Tied up

There are two versions of the April to June transparency declarations on the Foreign Office website about gifts during Dominic 'Winker' Raab's time in charge. 

In the first version, published April 2021, we find against Mr Raab: 18th June 2020, received a Hermes tie and pocket square, donor not declared, valued at £300, held by department. 

In the second version, published March 2022, we find that on 18th June 2020, Mr Raab received a Hermes tie and pocket square, from the French Minister of Foreign Affairs, valued "above £140", purchased by the minister. 

Always good to get a second opinion on valuations, eh ?

(I was looking to see if Mr Raab had ever accepted hospitality involving fizz and classical music. Web searches only seem to bring up pina coladas on Cretan beaches....)

Free transfer ?

Not a good transfer window for BBC News so far.  They've now lost a star of the future, Secunder Kermani, to C4 News. People may have forgotten that it was Ian Katz at Newsnight who first put him on air, when he arrived as a producer from BBC London. Clearly the entreaties of Jonathan Munro were insufficient - or maybe he didn't make any. 

Penetrating

Left: BBC Director General Tim Davie demonstrating laser-like focus on broadcasting at the European Broadcasting Union General Assembly in Dubrovnik today.  Tim is on the executive. 

Tonight delegates are invited to a gala dinner at the Dubrovnik Museum of Modern Art, in 'cocktail attire'; I wonder what Tim's brought to change into ?

Margins

The average UK weekly consumption of baked beans in tomato sauce per person has declined from a peak of 95gm in 2008, to 79gms in 2019/20. A standard can is 415gms, of which 51% is beans; 211gms. The average price of that Heinz can around British supermarkets is £1.20, except in Tesco which are not re-stocking.

The principle source of dry navy beans for Heinz is the USA, where the biggest farms are in Minnesota and North Dakota. Latest wholesale prices are $0.44 to $0.48 a pound, a record, and equivalent to around 18p for the 211gms necessary for each standard can. Then you've got to put it into containers, drive across the USA and ship to Wigan, where Heinz operate the largest baked bean processing factory in the world, re-hydrate, add the other ingredients, process and ship out again. 

There's not much spare in US supplies, with little in storage, and farms reducing their planting because of the wet spring.  

Urgent

As we await details of 1,000 job cuts at the BBC, Auntie is spending to make itself smaller. It's gone out to tender for £6m-worth of architectural, engineering, construction management and cost control consultancies over the next four years. If that represents 15% of the intended spend, there's £40m in the budget. 

There are plenty of questions to answer for bidders, but this looks like the key: In the post pandemic era the BBC is adapting to how it operates and how its estate can support the new era for the organisation, this has resulted in the need for quick studies on various property related subjects (e.g occupancy, sub-letting opportunities and acquisitions) You should confirm that you’re resourced to support with urgent high-level studies to inform the BBC property strategy which could then lead to more detailed undertakings. Please give examples of similar urgent work you have delivered post March 2020.

Sex education

The commercial TV marketing site, Thinkbox, likes to help advertisers by segmenting viewing figures, so that they can pitch their products at the best audience. 

In the chart marked 'Kids', showing commercial tv programmes with the largest proportion of viewers under 16, six of the top ten programmes are editions of Love Island. 

In the chart marked "Housepersons with Kids", the six editions of Love Island fill the top six slots.  

Broadcasting House, Barrow

In May 2020, the BBC, committed to local broadcasting as it always is, announced the planned closure of 20 local radio satellite operations around England. One put up for sale was in Barrow in Furness, and now the Labour Party has moved in. 

Radio Carlisle started in 1973, and when it relaunched as BBC Radio Cumbria in 1981, there was also an opt-out service called Radio Furness, operating at breakfast and lunchtime. The Furness branding was dropped in 1991, though some opt-outs continued for a few years. 

The 1,680sq ft of offices, newsroom, studio and kitchen area were put up for auction in February 2021, with a guide price of £73,000+ and went unsold.  The particulars may not have been that appealing. They were re-advertised in July 2021 at £90,000, with a promise that the BBC tenancy would end in September.

  

Now the cheeky Labour Party have renamed the building, and are defraying whatever they spent on purchase by renting out the studio area to local musicians. 

Radio 4 voices

Excellent gathering at a pub not far from Broadcasting House yesterday, where friends of the late Peter Donaldson and friends of Zeb Soanes, one of his protegees, took some light refreshment. Peter used to occasionally call chums across the BBC to a 'Donaldson Day' as a way of winding down from overnights and early starts; Zeb has chosen a move to evening broadcast with Classic FM to avoid the stress of those shifts.

This multi-generational, multi-disciplinary group was, however, rather miffed to find that the hostelry, which plays on a traditional and austere re-interpretation of the public house, has taken out its beer handpumps; it may find that future 'Donaldson Days' have moved on...  

Go East

After a sudden departure from the BBC at the start of April, Jamie Angus is reportedly (cf The Times) resurfacing in a senior role at Al Arabiya News, part of the Saudi media MBC Group, whose majority shareholder is the Saudi Government. 

This puts Jamie, 48 (Old Dumptonian, Winchester College, Modern Languages, Magdalen, Oxford) rather a long way from his beloved Crystal Palace and Beare Green, Dorking. 

Cocky

Masterclass: How to convert small numbers into a commanding triumph, by using percentages. 

Piers Morgan's Tweet:  @PiersUncensored beat @SkyNews in UK TV ratings last night by 45% and @GBNEWS by 33%. 

Average viewing for the hour from 8pm: BBC News 82k, Talk TV 51k, GB News 34k, Sky News 28k

Deal

Just over 400 days since the publication of the Dyson Report on l'affaire Bashir at the BBC, former Panorama producer Mark Killick has reached a settlement with his former employer. The apology was inevitable, but presumably there was more discussion about money. 

The BBC apologises unreservedly for defamatory statements made of Mr Killick in 1996 in internal BBC documents during the Corporation’s investigations into events surrounding the interview with Diana, Princess of Wales.

Mr Killick acted entirely properly in referring his concerns about Martin Bashir’s interview with Diana, Princess of Wales to senior management. The BBC has agreed to pay Mr Killick a significant sum in damages and costs, and we wish him all the best for the future.

In 2002, Mr Killick left his job at BBC Watchdog to supervise C4's breakfast show, RI:SE, 'adding some journalistic rigour'.  He lasted four days, after 'irreconcilable differences' with Princess Productions. He was succeeded by one Deborah Turness.....

Time for ...

This morning, he bade farewell to the Today programme; this afternoon, Zeb Soanes announced a move to 7pm on weeknights at Classic FM. 

Zeb's three hour show replaces an hour of John Brunning and two of John Suchet. 

Zeb, 45 (Denes High School, Lowestoft and University of East Anglia) used his drama degree to tour as an actor in 1997, but was tapped up to work in the newsroom at BBC Radio Norfolk before moving to London in 1998 as a continuity announcer on BBC One and BBC Two.  In 2001, he tried a six-month attachment to BBC Radio 4, returning to TV as the first voice to launch  BBC Four on 2nd March 2002, where he remained its sole announcer for ten months.  He returned to BBC Two briefly, signing off in 2003, taking up a full-time position at BBC Radio 4 the following Monday.

The name: "My parents chose to name me Zebedee after the father of the Biblical fishermen, James and John. We were an old fishing family, my father is a Methodist minister and my parents had combed the family bible for an interesting name. In later years I joked that I got off lightly as Nebuchadnezzar would have been much more of a mouthful." 

Call to action

The BBC guidelines on staff's political views on Twitter don't extend too far, and certainly not to the United States, where Blake Callaway is in charge of BBC America, amongst other AMC channels.

Get busy people. Get these people elected in november. @RepValDemings for #FLORIDA #FL https://t.co/Awlh6JftKb

— blake callaway (@blakerr) June 24, 2022

Extending choice

Piers Morgan Uncensored, headline show on Talk TV, was going to bring us new, challenging voices. In 37 editions, we've now seen Martina Navratilova three times - 2nd May, 24th May, 27th June.

Over here

It may be time for another think piece on patriotism. A search of Hansard shows a steady increase in the words 'patriot', 'unpatriotic' and 'patriotic' since the turn of the year. Even a Tory MP yesterday noticed that Liz Truss was suggesting that criticism of Government actions was a challenge to patriotism. In January, Nadine Dorries managed to work it into a debate about BBC funding. 

JC move

Jonathan Charles, Tigger-ish former BBC reporter and "Locked in a cage" presenter, is moving on from the European Bank of Reconstruction and Development, after 10 years in communications.

He'll combine consultancy with his continuing Vinyl Podcast shows.

Bullough off

Helen Bullough, head of kids & family productions at BBC Studios, is leaving.

Manchester-based Bullough (Kirkcaldy High School and Edinburgh University) was head of BBC Children’s In House Productions until April when the unit was moved into BBC Studios Kids & Family division under Cecilia Persson.

She originally joined the BBC in the 1990s as a trainee news broadcast journalist and eventually rose to head of BBC Entertainment Productions north in 2009.

Big Macca

Paul McCartney's Glastonbury set finally made it to iPlayer on catch-up at 10.30pm last night, and the version online lasts 165 minutes. 

Some think it needed Macca's sign off, but my theory is different - earlier availability might have prevented quite a lot of Sunday artistes ever being seen, either on BBC1, 2, 4 or iPlayer live.

Connected

Richard Coles, popstar, vicar, one time presenter of Night Waves on Radio 3, is on a tour of bookshops with his crime novel Murder Before Midnight. He's found time to write a diary for The Sunday Times, and this is an extract.

A strange communion of church and BBC

In Winchester, before the bookshops opened, I went to holy communion in the cathedral’s Lady Chapel. The celebrant was the dean, Catherine Ogle, who was at BBC Leeds before she was ordained. I was her pastoral assistant before I was ordained, when she was vicar of Huddersfield, and we have been friends since.

Then another voice said, “Hello, Richard”, and it was Mark Byford, deputy director-general of the BBC when I was in the arts unit, and head of BBC Leeds when Catherine was there. She recruited him for Chapter, which runs the cathedral.

Paramount importance

Alan loves a streamer.  Michael Brandon, Tracey MacLeod and Alan Yentob attend a dinner to celebrate the launch of Paramount+ in Europe at Chiltern Firehouse on June 21, 2022 in London, England. 

Embed from Getty Images

Call for Carolyn

The BBC seems to have secured a well-rounded, thoughtful character to run Radio Wales. 

Carolyn Hitt, 53 (Cardinal Newman Roman Catholic School, Rhydyfelin and Hertford College, Oxford) was born in Llwynypia, Tonypandy, and now lives in Cardiff. She edited The Classroom Gazette at primary school, broadcast on Radio Oxford as a student, and mentored fresher Carole Cadwalladr. She did a post-grad journalism training course in Newcastle, before heading homewards to a traineeship on Neath Guardian and the Merthyr Express. 

She's been a Western Mail columnist for 30 years, and a regular contributor to Welsh broadcasting, especially on rugby and the arts.  She was a joint-founder of Parasol Productions which minded Only Connect for a while. 

She takes over a station with a weekly reach of 371,000, down from close to 500,000 in 2013. 

Brain dump dumped

Finally, this week Piers Morgan has dropped his opening monologue - the ten minutes of regurgitated Sun/NY Post columns and Tweets that has opened Piers Morgan Uncensored since the launch of TalkTV. 

One suspects that he's bowed to evidence of a switch-off, and the programme now launches into interviews pretty quickly. He may even have privately acknowledged that he's neither a gagwriter or performer with the charm and wit of the US chat show hosts he seeks to emulate. 

The Guardian this week suggests that there's a relaunch coming. Piers may have to come back early from his August break to rehearse.... 

Andrew Neil, who still seems to be taking an interest in the smaller news channels, tweeted average audiences at 8pm on Wednesday: GB News: Mark Steyn: 69,000; Talk TV: Piers Morgan: 50,000

Wallace and...

Piers Morgan's grip on TalkTV seems to have strengthened with the appointment of an old Daily Mirror chum to the fledgling station.

Richard Wallace became editor of the Mirror after Piers Morgan was dismissed, following publication of fake pictures of  British soldiers mistreating Iraqi prisoners. He lasted for eight years, before losing out when the Daily and Sunday teams were merged. His partner,  Sunday Mirror editor Tina Weaver (head of features under Piers Morgan) also departed, with the overall editor's job going to Lloyd Embley. Both Wallace and Weaver were interviewed by police working on Operation Weeting. 

Within months of his departure from the Mirror Group, Richard resurfaced with Simon Cowell's Syco production company and soon moved up to executive producer on America's Got Talent. In 2020 he was announced as executive producer of 50 States to Stardom, competing with the America Song Contest. 

The modern way

Deep joy.  Where tradingaswdr leads, eventually the BBC will follow. Since the pandemic I have produced a weekly newsletter for our local village.  Now there's a job for me back at base: 

Reporting to the Head of Editorial for Digital News & Streaming within BBC Studios, the Head of Newsletters will lead the editorial strategy to develop and operate a portfolio of newsletters designed to grow registrations and increase audience engagement and loyalty.

We know best

It would be too easy to say that Ofcom is run by a load of people who weren't promoted to the top of the BBC, but would still rather like to be in charge. 

Their latest strictures on how the BBC must do better have the tone of a petulant maths teacher: 'Show your workings !'. There's 44 pages on how BBC Studios may be off-piste in retaining some secondary distribution fees on archive material - but no argument that we're talking about huge sums of money. There's unhappiness that the BBC's Annual Plan is insufficiently Soviet, but why not produce a template instead of whingeing ?  And there's a continuing demand to measure and count things a very long way from the point of broadcast.  Does Ofcom transparently measure itself in the same way ?  It ought to do, if it seeks to micro-manage the BBC in this childish way.... 

Editorialising

Scene: Riverside House, Ofcom HQ - a fortnight ago. 

Melanie: "Nice job on the BBC, Kevin. Now, what shall we lead on ?"

Kevin: "Thanks, Mel. The complaints thing is very strong."

Melanie: "Mmm.  It's not the number of people who've actually complained, is it ?  It's a survey, asking people about have they ever thought of complaining...aren't surveys a bit tricky to lead on ? Wasn't that the rule at the BBC, Kev ?"

Kevin: "It's the best top line - One in nine."

Melanie: "Anything qualitative, rather than quantitative ? I mean, how many were just upset about wall-to-wall Prince Philip"

Kevin: "The qualitative stuff that matters, it's this bit - 'most of those do not actually make a complaint, with many telling us it would not make a difference or be taken seriously'.

Melanie: "OK, but this phrase - '11% of adults had cause to complain about the BBC in the last year.' - isn't 'cause' a bit strong ?  Can be read as justification, can't it ?"

Kevin: "It's gone to the printers"

On the Case

If The Telegraph is right, what do we now think of a Cabinet Secretary who complies with a Prime Ministerial request to find the Prime Minister's partner a job ?

Squeezed out

The Archers' theme is called Barwick Green, a maypole dance from the 1924 suite 'My Native Heath' by the Yorkshire composer, Sir Arthur Wood - it refers to a village east of Leeds called Barwick-in-Elmet. 

A library music recording, of an orchestra conducted by Sidney Torch, was used in the five pilots broadcast in 1950, before official launch in 1951. By 1954, a new recording was ordered, made by the BBC Midlands Light Orchestra. In 1992 the theme was re-recorded in stereo, with Ron Goodwin conducting from the original arrangements.

The omnibus edition of the show started in 1952, on the Light Programme on Saturday evenings. In 1972, Dorset folk quartet The Yetties had been backing actor and singer Bob Arnold, who played gamekeeper Tom Forrester. They recorded Barwick Green, and it was used by Archers supremo at the time, Jock Gallagher to open and close the omnibus edition.  

In 2020, the Omnibus switched to the Bellowhead version of Barwick Green, recorded for the spin-off Ambridge Extra back in 2011. 

Why am I telling you all this ?  Readers who say they are Archers' fans have only just noticed that The Yetties (from Yetminster) have been dropped. 

Generosity

How fares The Sharp Foundation, a charity with two trustees, Richard Sharp and his daughter Caroline ?

Latest accounts are a little opaque on beneficiaries. £10k goes to War Child, supporting children caught up in conflicts around the globe. £5k goes to Cliffside - which may or may not be a manufacturer of yoof-focussed urban wear.  And £10k goes to "Clibrary/Marnold", which has completely defeated my rudimentary websearch skills. 

Richard donates his BBC stipend to charity, but not via the Foundation. His fee, after National Insurance contributions, is administered through the BBC payroll giving scheme.

OK matey ?

In a ground-breaking programme within a programme, the BBC's Media Editor Amol Rajan and the BBC's former Political Editor Nick Robinson replaced the 0745 paper review on Radio 4's Today, with a mannered discussion of Boris Johnson's 2018 hunt for employment for his then paramour Carrie Symonds, and how it has been in and out of the newspapers. 

This Olympian debate managed both to patronise and then minimise the issue. Uncle Nick's analysis, audibly admired by 'nephew' Amol, was that the story was about what Boris was 'thinking', not what he did. Wrong again, Nick. The man who is our Prime Minister raised the issue of employing his mistress in a senior Government role, and was told don't be daft.  If he'd just thought it, nobody would have heard him. 

Minutes

Decoding BBC Board Minutes from January: Ofcom has become interested in where profits from content sales go within BBC Studios. Nobody really knows what to do yet with Maida Vale, a golden egg hard-boiled by new listed-building status. The Remuneration Committee is looking at incentives (with help from new committee member Muriel Gray). 

Er, that's it. All by video. 

Trusting teens

An interesting bit of research by Survation for BBC Bitesize, questioning some 2,000 children aged 11 to 16 about trust in various news sources. 

Asked what sources they'd use to check if a news story was true, 66% said parents, 43% said different news sites, 35% said social media, 29% turned to friends and only 23% turned to Wikipedia. 

67% said they trusted ("A great deal" + "Quite a bit") news from the BBC. For ITV it was 65%, Channel 4 56%, newspapers in general 50%, YouTube 43%, Instagram 34%,  and TikTok 31%. 

And on who they trusted to tell them the truth ?  Parents on top again, at 36%, followed by 'experts on the subject' at 17%, the BBC at 12%, teachers at 11%, 'News Presenters' (sorry, Huw) 7%, friends and social media influencers level on 5%, and politicians 1%.  

More data here.

Business Baroness

How fares Rona Fairhead, now Baroness Fairhead, who parted with the BBC as chairman in 2017 ?

Her spell as a Government trade envoy ended in 2019, but in 2020 she joined RS Components as non-executive chair. There is a broadcasting connection - RS was founded in 1937 as "Radiospares".  The company is being driven forward by American CEO Lindsley Ruth.  In their Annual Report 2022, modestly entitled "Our Journey To Greatness", they noted revenues of £2,554m, up 26%. 

Rona's fees for 2022 were £350,000, plus £3,821 taxable expenses. She also has 49,976 shares in the company, currently worth £410k.  Mr Ruth earned a total package of £2.9m, and has shares worth £7.9m. 

The Baroness hasn't spoken in the Lords since October 2020, but has a regular voting record. She's still on the board of Oracle, and a member of the external advisory board at McKinsey, a company with continuing contracts at the BBC. 

Out of the box

Ups and downs at Unboxed, the deconstructed version of a Festival of Britain. 

The project See Monster, involving the re-imagining of an offshore platform at Weston-super-Mare, set for July, has been delayed, with bookings from school parties now at risk and local businesses worrying about loss of visitors. Original Unboxed Board member in charge was former BBC Olympics supremo Roger Mosey. 

Meanwhile BBC Nations and Countryfile have agreed to produce a special about Unboxed's Green Space Dark Skies, a series of 20 outdoor artworks in secret locations across the UK. Rhodri Talfan Davies, for the BBC, says "It promises to be a unique celebration for everyone to enjoy."

Journeys

This week a BBC programme drew BBC management's attention to an internal training session for new staff which appeared to exhort campaigning for trans rights.  The company who provided the training are called Global Butterflies; the BBC says slides and training materials have now been amended. 

Global Butterflies was founded in 2015 by Rachel Reese, who explained her 'journey into activism' to the website Give Out, thus.. 

"I transitioned twice. The first time was in the mid-nineties when I came out of Law School and tried to get a job in law. I couldn’t as a trans women, so I reverted back to male expression and got a job at the University of Law. Back then, the legal profession certainly had no representation, no rainbow flags outside law firms. It was a difficult place, and I wanted to get a job as a trans woman. Once I felt comfortable and safe at the University of Law, I transitioned for the second time."

On the road again

Where's Al ?   He's been warming up for the festival season at Borris House, the ancestral home of the MacMurrough Kavanaghs in County Carlow, Ireland, in conversation with new talent like Laurie Anderson, and hanging with Lemn Sissay and Jon Ronson.  Al's Notting Hill coffee chum Stephen Frears kept up his record of attendance at this annual "festival of writing and ideas". 

News values

If Private Eye is right that the new BBC1 News set cost £15m, it's a mark of an organisation out of step with our times. 

Even if it lasts for nine years (the length of time the bulletins have come from the newsroom-floor glass wall studio) it works out at over £4,500 a day. If it's still in use in 2031, that's four years beyond the current Charter, and Huw Edwards will be pushing 70. 

It will have been signed off at the very top. Many regional studios are getting a revamp to 'fit in'.  The two non-execs dealing with big finance cases are chairman Richard Sharp and Shirley Garrood; did they ask what other news organisations spend on new studios ?  Did Tim Davie know the answer ?

About to flick the switch on the biggest upgrade of @BBCNews bulletins on @BBCOne in ten years. New tech, new look, familiar faces and traditional location reporting from the world over #bbcnewsten with @thehuwedwards

— Jonathan Munro (@jonathancmunro) June 13, 2022

Timing

Our toddler news channels are almost screaming for parental attention, as we move into the hottest summer yet. 

At Talk TV, Piers Morgan seems to have convinced the management that his product is fine, it's just the marketing that's not getting through. Thus a current wave of ads in unlikely places, like Scala Radio. Piers is also doing his best angry stuff, piling into Amber Heard, winding up Stanley Johnson, resurrecting interviews with Tyson Fury via an entirely spurious £1m bet.  

But the most recent publicly disclosed ratings give Piers an average of 32,000 viewers over an hour in the UK.  That's 0.3% of Piers' Twitter followers. 

An ad drive now, when we're all putting on shorts and heading outside, seems an odd move for an organisation led by a ring-savvy-media-mogul like Rupert Murdoch.  

Meanwhile, over at yah-boo GB News, Arlene Foster is being sent home cover live a 12th of July Orange Order Parade, because the BBC isn't. The BBC will be proving an evening 'highlights' show, presumably with prizes for the best bowler hat, sash and lambeg-bashing. Or not. 

Trend spotting

Some bits from the annual surveys by the Reuters Journalism Institute in their Digital News Report 2022. 

Proportion of those surveyed in the UK who say they are very or extremely interested in news is down from 70% in 2015 to 43% today. 

Proportion of UK respondents who say they sometimes or often actively avoid the news: 46%, up from 24% in 2017. 

Proportion of UK respondents who say they trust public service media brands: 55%, compared with 75% in 2018.

And one chart...

Competitive presenting

It's all getting very elbow-y between our smaller news channels. Was Isabel dropped by Sky ?

Breakfast with @EamonnHolmes and Isabel was the highest share programme on GB News yesterday and we beat Sky for almost all of our 3.5hr slot!
Not bad for a 1 year old Channel 🎈💪🏼
Thank you for the congrats @BorisJohnson - we very much look forward to welcoming you on the show.

— Isabel Webster (@IsabelWebster_) June 14, 2022

Not Huw 3

 Who can we get who's good at coming down stairs ?

Not Huw 2

 

Not Huw 1

 

Red, white and black with a touch of flesh tones

It's a lonely voice in the tv news set design forums (yes, they're a living thing), but it's a question I second.

"Call me old fashioned, but I don't get what Huw walking across the studio to Faisal Islam adds to the story about the economy..."

I've others. This new huge B&Q set apparently turns it's back on 'augmented reality'.  So why is there an expensive helical staircase leading to a pretend balcony, and upwards towards a completely pretend hole in the studio ceiling ?  How is that DDA compliant ? 

How much was paid to the Italian graphic artist who created the new pretend newsroom shot over Huw's shoulder ?

When Huw explained to Alex Jones on The One Show that the size of the new screens made them more legible, and his mum would be pleased, can Mrs Edwards confirm the exact amount of VAT here ?

And, never mind the size of studio, who's going to pay for Huw's physio for cricked neck ?

Being LED

"We have greatly reduced our power consumption (compared to the previous studio) by replacing our lights with LEDs."

Hang on. The previous BBC News studio for bulletins, on the newsroom floor, was equipped with LEDs from the start - and BBC News bulletins have been lit by LEDs since at least 2008. 

I hope the BBC's new Finance Approvals Committee hasn't been misled. 

Next move

Is BBC Select a triumph ?  A key figure, Jon Farrar, is off to join Sky. 

"I lead BBC Studios editorial strategy in direct-to-consumer, having co-developed Britbox, BBC Player, and, most recently, conceptualised and launched BBC Select in North America which I now oversee."

He joins the team at Sky working on Showtime, an aggregating service aimed at Europe. 

See through

Before we get to Wimbledon, would someone at the top of the BBC's governance structure mind updating BBC Board minutes (last issue December 2021), BBC Board England Committee minutes (last issue October 2020) ? 

We note also you seem to have established a new Board Finance Approvals Committee with just three members - is that 'cos the other non-executives find all this money stuff too detailed ?

And could someone tidy up the list of senior staff ? Catherine Hearn left in October 2020, Anna Gronmark in June 2021, Bal Samra in December 2021,  Cassian Harrison moved to BBC Studios in April 2020, Alice Webb left in April 2020 and Dale Haddon left in June 2020. 

Three

BBC Director of Content Charlotte Moore and BBC3 Controller Fiona Campbell must be hoping the trend for monthly reach at the new-restored linear channel continues in an upwards direction. 

Gilbert's ?

The DCMS, now famous globally for its transparent and timely recruitment processes, has floated the name of Lord Gilbert of Panteg, 58, to lead its one-year review of BBC funding options. 

He's been around the Conservative party, in local and national politics most of his life. Indeed, there's no other record of employment I can find, post-West Monmouth School, (other than recent consultancy, and membership of the Electoral Commission) via the obvious routes of the information highway. 

In 1996, 33-year-old Steve went as a Conservative operative to observe the Democrat Convention in Chicago. He drafted a note which suggested that Blair would sweep all before him, like Clinton, and election strategy should be defensive. It was ignored, and, in 1997, John Major was swept aside.   Steve became Director of Campaigning for the Tories in exile...

Stephen's long-term service to the party was rewarded in 2015 when he was handed a peerage by Cameron, having served as the prime minister’s political secretary, acting as the link between No. 10 and the Conservative Party.  In the Brexit referendum, he took a part-time position at Populus, the official polling company for Britain Stronger in Europe, the main Remain campaign group.

In 2017, Stephen was selected by Theresa May to lead her campaign team for the June election. Ten days into the campaign, their US data expert Jim Messina was forecasting a landslide twice the size of Margaret Thatcher's 1983 win.  The country was left with a government in hock to the DUP. 

In March 2020, Lord Gilbert, as Chair of the Lords’ Communications and Digital Select Committee, told his fellow peers:  "We looked at the evidence and took the view that the licence fee continues to be the best way to fund the BBC."

In April 2020 Lord Gilbert joined Twitter and has since acquired 80 followers. Re-tweets ain't necessarily a guide to the re-tweeter's opinions, but he's shared positive items about Chris Mason, George Alagiah, Lyse Doucet, and Steve Rosenberg. Equally, he's re-tweeted Nadine Dorries, Amada Milling and Oliver Dowden, all key members of Shore Up Boris. 

In October last year, he was back on his feet in the Lords: "My Lords, in the weeks leading up to the 2016 US presidential election, I was working for a bit in the United States. I have to say, I came back much more enthusiastic about the BBC and our news media than perhaps I have ever been. "

In April this year, Lord Gilbert was thought to have come second to Lord Grade, as Chairman of Ofcom. 

Re-staging

Whilst the DG's 'digital first' message resounds around most BBC legions, the News Division marches further into the linear land of Gaul with a new set just around the corner for BBC1 bulletins. Built in secrecy in a sub-sub-basement studio over more than six months, it's bigger than the current glass-box on the newsroom floor. Expect presenters to do much more walking, standing, sitting and standing again in a triumph of accessibility, and not much money down the drain at all. 

One presumes, in their quest to find out more about 'what the audience wants', the managers of BBC News have acceded to a range of clear public messages: "That set's looking a bit tired", "I will no longer watch Sophie Raworth unless she has a huge screen behind her", "Come ON, BBC, refresh the look". In these challenging financial times, it can't have been driven by insiders who just like building new sets, can it ? There must be, somewhere, a business case that explains a) how it will increase viewing and b) how it saves money.... 

A matter of seconds

Monthly audience figures for May, for our favourite news channels, are in. 

Talk TV reached 1.9m viewers, who stayed with the channel for an average of 8 seconds. GB News reached 2.2m viewers, who stomached an average of 35 seconds - that's down from February's high of  2.6m. 

In other news of bald men arguing over combs.... 

UPDATE: Thursday's @piersmorgan with @usainbolt was our highest-rated show for 3 weeks, beating Sky News & GB News. In our 28 shows to date, we've beaten @SkyNews 15 times (53%) and @GBNews 21 times (75%). If this is ratings 'failure', I can't wait to see what success looks like! pic.twitter.com/fIZdu8pOhM

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 11, 2022

Ms Rozzall

Mmm. A Saturday Today feature on Steve Reich.

Apologies. Someone had put that pronunciation phonetically in the script and I panicked and read it. Sorry Steve Reich

— Katie Razzall (@katierazz) June 11, 2022

So someone at Today invented "Reesh". Even this must be new to Reich. Here's an interview with Steve in The Globe and Mail from 2016, on the occasion of his 80th birthday. 

So here's a question I've always wanted to ask you. Why is your name pronounced Steve Reich (rysh) rather than Steve Reich (rike)

It's an anglicization. I'm not sure what my grandfather said when he came here, but my father always said Reich, as though it were "sh," so that's what I said, and then I started going to Germany, and realized it was Reich "rike" – my son insists on that pronunciation, with the k. So I'm a "rysh" and he's a "rike." I think it was common for Jews who had that last name to change the pronunciation when they got to America.

Right pair

There are times when, without thinking, you append to Andrew Neil the wisdom of a Jedi master, the sagacity of senior judge, the economic insight of Friedrich August von Hayek, the all-knowing yet independent repository of up-to-date knowledge on what's right and what's not in British politics. 

Then, today, in the Mail, he suggests Michael Gove should be made Chancellor of The Exchequer. 

"He is numerate, always bursting with fresh ideas, radically-minded, a famous foe of departmental orthodoxies — and he would relish the challenge. "

How tv works

An insight into editorial values of Insider Productions, hired on a £50m three-year contract by News UK to bring you Piers Morgan Uncensored. 

Hi Rory, my mother wants you to come on @PiersUncensored because she thinks you’re the only hope for the Conservatives.. fancy making my mum happy? You can plug your podcast.. https://t.co/SLsNP6cLaZ

— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) June 10, 2022

Hey, guys

Will it happen ?  Will we get the dream demotic pairing of Amol Rajan and Katie Razzall presenting Today together ?

Katie, BBC Culture Editor to Amol's Media Editor, has been attacking the presentational shibboleths of the programme like a student rugby team having a go at the Cresta Run after a few Stellas. Large parts of the audience are hoping the pairing can do a full Couple's Choice routine asap, samba-ing through the pips, making up 'Paper Reviews', over-sharing personal info, and generally mucking up timings, scripts and emphasis. 

Language laboratory

The French town of Quimper (pop 65,000) is recovering from the three-day Celtic Media Festival. It's the ancient capital of "Cornouaille"; the name comes from the Breton 'kemper' (Welsh 'cymer') meaning 'confluence' (of rivers). 

Star guest was the UK's leading Celt, Huw Edwards, discussing Huw Edwards in conversation with the Director of BBC Wales, Rhuanedd Richards. 

Other BBC speakers included: Aisling O'Connor, Head of Commissioning, BBC England; Karen Voisey,  Senior News Editor, BBC Wales; Calum McConnell, Assistant Commissioner, BBC Gàidhlig; Karen Kirby, Editor, BBC Gaeilge; Catherine Robinson, BBC Audio; David Harron, Commissioning Executive, Factual, BBC Scotland; Eddie Doyle, Senior Head of Content Commissioning, BBC Northern Ireland; Justin Binding, Commissioning Executive, BBC Northern Ireland; Mary McKeagney, Commissioning Executive, BBC Northern Ireland; Tommy Bulfin, Drama Commissioning Editor, BBC Northern Ireland; Gavin Smith, Commissioning Executive, Comedy, Drama and Entertainment, BBC Scotland; Gregor Sharp, Commissioning Editor, BBC Comedy, Scotland

• In honor of CMF's return to Brittany, Quimper's Katorza cinema screened its first film in the Breton language. The 2007 Irish comedy-drama musical, 'Once', about the romance of two Dublin buskers, was dubbed into Breton, and accompanied by French subtitles. 

How many ?

Despite the arrival of an Analysis Editor, numbers were missing from the BBC's previews of the Johnson housing announcement this morning. 

He's restating a 2015 manifesto pledge to extend 'right to buy' to members of housing associations. In August 2018, the Voluntary Right to Buy (VRTB) Midlands pilot was launched across the East and West Midlands – giving housing association tenants the opportunity to apply to buy their home at a discount. There were 44 housing associations involved in the pilot, resulting in a total of 1,892 homes being sold or sales in the final stages of completion by 30 April 2020.  The evaluation of the scheme, in the Commons library, identified the key barriers to replacing the homes sold as land availability and insufficient funding raised from sales. The full report said "An early indication is that replacement homes will on average be smaller than those they replace."

The other leg of the Johnson initiative: people on benefits might get support for a mortgage. Or not. Amol Rajan chose to pursue Michael Gove on treatment of cleaners at No 10; on TalkRadio/TV Julia Hartley-Brewer took a better line.

Gove Asked Seven Times How Many People Bonkers New “Buy a House on Benefits” Housing Policy will Help https://t.co/xlvEnSXJcS pic.twitter.com/bY36WZxPiD

— Guido Fawkes (@GuidoFawkes) June 9, 2022

The Atkins Method

I'm ambivalent about the appointment of Ros Atkins as the BBC's first Analysis Editor. 

First, it's a welcome acknowledgement for a presenter whose topical, well-written, evidenced  pull-together pieces for Outside Source have rightly picked up online views and high-level praise for their clarity. 

However, it's the sort of reporting that should be widened, not funnelled through one generalist. And it brings Ros into the spidery web of News Content, née Newsgathering.  For it is Richard Burgess, Interim Senior Controller, News Content who makes the announcement: “Ros’ ability to innovate on digital platforms, combined with his analytical skills, will be fundamental to the role. The On-Air editor role will be crucial in debunking misinformation and seeking the truth through examining data and open-source journalism.”

Many other correspondents and bulletin editors could have constructed such pieces over the years, but they would have been pooh-poohed. Too long, not strong enough visually, too many words, not filmed outside London, what's the headline, and worse, not fronted by one of our 'team'.   Innovative ?  Old-fashioned Birtism. 

Crowd pleaser

One hopes it's not due to poor ticket sales. 

Jeremy Vine's visit to the 500-seat Frome Memorial Theatre on 17th June has been cancelled. Tickets, at £17, are being refunded. What the hell is going on ? (The title of his show). 

Winds of...

Another sign that significant change in radio is just around the corner: The BBC is looking for someone to fill the new post of Business Operations Director, Radio & Music. It's described as "the key leadership role in the running of Radio & Music – managing the operational, financial and commercial success of our Radio Networks and Sounds."  The postholder will report to Charlotte Moore's COO, David Pembrey. 

Over here

And while we're on about the Americanisation of the next generation, ITV2's latest Top 50 shows feature just 5 UK-made programmes - one edition of Celebrity Juice and four editions of Celebrity Catchphrase. 

All the rest are episodes of Family Guy, American Dad!, Superstore, and Bob's Burgers, plus two showings of the 2014 US action comedy, Ride Along. 

Comic book

UK top 10 on Netflix, week starting 30th May

1 Stranger Things 4
2 Stranger Things
3 Stranger Things 2
4 Stranger Things 3
5 The Lincoln Lawyer: Season 1
6 Lucifer: Season 1
7 Ozark: Season 4
8 Meet, Marry, Murder: Season 1
9 Lucifer: Season 2
10 Ricky Gervais: SuperNature

Can Julia Lopez explain how hog-tying the BBC and C4 stops the UK becoming a cultural sub-state of the USA ?

Tinkering

Ah, the relentless pace of change at Radio 2. Shuffling the weekend pack, Helen Thomas drops Craig Charles (57), Ana Matronic (47) and Dr Rangan Chatterjee (44), and brings in Michelle Visage (53), DJ Spoony (51) and  Angela Griffin (45). 

How consultation works

DCMS Minister Julia Lopez was asked in the Lords about pressing ahead with C4 privatisation despite a public consultation in which 96% of respondents objected to the plan. 

“The Government is still within its rights to come to a different view than the one expressed by the majority to those who have responded to a consultation."

Julia, 38 (The Hertfordshire and Essex High School and Queens' College, Cambridge), was elected for Hornchurch and Upminster in 2017, and joined the DCMS in September last year. 

Job mobility

Six days ago, it was announced that Hilary O'Neill was leaving her role as Mentorn's editor of Question Time, after four years in the role. 

Today Hilary resurfaces as BBC News Executive Editor running the "Politics Story Team" for the next six months (starting next week). Apparently, initially she can combine this with winding down on QT. 

Earner

One ray of sunshine I missed in all the Jubilee palaver - Gemma 'I was born a star' Collins's contract as a BBC podcaster is not being renewed. 

"The GC", 41, (Frances Bardsley Academy for Girls and Sylvia Young Theatre School) was said to have been paid £100k for her last series, according to The Sun. She's let it be known that someone is prepared to pay five times that, and help Gemma answer more of the big questions, like do houses have feelings ? should we make candles that smell like vaginas ? And really though, what is time?

Rolling

Tricky times for our fledgling news channels. At GB News, political correspondent Tom Harwood seemed to have been supplied with a supply of bizarre distraction stories - Sue Gray, pre-pandemic, decorously singing karaoke, and allegations of a Downing St party while Boris Johnson was in hospital - and has spent time since the result demanding a more Conservative government. At TalkTV, rolling news instincts took over in the evening, with Adam Boulton a constant presence. Piers Morgan ran for two hours, sustained by groovy Vince Cable, Ann Widdecombe and Anna Soubry.  

BBC News, the soon-to-be-spavined, not-long-for-HD, domestic 24 hour channel, had a grand day, with a long shift by Victoria Derbyshire, followed by the excellent Ros Atkins and Christian Fraser. The BBC's political correspondents, apart from those saddled with dangerous out-of-London vox pops, were straightforward and confident all day and night. 12.5m used it over April.  Why break its legs ?

Fealty

 The payroll won it. 

Remove the “payroll” vote - and look at the free vote from backbenchers. Almost 75% of all Tory MPs not dependent on his patronage voted against him. This is the end for Boris Johnson. The only question is how long the agony is prolonged. @RestIsPolitics

— Rory Stewart (@RoryStewartUK) June 6, 2022

On Boris' payroll

From the Institute for Government: 

The current payroll vote is between 160 and 170 MPs, consisting of:

95 ministers (including whips) in the House of Commons

47 parliamentary private secretaries (assuming all those who also serve on the Privileges Committee have resigned their PPS role to be able to investigate the prime minister)

20 Conservative MP trade envoys

an unknown number of party vice-chairs.

The tally was 135 MPs in September 2021

Real world radio

As Tim Davie seeks 1,000 redundancies, Radio 4 sails on. Controller Mo is advertising for a second Commissioning Editor Factual, to sit alongside the existing Commissioner, and the Commissioners of Drama, Comedy and Digital. 

The special task required of the new postholder -  "short-term, reactive commissioning, in response to a fast-changing world". Presumably the rest of this rather generous management team can carry on in their long-term, non-reactive way.  Only Radio 4 can do this. 

Tailoring global news

One of the attractions of BBC News in the States for US consumers is a different perspective...in the same the UK-based media junkies drop into CNN, the New York Times, the LA Times etc.

The money-hungry strategists at BBC Studios clearly think Auntie should take the Yanks on at their own game, and have advertised for a Head of Journalism, BBC News US, to be based in Washington, reporting back to visionary Digital News Editor Stuart Millar. 

I hope Deborah Turness is across all this, with her recent experience of trying monetise NBC News in Europe. That didn't end well, either.

Stealing scenes

Who knew that, after 70 years' of smiling to order and feigning interest, the Queen could really act ?

Rosie Alison, executive producer on Paddington and Paddington 2, said it was "an emotional day for the entire crew. All of us were in awe of the Queen’s wit, warmth and radiant aura as she patiently engaged with a polite, clumsy but very well-intentioned bear. Of course, she shone, and put Paddington (and all of us) at ease."

The sequence featured Simon Farnaby, as Barry the Security Guard, transformed into a Royal flunkey, and the voice of Ben Whishaw. 

Boos news

🎥 WATCH: Boris and Carrie Johnson booed before thanksgiving service

🔗: https://t.co/7w83iQcnvG pic.twitter.com/K90tkgqdK9

— The Times (@thetimes) June 3, 2022

 "Royal fans jeer and boo at Prime Minister Boris Johnson" Reuters

"Boris Johnson was booed as he arrived at St. Paul's Cathedral on Friday for the queen's Platinum Jubilee celebration." CBS News 

"Boris Johnson booed as Sadiq Khan cheered upon arrival at Jubilee Service"  GB News

"The Prime Minister @BorisJohnson arriving with wife Carrie at St Paul’s Cathedral for the Platinum Thanksgiving Service is booed by some in the crowd"  Tweet from BBC presenter Victoria Derbyshire

"The Prime Minister had arrived with his wife to a mixed reception", BBC Royal Correspondent Nicholas Witchell, 6pm bulletin

"There were far, far more cheers, but that doesn’t make a good headline does it. " Nadine Dorries, Secretary of State, DCMS, tweeting at 6.37pm yesterday.

Responses to the woman in charge of regulating UK media:

"The facts are, and I was there, the boos were very loud indeed. No escaping that. Reporters are there to report. Not make stuff up."  Chris Ship, ITV News

Data mining

The news that the BBC is planning to spend £50m finding out what its audience wants raised eyebrows at the start of last month. Director of Audiences Nick North made a rare visit to Linkedin, which has started a long-running thread of point-scoring by marketing and research types around the globe. 

Nick said "For the record, we've found that looking at our spend as a proportion of our total income is a useful benchmark, to enable us to compare the efficiency and effectiveness of our spend against other public service media organisations.

Measuring and understanding all audiences' attitudes and media choices across the ever changing competitive set, across all of the UK, certainly costs money, but is vital to ensure that the BBC delivers value to all licence fee paying households."

So the BBC is out to tender for four-year contracts. The biggest is the "Continuous Tracking Studies Research" - "integrating behavioural (use and consumption) and perception (experience / satisfaction) and applying a leading edge of technological development in data collection and processing and brand tracking studies. Total value of £42,100,000."

For slightly less money, I've been researching Mr North's media tastes: He's a fan of Now That's What I Call Music 48, the ABBA museum in Stockholm, 80s reggae and cycling. 

Trooping in

Trooping the Colour, Jubilee Edition, delivered an average audience of 5.3m across three hours to BBC1 yesterday, topping the days viewing charts. 

I'll bring you news of Piers Morgan Uncensored's figures should they turn up. Brian Blessed, Frankie Dettori and Tom Bower.  Mr Morgan looks to be taking a long weekend; Monday's show is already in the can, with Don McClean. 

Clive Ferguson RIP

I first met Clive when, as a BBC News Trainee in 1974, I was sent to BBC Northern Ireland for three months, and I was deployed to PM Ulster, a half hour opt-out from PM on Radio 4.  There seemed to be quite a few reporters on this show, sitting at desks organised like a classroom, with the boss, Keith Hayes, at the teacher's table - Wilson Harte, David Beak, Maggie Taggart and Clive doing his bidding. 

Keith spent most of his time rehearsing a daily Gloria Hunniford show, for the launch of Radio Ulster, which came in January 1975.  It was still a time of violence, car bombs etc, but PM Ulster was pretty gentle stuff, with regular features from Frank Delaney in Dublin, which obviously irritated one large section of the audience. If someone big, like Ian Paisley, was coming in for a tv interview, we'd knock him off as well. Presenter Sean Rafferty was deemed too lightweight to handle this sort of stuff, so a local junior school head (can't track his name) came in. He sat with Paisley at a separate studio table, and Paisley eased himself into the chair, placing his large personal revolver on the desk. 

Socially, most of us under-30s repaired to the BBC Club after Scene Around Six, and things would evolve from there. Jeremy Paxman occasionally joined in, already reporting and presenting the local tv current affairs show Spotlight. Sometimes there were journeys outside Belfast's city limits, for Italian food; sometimes it ended up back at various larger flats. Always fun. 

By the time myself and Clive met up regularly again, I was with Radio Five Live as we moved to Television Centre, and Clive was a manager in Newsgathering. Both of us had a fair share of management 'b*ll*cks' to handle.  I joined him, with other luminaries, from VT Editors through IT staff to HR professionals, over many a lunchtime at what we dubbed "The Podium of Fear" in the BBC Club. If the wisdom imparted over those sessions had been implemented by management, the whole BBC would be in a much better place by now. Clive also regularly met up with Five Live presenter Peter Allen, at the fruit machine. Clive would keep an eye on whether or not it had already 'paid out'; whether it had or not, the pair seemed to spend at least a quarter of an hour each day in its thrall, before pressing on to other duties. Still fun.  

Real cancel culture

It's a brave BBC Arts Honcho who messes with Mary Beard. 

Mary, on Twitter, thinks Inside Culture With Mary Beard on BBC2 is for the chop. It's a BBC Studios Production. It was commissioned by BBC Arts and BBC Two by Jonty Claypole (Remember him ?). The Series Producer is Sandy Raffan. Executive Producer is Tanya Hudson.

It morphed from seven episodes of Front Row: Lockdown Culture, and six series of Front Row Late, where the production team first flirted with presenters Giles Coren, Amol Rajan and Nikki Bedi, before lighting upon Mary, who's been host since October 2017. 

Who's trying to cancel it ? Can it be new Arts and Classical Music boss, Suzy Klein ? Or recently-anointed Director of Unscripted Kate Phillips, previously a shiny-floor specialist ?

Walk in salon

I'm sorry I missed some of the May sessions at The Salon, a new intimate networking club based at The Relais, Henley. One evening event featured former BBC DG Lord Hall, on "Running Creative Organisations". No need for a car - 115m from the Lord's front door. 

Other speakers with entertaining pasts: Mark Turnbull, once of Cambridge Analytica and Simon Foy, once Met Police Commander in Lambeth; 

Summertime ?

BBC Content supremo Charlotte Moore must be hoping for a Jubilee surge of viewing. BBC1's monthly share of broadcast viewing slipped below 20% for the first time in March, and further down to 18.8% in April.  In 1980, the BBC1 share of the pie was 39%. 

ITV seems to be slightly improving since the turn of the year, and stands at 21.5%. In the most recent reported week of top shows, from May 16th, ITV had 14 programmes in the Top 20, with BBC1 on 6. 

Small haul

Did Nadine have a gander ?

A poor show for the BBC in the Jubilee Honours. Behind Clare Balding and the Masterchef duo, only the Welsh entries seem to have got through. David Jackson, on contract for the past nine years as Artistic Director of BBC Cardiff Singer of the World, and Derek Brockway, hirsute weather forecaster are both gonged. 

British Forces Broadcasting gets awards for trustee Howard Perlin, Paul Wright, Station Manager, and Indraprasad Limbu, Broadcast Technician.  ITV get two, Central presenter Bob Warman, who retired in April and Sam Tatlow, creative diversity partner. 

June time

The BBC's departing Director of Creative Diversity, June Sarpong, has just celebrated her 45th birthday, and disappeared from Twitter. Maybe she doesn't want her next employer to know who she worked for... 

Meanwhile Director General Tim Davie will be sorting through the applicants for Director of Diversity and Inclusion, which has just closed, without the support of his old diversity minder Bob Shennan, now concentrating on making money out of radio for BBC Studios, or, indeed, a new full-time HR Director. How will he cope ?