcome extension to the BBC's Genome Project lands today - a searchable index of 220,000 playable programmes, both radio and tv. 

The system is brilliant - but the archive is weak in some areas (like the current system of tv commissioning). A search for 'Jazz' in tv programmes produces 30 results - the first four are indeed, programmes with some jazz in them, but from position 5, we go on to The Mighty Boosh, where a character is a 'jazz fan'; Strike, where there is a character called Jazz Cartier, and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, with Will Smith's bestie, Jazz.  No failing in the metadata, but a sorry reflection of the Corporation's attitude to jazz on tv this century. 

Meeting notes

Dear BBC News,

Can we today have a more proactive approach to finding out about Covid in this country ?  Has Blackburn peaked ?  If so, is it because of more jabs, more tests, or more self-isolation ?  Don't you, with your base in MediacityUK, think it's worth reporting that both Salford and Manchester now have a higher rate of infection than Bolton ?  

Raising our eyes to the European horizon, might it be worth a line on, say, Hungary, where 61,000 fans packed the Puskas Stadium yesterday, to watch the defeat to Portugal ?  Reuters estimate that 48% of the adult population has been vaccinated, largely with products from Russia and China. The average number of new infections per day over the past seven days - 128.  The average number of new infections per day in the UK over the past seven days - 7,497. 

Yrs, etc

Tragedy

BBC (executive) Chairman Richard Sharp escaped largely unscathed at today's Culture Select Committee. I particularly enjoyed his view that it was good to have people of the quality of "Sir Robin Gibb" reviewing BBC editorial practices and governance.  This synthesis of the deceased BeeGee and political thought-leader and BBC non-executive Sir Robbie Gibb will stay with me for some time.  

"Plane crash"

Lord Birt patiently explained to the Culture Select Committee why they didn't really grasp the Bashir story properly - and then got a similar hail of googlies, beamers and bouncers. 

He told the MPs he didn't directly remember much of what happened in 1995 and 1996, but had read all the papers. He did, however, remember the behaviour of Martin Bashir as a reporter and presenter for others in the USA, and said he didn't like the smell of Bashir's documentary about Michael Jackson. It seems he took more of a continuing interest in the wider world of journalism than, say, James Harding and Jonathan Munro.

He noted "It's a tremendous irony that Bashir started his BBC career on Songs of Praise and finished as the BBC Religion Editor, and in between perpetrates one of the biggest crimes in broadcasting history". 

He also took the time to remind the Committee that he'd been brought into to rescue the BBC.  

Round his legs

Former BBC DG Lord Hall faced a relentless 70 minute attack of spin, seam and slow balls from the Culture Select Committee this morning.  His position, over Martin Bashir, was extremely weak - he stuck to saying he honestly believed the Panorama reporter who used faked documents to secure access to, and an interview with, Princess Diana deserved a second chance, because he was out of his depth, had cried, and was contrite. 

Then, he argued, the Editor in Chief of the BBC couldn't possibly have even raised an eyebrow with Director of News James Harding at the re-hiring of Bashir as Religious Affairs Correspondent. He, after all had come fresh from rescuing the Cultural Olympics to a new job rescuing the BBC post-Savile. So, naturally, he devolved all big decisions. 

Lord Hall scored no runs, but is not yet out. 

Consistency

There was no special treatment for Chairman Neil last night on GB News. His flagship 8pm show featured late mics, no mics, flickering graphics and many frowns.  The production standards, by comparison, made Spectator TV look like Strictly Come Dancing. The only external guest was Steve Baker MP; the hour, like many on the new channel, was filled with Neil talking to GB News staffers, padded with monologues. 

In one, Mr Neil complained that the BBC was trying to block GB News from using clips from shared access events. There's little evidence that, even if it got its hands on that material, the channel could actually play clips out on cue at the moment. 

The programme came briefly to life when Andrew chatted to Dan Wootton, about the content of his subsequent show - and swiftly schooled him for loose language on the status of the link between Covid infections and Covid vaccinations. Dan looked, more than ever, stunned.  

Alternative take

Tonight, BBC DG Tim Davie has put himself at odds with many of his News staff.  

This is his summary of the Ken MacQuarrie report into the re-hiring of Martin Bashir.  “I would like to thank Ken MacQuarrie for his report. It finds the recruitment process was targeted to find the right person for the role and it was conducted in good faith."

Notwithstanding the irony of 'good faith', if both Mr MacQuarrie and Mr Davie were made to re-read the full report, I suspect they might agree a reasonable alternative summary would include the words 'stitch-up'.  And how many other important appointments have been handled this way ?

Bashir and fair selection

Messrs Harding and Munro wanted Ken MacQuarrie to know how hard they'd tried to find candidates alongside Bashir, and seem to have shared this tale of utter incompetence to support their case. 

"On or around 22 July 2016, Jonathan Munro and James Harding met with another external broadcast journalist for coffee to discuss, among other things, the Religious Affairs Correspondent role (Candidate Y). This was expressed internally to be on the same basis as Martin Bashir. Candidate Y subsequently expressed interest in the role and was given positive feedback. However, in contrast to Martin Bashir, no-one notified Candidate Y of the external advertisement until after the closing date for applications. On 9
September 2016, after chasing up the role, Candidate Y was asked if they wanted to still be considered for the role and told that an application was not necessary. Candidate Y confirmed they would still be interested. However, no-one responded to Candidate Y until 26 September 2016, shortly prior to the
announcement of Martin Bashir’s appointment."

Getting Bashir up

Here's a belter from the Ken MacQuarrie report into the BBC's re-hiring of Martin Bashir, from the sections that deal with his elevation from mere Religious Affairs Correspondent to Religion Editor. 

"I note that Martin Bashir was involved in the review that recommended the creation of a Religion Editor in BBC News". 

Mr Bashir's salary went up by 10.4%. 

In a classic Catch 22, the appropriate process wasn't followed in the promotion, but Ken accepts HR blah that it would have happened anyway... 

"I consider that there were good reasons at the time to: (i) appoint a Religion Editor; and (ii) to re-grade Martin Bashir into that role. It appears that the formalities of the regrading process were not followed. However, having consulted with BBC Human Resources, I am comfortable that the same result would have been reached if the  formalities had been observed. That process would have proposed the closure of the Religious Affairs Correspondent role and Martin Bashir, having been at risk of redundancy, considered as a priority candidate for redeployment into the new Religion Editor role."

Neat, huh ?

Getting Bashir in

The process by which Martin Bashir emerged as BBC Religious Affairs Correspondent in September 2016 is pretty convoluted, as tracked by Ken MacQuarrie - but quite simple, if you untangle it. The timeline starts on 14 June 2016, when it was announced that Religious Affairs Correspondent Caroline Wyatt was stepping down with immediate effect due to ill health; it was announced internally that the BBC would be advertising for a replacement. One week later, Head of Newsgathering Jonathan Munro met Martin Bashir for coffee.  

In July of that year, there were seven internal candidates for the vacancy; an eighth, the mysterious candidate X, was invited to apply - we're not told by whom.  Three were shortlisted for interview, but Home Editor Richard Burgess didn't fancy any of them, because he started a process to attach a higher salary to the job. Spookily, he was proved right: an interview panel led by Richard Burgess decided that none of the three internal candidates was suitable, though Candidate X 'received the highest score'. 

On 8th August, Director of News James Harding and Richard Burgess met Martin Bashir for coffee to discuss the role.  On 26th August, the Director of News James Harding announced he wanted to interview Martin Bashir and Candidate X.  Jonathan Munro said to Richard Burgess that Candidate X should be told that they “shouldn’t expect to get it, but it’s a good chance to get some time with [James Harding]”. 

This all happened, spookily, before the job was announced as open to external candidates on 30 August 2016. Richard Burgess led the shortlisting of 18 applications, and, spookily, came out with a shortlist of Martin Bashir and Candidate....Z.  MacQuarrie notes that Burgess upped Bashir's scoring by Liz Shaw, UK Affairs Editor, but opines that Bashir would still have made it to the final two without the adjustment. 

Then, it seems, Candidate Z withdrew after a chat with Caroline Wyatt, who was stepping down from the role. So Candidate X stepped forward again, for an online interview with James Harding, Jonathan Munro, Head of Newsgathering, and Joanna Carr, Head of Current Affairs. They decided Bashir was best, and the announcement was made on 26th September.

Spookily, Mr MacQuarrie records "We have not been able to locate the interview notes for the two interviews." 

The price of fame ?

Who dobbed James Naughtie for drink driving ?  Reports vary; some say it was a 'member of staff' at Bennet's Bar, others that it was 'a member of the public' who saw him getting into his car and rang the rozzers. 

There are other imponderables about the event, back in October 2019 in the Scottish capital. Where had Jim come from, in his car, and how was he able to park so easily in Morningside ?  And exactly how far is it from Bennet's to his Edinburgh flat ? 

He faces a year without his car. 

Your call takes longer

5Live Controller Heidi Dawson is moving Nicky Campbell, now 60, to a two hour weekday phone-on from 0900. He's also getting a new podcast, which presumably will help to maintain his salary close to its current £300k pa.  Subsequent changes to the schedule have not been announced; nor has a new Breakfast partner for Rachel Burden.

Nicky started at Breakfast on Monday 13th January 2003, taking Julian Worricker's seat alongside Victoria Derbyshire, under Controller Bob Shennan. In 2008, he acquired the 0900 phone-in (from Victoria's custody) under Controller Adrian Van Klaveren, with a deal that saw him join Breakfast an hour later than the rest of the crew.  

Watching brief

The opening night of "Off-mike conversations in a dimly-lit furniture showroom": The first hour, starting at 8pm, averaged 261,900 viewers - a 1.7% share share of the available audience. Dan Wootton's three hour trip to midnight averaged 152k, again with a 1.7% share. 

GB News' take on the figures: 

BARB Data 1900-2300 
#1 @GBNEWS 164.4k 1.1 share  
#2 BBC News 133k 0.9 share
#3 Sky News 57k 0.4 share

Let's hope they share these figures on a regular basis.

Twin peaks

Is it possible Andrew Neil, master of journalistic judgement and sultan of the sharp question, has forgotten his skills as an impresario ?   He launched GB News last night with an intense, pompous monologue, big on eschewing false narratives, from a dark set with a DFS showroom vibe.  Outside, the 'studio pilots' may not have been aware that his words were reaching many viewers before his lips moved; they probably did notice, like many, the other sound issues - hangar-like resonance, and at least two mic failures.  Other basic problems - insufficient cameras to cover three persons in a panel (a staple of the daytime schedule), and a persistent inability to achieve focus. 

Has Andrew the Impresario ever sat down for a chat with Dan Wootton, or read his columns ?  An hour after Mr Neil's rallying cry for a new form of journalism, Dan, an oven-ready plastic-wrapped joint of gammon from New Zealand, brought us unheard voices like Nigel Farage and Carole Malone, and read out some of his previous columns.  I hope Andrew sat through the whole three hours. 

Duncan steps forward

Before GB News unveils its brown three-piece suite tonight, another 'just-in-time' delivery.  With the night's top story likely to be in Cornwall, they've finally appointed a journalist to cover the south west of England. It's to be Duncan Sleighthome, 46, currently working as a freelance broadcast journalist, mainly for BBC Points West, and as a media lecturer at Bournemouth University. 

Go west

As BBC News boss Fran Unsworth tells staff that another cluster of voluntary redundancies have been agreed, there's at least one corporate growth industry. The BBC HR function in New York is about to double in size, with the recruitment of a Human Resources Co-Ordinator, to work for the existing Senior Manager Human Resources. 

The Few

If the regular Honours lists provide a sort of thermometer applied to The Patient BBC by Dr Government, then the prognosis is poor. 

The Birthday Honours haul includes Sue Barker, closed down at Question of Sport; Beverley Humphries, still just available on Radio Wales; saxophonist and Radio 3 presenter, Jess Gillam, and athlete-turned broadcaster Jeanette Kwakye, who can be heard on 5Live and Radio London. 

Simon Mayo, squeezed out of Radio 2 in his prime, is there, as is former BBC Breakfast and Radio 4 phone-in host Nick Ross. 

One wonders if l'affaire Bashir meant some last minute changes.... 

Full album

If most of the committees engaged with the Birthday Honours List were searching for Covid Heroes, at least some seem to have been browsing in old vinyl shops. 

There are gongs for Lulu, Englebert Humperdinck, Alison Moyet, Rick Wakeman, Skin (from Skunk Anansie), Alan Parsons (of The Alan Parsons Project), British blues singer and actor Ram John Holder,  and Alan Hawkshaw.

Alan, formally styled Professor William Alan Hawkshaw, Hammond organ specialist, who has played with Emile Ford and The Checkmates, The Hollies, David Bowie, and The Shadows. In 1982 he wrote the 30 second Countdown chimes theme, (stilling paying royalties each weekday) and in 1984, he wrote Best Endeavours, better known as the Channel 4 News Theme (as previously). 

Earwax

When I said I was hearing Friday for the Ken MacQuarrie report into the BBC's re-hiring of Martin Bashir, I've stopped hearing that now, and I am now hearing Monday. 

Brinkmanship ?

There's a niff of 'just-in-time' delivery in GB News hiring Sky newsreader Isabel Webster, to present a two-hour Sunday review show. They've yet to share full weekend schedules, but she has nine days to put the first edition together. 

Isabel presumably hopes she'll get other slots in the schedule as things progress. 

Boris loves Today

Boris Johnson, a journalist-politician in the mold of Alastair Campbell rather than Tony Blair, is more concerned about control of the daily agenda, and thus 'power', than exercising power wisely. 

He has no mentors as Prime Minister, so uses the ruses of his earlier life, at Eton, Oxford and Fleet Street, to see both what works, and what he can get away with. 

There could be a good Ph D thesis in his attitude to the Today programme. There's still no sign of him submitting himself to live questioning, but barely a day passes now without a Cabinet minister facing a 10 minute interview. This reversal of an almost total ban suggests Boris thinks this is now a winning policy - and I'm very afraid it is. 

In the old days, senior ministers would only come on the Today programme ahead of big policy announcements. Behind the scenes, producers would tentatively ask political minders if the minister would take, perhaps, one final question on some live issue of the day. 

Now ministers are sent out by House Captain Boris, as if to run for house points in the cross-country, ready to take questions on almost every aspect of current Government thinking.  No expectation of a strong performance, but his team are 'taking part', showing loyalty, 'having a go' and other good stuff. 

So this morning, the Vaccines Minister engages with 'taking the knee', what the Prime Minister's media strategy is, easing lockdown, as well as his brief. In this tour d'horizon, there was no room for a question on the surge vaccination requested by the Mayor of Greater Manchester, or blocks to vaccination take-up across the UK. Zahawi has got better at these, channelling something of Peter Sellers as Hercules Grytpype-Thynne; but you sense that Boris doesn't mind poor performers like Gavin Williamson or Therese Coffey getting a little roughed up in this sort of interview. Core Boris supporters now think Today presenters giving these ministers a hard time is either rude or 'woke'. 

These interviews are never really matched by interviews with opposition politicians, and their lack of exposure is reflected in current polls. Some Today editors leap with more enthusiasm on chances to interview dissenting Tory grandees. The political package is now confined to Nick Robinson doing vox pops. I'm missing some of the old Ross Hawkins' packages, setting out a challenge, checking on reality, leading to some more pointed questioning.  (I'm also fed-up with radio versions of tv specials from the night before, but that's another story)

Why has Boris dropped the idea of televised daily briefings ?  His government gets all the space it needs on Today.  

Less news

We noted that Newsnight is moving back to 2230 later this month; there's a parallel truncation of the BBC1 10pm bulletin. 

The national element goes back to 26m 30s starting on 21 June, followed by a 4m regional news and 1m 30s weather forecast.  Programmes after this will be billed as starting at 2035. 

Advice

Ofcom have appointed physicist Sachin Jogia, currently running the Alexa end of Amazon, as their Chief Technology Officer. 

Sachin will perhaps bring the scientific certainty to online harm that might be lacking in a chairman like, say, Paul Dacre.

It's official, meat gives you cancer. Would you go #veggie? @vegsoc @veganoutreach @CR_UK https://t.co/d7wabwvFna

— Sachin (@sjogia) October 27, 2015

Say that again

The collective noun for Directors-General, past and present, of the BBC needs work by next Tuesday. The Culture Select Committee, under Julian Knight, will try to out-Dyson Dyson, by grilling, in order, Lord Hall, Lord Birt and Tim Davie. Tim Davie is allowed to bring a prisoner's friend, in (executive) chairman Richard Sharp. 

This all presumes that the Ken MacQuarrie report on the re-hiring of Martin Bashir is out - I'm hearing Friday. 

Small

My suspicion that GB News wants critics to go easy because they're plucky tryers grows apace, re-inforced by a Press Gazette interview with output boss John McAndrew. 

“Just the sheer amount of interest that surrounds our small but exciting operation leads us to believe that we might be on to something.”

“We’re all mucking in and everyone’s doing their bit. None of us have seen much of our families and I know I could do with a bit more sleep, but we’re having a lot of fun trying to do something new really.”

“The studio set-up is looking terrific, the rehearsals are really good and very different in the style of programming. Clearly, with new technology and training producers who haven’t worked with it before we’ve got a lot to learn, I wouldn’t hide from that. I’m sure we’ll have our glitches, but you know, we’re a start-up here"

Right lines

Some examples of converging agendas today: 

The Oxford College where academics have voted to remove a picture of the Queen are said to be looking for an inspirational replacement. Wonder who's in the running? pic.twitter.com/5HbQmisOk4

— Colin Brazier (@colinbrazierGBN) June 9, 2021

All those pooh-poohing the Mail splash need a crash course in popular journalism.

Oxford - news
The Queen - news
Statues and stuff - news

It. Is. A. Great. Tale.

— Gabriel Milland (@gabrielmilland) June 8, 2021

BREAKING: The High Court has ruled Michael Gove broke the law in handing a public contract to associates of his and Dominic Cummings at Public First.

The Court ruled a reasonable observer would think there was a real risk they won the contract because of favouritism. pic.twitter.com/tJbyjdBoAp

— Good Law Project (@GoodLawProject) June 9, 2021

Statfest

Ofcom's annual detailed review of online activity is a good read - though not perhaps for the BBC.

There are brilliant figures for use of, and trust in, BBC information on Covid, but elsewhere the picture is mixed. This chart uses Comscore data, and purports to show a decline in the general position of BBC sites in the firmament of the web.

 

There's a caveat below the chart: Note: Does not include TV set and smart speaker use. A methodology change in data collection for BBC sites may explain their year-on-year decrease.  There's a similar caveat on a following chart, which says average daily minutes on BBC sites has fallen from 5 minutes in 2018 to below 4 in 2020.

Other bits and bobs: BBC Bitesize is the most popular formal learning site/education app amongst adults - presumably parents logging in to help their children. It's the most popular online desktop service for 13-17 year-olds, but is beaten in the 6-12 year-old group by Hegarty Maths and Times Tables Rock Stars.

Podcast advertising revenues in the UK grew 42% to £33m. (How much is the BBC spending on them ?)  That forms part of the £1.3bn revenues made from audio, mostly from music subscriptions. 

Bob can fix it

Ofcom has just about managed to swerve the appointment of another former Beeboid to mind their Content Board.  Serial Scottish trustee Bob Downes gets the gig on an interim basis. 

Bob has a B.Phil from the Open University. "A former Director in BT Group, where he led the design and build of the UK telecommunications network, today Bob is chair of GSi (a data analytics business), CENSIS (the sensors systems innovation centre) and SEPA (the Scottish Environment Protection Agency), as well as a non-exec director of the Scottish Government, an adviser at the Adam Smith Business School and a Trustee of the Mackintosh Appeal for the Glasgow School of Art."

All that tricky stuff about taste, standards journalism should be a walk in the park.

Giving it some welly

The Daily Mail has pictures of both Martin Bashir and former BBC DG Lord Hall out and about yesterday, ahead of publication of the latest MacQuarrie report. 

Lord Hall isn't entirely off the BBC Christmas card list, it seems - his walking companion is BBC non-executive director Steve Morrison. 

 

Louise

Louise Minchin is stifling the 0345 alarm later this year, leaving the presentation team of BBC Breakfast. 

Louise, 52 (St Mary's School, Ascot, BA University of St Andrews, radio training London College of Communication) is one of a number of media players who had a spell as research assistant on Today. 

Husband David is a restaurateur, working as an investor and finance director of Chestnut Inns, a group of posh-ish pubs in East Anglia. 

One suspects her agents Knight Ayton would have been looking for continuing improvement in her £215k package - which leaves her behind broadcasting giants like Justin Webb and Martha Kearney. 

Still to come

Readers have asked me to muse on possible causes of delay to the MacQuarrie Report on the re-hiring of Martin Bashir by the BBC in 2015, and his subsequent promotion to Religion Editor. 

Say the original appointment board comprised Editor James Harding, Newsgathering boss Jonathan Munro and a (probably female) HR person. If Mr McQuarrie found that the process had been lax in anyway (lack of general knowledge about their business ? incurious ? failing to take references ?), how has he reached that conclusion ?  Has he talked to ALL three ?   

There's no sanction the BBC can take against Mr Harding, but Mr Munro is still employed. Does that protect him ?

Run of the Mills

To The Controller of Pop Music, BBC

Dear Lorna, 

There are people who think the BBC has too many radio stations. Their arguments are not helped when you get Scott Mills to cover the Ken Bruce Show on Radio 2, and then head over to do his own Radio 1 show from 1pm to 3.30pm.  I note that Scott is also on Radio 5Live on Saturday mornings - a show I acknowledge you do not control. 

I think the word I'm searching for here is "distinctive". 

I suspect also that we're taking too long to re-settle Scott (47). 

Yrs

A worried listener

Narrower

 

She's back, with a powder blue background rather than a Westminster skyline. 

The condensed font is from the existing Sky package, designed by Fontsmith (now part of Monotype), and is called Sky Text Headline. In future it will allow the network to employ presenters with double-barrelled surnames. 

Punishing

It's five day weeks for the daytime engine-room of GB News - Colin Brazier and Mercy Muroki get 0900-1200, Gloria De Piero and Liam Halligan 1200-1500, and Simon McCoy and Alex Phillips 1500-1800.  Dews & Co (Michelle Dewberry) takes on the national and regional news big beasts from 1800-2000.  Then comes an hour of Andrew Neil, four days a week, with an exciting highlights show on Fridays. Dan Wootton follows with three hours (Sunday to Thursday), with Nanu Akua on Fridays and Saturdays. 

Weekday at midnight you get another chance to enjoy the aperçus of Andrew Neil, follow by a Dews repeat. 

Nope

Nicely-handled

This is BBC News with @MartineBBC and 'nope'...the wonderful Peter Beaven. pic.twitter.com/7s2g51TBBf

— Jack Surfleet (@JackSurfleet) June 5, 2021

Peter has previous performing experience - but off-screen.

So inspired and energised were we last hour by the fabulous Bhangra dancing lessons by @GurdeepPandher in the BBC report by @shabnammahmood that floor manager Peter even danced out of the studio at the end of his night shift 🕺💃🙌 pic.twitter.com/qXgfPuKRq5

— Karin Giannone (@KarinBBC) March 7, 2021

Enhancing effectiveness

Some BBC Board Minutes from February - two meetings, 14 days apart, the first chaired by Sir David Clementi; the second by Richard Sharp. 

At the first, Chief Content Officer Charlotte Moore tries to beat up some enthusiasm north of the border: In the Nations, BBC Scotland had seen the highest ever numbers for its Hogmanay programming (The Board may not have been aware it was only BBC Scotland's second Hogmanay).

The Board noted a presentation about perceptions of the BBC.  All good ?

Charlotte saved this belter for the Richard Sharp show:  iPlayer had achieved its best performance ever against all metrics and its growth among young adults had more than compensated for the decline in their linear TV viewing.   If that's right, surely the BBC should be shouting about it ?

The Board noted an update on the implementation programme for the over 75’s licence
fee policy. The programme continued to perform ahead of targets. With no help from Lord Botham and the Daily Express.

Then came approval for the relaunch of BBC3 as a broadcast channel (despite the growth among young adults noted above). The strategists had found a statistic clearly missing when the channel was closed in 2016:  A significant proportion of the target audience in lower income groups did not live in homes with multiple devices or broadband and the return of BBC Three as a broadcast channel would enable them to access the channel’s content.

The busy session also approved subsuming BBC Global News Ltd into BBC Studios, with control of BBC World (the tv news channel) moving to News; and the wrapping of Children's tv production into BBC Studios. 

For a final flourish, the man from Goldman Sachs outlined how things were going to work around here from now on: The Chairman reported on his induction to the organisation and provided his initial

thoughts on enhancing the effectiveness of the Board and Nations Committees.

Target

When Kay Burley was suspended from the Sky News breakfast show in December, the programme had yet to feature in the weekly list of the top 15 shows on the network - indicating average audiences of less than 150k. In the most recent week of figures from BARB, the Monday edition, with stand-in Stephen Dixon, hit 179,000.  Will La Burley be able to beat that when she returns at 7am on Monday ?

Delay

Something about an end-to-end review of the recruitment and later promotion of Martin Bashir within BBC News from 2015 is taking longer than BBC DG Tim Davie and his enforcer Ken MacQuarrie predicted. 

Of course, it's possible that the review is complete, and the consequences of its findings are proving tricky.....

Filler

In the continued absence of the MacQuarrie Report, here's an archive conversation between Professor Stanley Unwin and Peter Hawkins. Please try to keep a straight face.

#OnThisDay 1962: Peter Hawkins, the voice of Bill and Ben the Flower Pot Men, found a dream interviewer in 'Professor' Stanley Unwin. Deep joy! pic.twitter.com/zLuFPB1tjE

— BBC Archive (@BBCArchive) June 4, 2021

40/60

They've consulted and come to a conclusion. 40% of UK staff 'in the office' will be the new, post-pandemic future of work at BBC News; the other 60% will "work in an agile way – a mix of in the office and remote". 

News boss Fran Unsworth says the phased return to the office will start in July "In the coming months, we will be reconfiguring BBC buildings with the technology and tools you need. We'll be creating collaborative and creative spaces to work, introducing team zones, promoting hot desking, and keeping social distancing measures as long as necessary. "

By my calculation, that should leave around 30% of current BBC News office space available for rental; sadly, GB News have already committed to their accommodation. 

 

Calling the shots

A group photo of a team that will, we believe, cover 18 hours a day, 7 days a week at GB News. I'd like to see the rota pattern, perhaps alongside a copy of the Human Rights Act.

We realised that this is the last time all the wonderful @GBNEWS pilots will be together, here's to a smooth flight ahead! pic.twitter.com/W1hcnoVJym

— Fay Cross (@FayCross) May 28, 2021

Selling on

Another block in the way of the BBC moving to its own global streaming service is the deals it has done with others. The PBS Network in the USA - effectively an affiliation of local stations across the country - has traditionally hosted BBC drama as part of "Masterpiece Theater".  Now there's a streaming service from PBS - PBS Passport - at $6 a month (you can, of course, give more) - with access to a back catalogue of 1,500 programmes. From the BBC, they include Poldark, Wolf Hall, Sherlock, Les Miserables and Road Kill. 

Clearing the decks

As we move towards stumps in the media day, there's no sign of the MacQuarrie report into BBC News' decision to both re-hire and then promote Martin Bashir. 

But graphic artist Matt Wiessler, the whistleblower who exposed Martin Bashir’s requisition of forged fantasy bank statements, has been up to Broadcasting House to receive an apology in person from current DG, Tim Davie. 

“We talked about all sorts of things and we shared opinions on a lot of things about the future of the BBC and it was all very good. He was again and again saying that ‘this is not just from me, it’s from all current BBC staff who are annoyed and upset that this is not settled yet’. It’s an unreserved apology.”

He has lawyers negotiating potential compensation from the BBC, after previous DG Lord Hall ended his access to BBC work. "I’ve told my lawyers ages ago, I want no part in negotiations. It has to go through the legal framework because it’s licence payers’ money and it has to be fair." 

More details in The Guardian. 

Global thinking

Alex Barker in the (paywalled) FT suggests the BBC needs to galvanise itself into a global paywalled streamer, as part of the current negotiations around the licence fee. 

He echoes a widely-held yet totally unsubstantiated belief amongst the BBC's Conservative opponents that The World should pay for the BBC, enabling the UK to get it free. Obvs. 

Currently, the BBC is dipping its toes in this water with Britbox and BBC Select. Britbox is largely focused on drama and comedy; in the UK, it's 90% owned by ITV, and probably has just under a million subscribers, some of whom are on lead-in deals via BT and others. Globally, it's a 50/50 venture, and reports 1.5m US subscribers. BBC Select, a service 'conceptualised' by BBC Studios Jon Farrar, is groovy news and current affairs aimed at the USA, and Mr Farrar is tightlipped on progress: "The subscriber projections are commercially sensitive information."

Former Goldman Sachs banker Richard Sharp, now self-defined as BBC executive chairman, clearly is taking an interest in this one. Perhaps he regards it as 'obvs' as well. 

Condensed

A graphics update today for Sky News, with the biggest change being an as yet unindentified condensed font. The top of the hour music is slightly more urgent - perhaps just up a key and therefore a tad faster. The new strapline, in place since April  - "The home of independent news" - is presumably to occupy some perceived high ground before GB News arrives in ten days. 

we just refreshed the #SkyNews brand identity, design for impact and better cross platform consistency #rebrand #design pic.twitter.com/53i3YxZdGS

— Harry Ward (@harryashleyward) June 3, 2021

...so there's a bit of a new look to @skynews from today📺📱👀 pic.twitter.com/RbWHDJmbVF

— Neil Dunwoodie (@NeilDunwoodie) June 3, 2021

Technology

GB News seems to have issued talent with Hewlett Packard Z Books; around £2k each to you and me, but with Andrew Neil in charge of procurement... 

Former Brexit MEP Alex Phillips is clearly transitioning from analogue to digital. Mr McCoy has not yet reached for a sheaf of printer paper. 

TechRadar's latest review of the Z Book says it's a mobile workstation balancing power with a lightweight frame, with some excellent external speakers. It continues:

Don't buy this if: You plan on sitting this on your lap for long periods. Under heavy load, the HP ZBook Studio G7 can get pretty hot to the point of being uncomfortable.

Don't buy this if: You don’t like loud fans. Alongside the heat, the ventilation system can reach loud enough levels to drown out the fantastic speakers.

Don't Nobody Bring Me No Bad News

Former BBC and ITV newsreader Sir Martyn Lewis is still ploughing the "Good News" furrow, which has morphed from "solutions-focused journalism" into "constructive news". 

Now there's a Constructive Institute, based at Aarhus University, funded by big names like the Tryg Foundation, Aarhus Stiftstidendes Fond, Den Fynske Bladfond, Bestseller, the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation, Politiken-Fonden, Nordea Fonden, and Google Digital News Initiative.  

Martyn has managed to inveigle BBC News' Digital Director Naja Nielsen into a long-ish interview, billed as "News Avoidance: Thoughts from Naja Nielsen, Digital Director, BBC News". Naja may be important to the future of BBC News, with the departure of thought-leader Kamal Ahmed, and the questions about Jonathan Munro's appointment judgements.  

Dramatic intervention

Casualty started on BBC in September 1986, as a 15 part series for Saturday nights. Controller of BBC1 was Michael Grade, who'd launched Eastenders the year before, brought Neighbours to the network, and trod on the throat of Dr Who.  For the first run, the interiors were shot at Television Centre, but the second series built new sets in an industrial estaste in Bristol. 

In January 1999, Controller BBC1 Peter Salmon decided that there was appetite for a spin-off - the same hospital, but wards other than A&E. It started with a run of nine episodes on Tuesdays. You'd think there were opportunities to save a bit of dosh by using some of the Casualty sets, but instead they opted to use an office building - Neptune House, in Elstree. 

By 2011, the two parts of the same fictional hospital moved further apart, with Casualty transferring to Roath Lock in Cardiff. The fictional county of Wyvern was represented by shots around parts of the Welsh capital. 

The cancellation of Holby City puts Charlotte Moore in the spotlight. Where will she bestow her strategic investment in continuing drama ?  I'm taking odds on something in Huddersfield, with a side bet on The Everyday Story of Civil Servants Re-deployed to Darlington. 

Repetitious

I'm not aware what time of day the All New Round Table of Prudent yet Purposeful News Commissioning meets at Broadcasting House, but I hope this reaches them in a timely fashion. 

Are we really going to have an ill-informed piece per day on whether or not lockdown should be further eased on June 14th ?  Does anyone think hearing a pol corr at the end of these pieces saying there's an issue between "some scientists" and "a number of Tories" ?  Is any of this moving the sum total of human knowledge further forward ? 

I'd prefer some reports based on ascertainable facts.  Are there any cases of Variant Delta in neighbouring countries ? Is France justified in its border closure ?  Has "surge" testing (I'd prefer 'increased' rather than the Hancock Weasel Word) made any difference in the past ?  Can we find out what happened to the South African Variant ?  Has anything changed in Bolton (please don't send that bloke who makes 'sadness-in-their-eyes' specials with tattooed street vicars) ?  Are schools part of the problem or not ? What is it like in the "Red" Terminal 3 at Heathrow ? Where are the passengers from India going ?  At what level of vaccination did Israel ease lockdown - and what's the situation now ?

• I think I spotted an example of Prudent yet Purposeful yesterday.  Someone decided to report the warm weather from Henley. Not obviously a holiday hotspot, but it meant a crew on hand should a doorstep be required of former DG Lord Hall. The report on Martin Bashir's re-hiring is due this week.  

Countdown

Nice warm day to be piloting in the lower ground floor of GB News HQ.  Pilots are not necessarily a guide to on-air agendas, or grammar.