Deal or no deal ?

An interesting challenge ahead for Tim Davie and Richard Sharp, men with past Tory connections at the top of the BBC. In a matter of days or weeks, the scale of the BBC licence fee for next five years will be announced. My firm belief is that will be a decision taken by The Treasury, and Nadine will have little say. 

The issue for Tim and Dicky is how they present, say, a frozen settlement, to the public and staff. Will it be a 'triumph in the circumstances', allowing the BBC to 'move forward on a range of initiatives'.  Or a more honest statement 'You've broken both arms and both legs, but we accept you haven't quite killed us' ?

Booster Tim should review what Lord Hall said at the time of the last settlement "It gives us financial stability and the ability to plan for the future".  Not quite, it seems, as the Corporation was dragged down financially and reputationally by being forced to be nasty to everyone over 75.   In all this 'financial stability', BBC3 closed as a linear channel, and the BBC lost more and more live sport, and half of every significant drama brought money to competitors, not to the BBC.  

Tim gets excited at bringing BBC3 back, at monstering the world with variants of BritBox and BBC Select, and doing new things.  Is he really capable of leading retrenchment ?