Monday, September 12, 2022

World class

The central mindset of the BBC management continues to pooh-pooh linear and entirely forget radio. April Board minutes:

The Board was briefed on a set of proposals being developed by the Executive, comprising service changes with a view to reprioritising significant investment toward video content and world-class products. This was part of the broader value for all strategy and would support an ongoing shift from linear to digital value.

And from the transcript of DG Tim Davie facing the Culture Select Committee

Q75 Chair: You have just invested £16 million in doing up the studios for news and that is linear, yet you are saying linear is not important.

Tim Davie: I am not saying that linear is not important. I am saying that in terms of the way the market is moving—this is not me driving the market—a linear news channel will only get you so many people. If you talk to people outside in the street, we are not seeing big audiences coming to the news channel; the big audiences are for live and breaking stories— 

Q76 Chair: Do you think the big audiences will come when you go global facing and you are reporting more stories from around the world? 

Tim Davie: No, I don’t. I think the structural challenges for broadcast linear mean you are not going to see vast growth in people watching broadcast news, day to day. I say that with a somewhat heavy heart because I am a traditionalist to a degree, but people will be looking at their phones, as they do in the Committee. They will look at a stream and they will look at those live streams, and we need to make sure they are world-class and invest in them.

12 million reach for the News Channel - if that's the bar for closure, how much else will go ?


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