NUJ members working across BBC 'England', part of BBC Nations, have come out in favour of both strike action and action short of a strike.
The Union says 69% of the relevant members voted; of that number, 83% voted in favour of strike action, with 17% against.
92% backed action short of strike, 8% voted against action short of strike.
BBC local reps will meet this afternoon, with an outcome expected this evening.
Apparently the DUP and Boris Johnson are waiting for 'the legal detail' before coming to an opinion on Dear Rishi's deal. Frankly, viewers and listeners to BBC1 are waiting for that, too. It's still not enough to draw lorries and red and green lines across a map.
Is Steve Baker right that only 3% of difficult EU stuff remains, and that's essential to an open border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. Please, someone, test this and report. And might one of our senior political correspondents suggest that this 'waiting for the details' is, in fact, playing for time, to see who will actually face it down other than the unelected Nigel Farage ?
And how and why did Von Der Leyen/Sunak and Baker get to such a relaxation on previous hardlines, apparently essential in talks between Barnier/Johnson and Frost ?
Jacob Rees-Mogg started on GB News as a host at 8pm last night, filling the coveted Mark Steyn slot and widening the People's Agenda with guests Lee Anderson, David Davis and Toby Young. The second sentence of his first 'Mogg-ologue' made reference to Pericles; he has a feature called 'Vox Populi, Vox Dei'; and viewers and listeners are invited to get in touch via Mogg-mail.
The Labour leader has backed his Culture spokesperson Lucy Powell's position on the future of Richard Sharp as BBC Chairman. On Channel 4 News last night, he said "I do agree. There is obviously a process in place but I do think that his position is increasingly untenable."
BBC middle management were slightly spooked at a leadership event when this current crisis broke, with Mr Sharp introducing his 'old friend' Sir Damon Buffini to those present. He was appointed deputy chairman by Mr Sharp. Perhaps it's time for a reminder that Mr Sharp also brought in Shumeet Banerji at the same time. Presumably they'll support Mr Sharp if there's a Board vote on his future. And maybe even Deborah Turness, interviewed by Mr Sharp to be CEO News and a Board member.
It seems the producers of University Challenge have vacancies for a number of question setters - enough to fill a 'Talent Pool'. No-one is suggesting that the current team have decided not to risk their carefully crafted Q&As being mangled by Amol Rajan.
"This role entails writing questions (to be submitted in batches of 35 starters and 25 bonus sets) in accordance with the editorial brief of University Challenge, in terms of style, difficulty and subject matter, and with a high degree of factual accuracy"
Interesting. Does that reflect a higher ratio of failed starters than usually appear on air ? And surely there shouldn't be an issue about 'degrees of factual accuracy' ? Right or wrong, at least for Jezza.
The anti-Woke will leap on this requirement: Recent experience of working with university students, and awareness of ongoing cultural conversations regarding representation and access in this context.
As we hinted in December, future custody of Sky News, as John Ryley departs, will be shared by David Rhodes and Jonathan Levy. Mr Rhodes becomes executive chairman of Sky News across Europe (whatever that means) and Jonathan, more than 20 years in the Sky Newsroom, becomes Managing Director & Executive Editor.
The latest weekly Top 50 tv ratings chart, unbothered recently by the streamers, has found space for the three first episodes of Clarkson's Farm, Series 2, from Amazon Prime. At number 16, with 4.2m over seven days, at 27 with 3.7m, and at 40 with 3.2m.
BBC Countryfile took 19th place, on 4.1m.
Delighted that Alan Yentob was able to join guests at the Charles Finch/Chanel pre-Bafta party at 5 Hertford Street.
Here he is with former British Vogue editor Fiona Golfar, now freelancing with articles such as "How I developed late-onset sex appeal at 60".
This may be underwhelming.
"Produced, staged and broadcast live by the BBC and BBC Studios, the Coronation Concert will bring global music icons and contemporary stars together in celebration of the historic occasion."
So far, we are told that Elton John (remember Candle in the Wind/Goodbye England's Rose for Princess Diana ?) Ed Sheeran (booked in Texas) and Adele (no published commitments) are among the unavailable global music icons.
Chas' favourite Bryn Terfel will be singing at the Coronation proper. Apparently Chas is hoping for Harry Styles and a Spice Girls re-union. But Charles wasn't the only Royal enamoured of the Girls...
The Three Degrees ? S-Club 7 ? Gareth Gates and Will Young ? Lionel Richie ? Rod Stewart again ?
How to treat a nice bloke who's given you more than 40 years' service, the most recent of them dramatically underpaid compared with others doing the same job. Well done, BBC.
I will be presenting my last show on Radio 2 next Friday. I had intended fulfilling my contract until the end of March but the BBC has decided it wants me to leave earlier. Let’s enjoy the week ahead!
— Ken Bruce (@RealKenBruce) February 24, 2023
The man charged with rebuilding BBC tv 'Pop', Jonathan Rothery, 45, has unveiled his next season.
It features, alongside a three part examination of disco music,....
Not quite the Sam Allardyce of Music Radio, Helen Thomas, in charge of team selection at Radio 2, is moving rather slowly to replace Ken Bruce. According to Ken's new team at Greatest Hits, Radio 2 simply assumed he'd be ok about a new contract, without clear promises - and they moved in.
Now Helen has unveiled Vernon Kay as Ken's replacement. Except he won't be starting until 17th April, a full two weeks after Ken invites listeners to follow him and Pop Master to his new commercial home on April 3rd. Helen has invited Gary Davies to cover the gap from Ken's departure on 3rd March.
Vernon is 48; Ken Bruce started hosting mid-morning on Radio 2 at the age of 35. Vernon (St John Rigby Sixth Form College and B.Sc Environmental Sciences, Manchester Metropolitan University) came to radio after modelling and tv shows, and started with weekend shows on Radio 1 at the age of 30; Ken started with hospital radio in Glasgow at 17.
Vernon Kay is represented by YMU Entertainment, who also look after his wife Tess Daly, as well as other Radio 2 presenters Claudia Winkleman, Sara Cox, and Rylan.
Most BBC journalists work either for News and Current Affairs (total staff at March 2022: 2,840) or Nations (total staff: 5,291).
Nonetheless the NUJ got an impressive 1,000+ member responses to its survey of BBC hacks about the future of Chairman Sharp - a bigger number than many opinion polls.
95% said Sharp should immediately resign from the BBC; just four per cent said he retains their faith to continue as Chair. 97% said revelations over Sharp’s actions and behaviour at the time of his appointment and since have caused damage to the BBC’s reputation; and 91% said the scandal served to undermine trust in BBC journalism.
Minutes of the BBC Board meeting on 26th October last year have been published. That's just five days before the announcement of cuts to BBC Local Radio from 2pm each weekday, with dedicated local programming to be replaced by regional offerings.
If the minute is a full record of the discussion, these cuts weren't raised at Board level; if the minute is a partial record, yet still approved by the next meeting, you can see that the Board hasn't recorded this important element of the changes planned by Nations & Regions; symptomatic of a very poor level of care about radio.
A little more limelight for Lizzi Watson, moving up from deputy editor of News from the Black and Red Car Showroom on BBC1, to interim Executive Editor looking after the central commissioning team that's meant to save BBC News millions by covering fewer stories.
Elizabeth, 49, (BA Politics UEA) has been in and around BBC News for 25 years, working at Newsnight, The Victoria Derbyshire Show, The Asian Network and with Amol Rajan on the recent Radio 4 series ReThink; she's a mother of two, and daughter of Dame Margaret Hodge, Labour MP for Barking. She tweets as islingtonlizzi, and likes Pulp, The Chemical Brothers and Eastenders.
One of the greatest assets of the BBC World Service news team is a collective wisdom, based on years of experience, used to make hourly judgements on the relative merits of news stories from around the world. The judgements are not always right, but there's a remarkable level of consistency and quality. World Service news running orders provide a sustaining navigational tool for BBC news services in foreign languages, and for the teams running the BBC World tv news channel.
It's not just the individual stories and how they are treated that wins audience trust; it's a credible and assured ordering of these events into bulletins that earns international respect.
BBC News, with ITV's Deborah Turness and Jonathan Munro at the top, is now deconstructing, bit by bit the machinery that wins that trust. They've created another new title, Supervising Editor BBC News Digital, Washington DC. My italics.
"The BBC is the most trusted news brand in the US. The right person for this role has significant experience as a daily news editor, and thinks holistically about content creation and curation. They should should have impeccable news judgment, informed by data."
"As the supervising editor, you will: Deliver the daily agenda for news out of the US and Canada, constantly monitoring a wide range of sources to keep us ahead of the competition, and using search and social insights to anticipate audience needs"
As with most of these jobs, any offer of employment with the BBC will be conditional upon you having the right to live and work in the US (US citizenship, permanent residency or work authorisation).
How long will the title 'most trusted news brand' last ?
NEW: There are no minutes of Richard Sharp's meeting with Simon Case in Dec 2020, says Cabinet Office
— Gabriel Pogrund (@Gabriel_Pogrund) February 21, 2023
Soon after PM appointed BBC chair- and got loan of up to £800k
So no record of key summit which Sharp says avoided potential conflict of interest- and which MPs say created one https://t.co/g8jbwBcVIV pic.twitter.com/wgA6SXYjfX
A quiet (so far) exit this week for yet another very experienced presenter. Ritula Shah, 57 (Haberdashers' Elstree and University of Warwick) hosts her last few editions of The World Tonight.
Her radio interest started on student station W693, which she parlayed into a two-year Production Traineeship at the BBC. She joined Today in 1991 as a researcher (I was an Assistant Editor) and stayed eight years, rising to output editor. Then came a move to the other side of the mike with the revamped World Today at the World Service. Side gigs came in - Saturday PM, Woman's Hour and a long run with Any Questions ? She became a World Tonight regular from 2008, and lead presenter from 2013.
Ritula tolerated appalling pronunciations of her name at Today, and even now she is one of the few who approach the soft 'T' with confidence on air.
Are Richard Sharp's dapper days behind him ? There's a thread of fashion running through his investment strategies, from helping Philip Green with £800m to have go at taking over M&S, to assisting Lebanese investors chasing All Saints, and more recently, a donation from the Sharp Foundation to online hoodie retailers Cliffside.
Here's a neat outfit from happier days in 2012, with the first Mrs Sharp and daughter Caroline.
Michael Gove, 55, has been re-charging his batteries before the next session of Levelling Up. This time at the Club Tropicana and Venga (Never forget the 90s) disco in Chapel St Aberdeen, half mile from his previous outing to Bohemia Night at O'Neil's.
Below, he's with club owner Tony Cochrane. Tony also runs Private Eyes, a small chain of strip clubs with two branches in Aberdeen.
"Several innovations are being devised to make the channel more dynamic than its predecessors," says The Times about the planned launch of the merged BBC World/BBC News channel on April 3.
Making changes to 24-news channels is a bit like trying to change the wheels on a moving saloon car during an endurance race. Dynamism is an odd ingredient to chase; well-researched, well-written and well-filmed news items would be my focus, plus a drive to find guests with genuine news contributions to make or top quality specialist insight, rather than a cast-list of usual suspects who keep the meter moving.
Paul Royall's memorable contribution to BBC tv output will always be The Big Red and Black Garage of News, where presenters move around a cavernous showroom like hapless salesmen of shiny SUVs, sometimes in front of the curved screen with Japanese backing, then next to the Samsung Obelisk of Graphics soaring into the superstructure, or at the desk with 'windows' to an imaginary newsroom. Lowly correspondents and weather forecasters perform in a church hall area, where they ran out of money for glossy laminates, and got stuck with pretend concrete pillars. Utterly meaningless distractions.
Let's hope, as interim director of this 'new' channel, he concentrates on quality rather than slash and shimmer.
I'm not sure why the odd couple football management team of Brian Clough (an answer for every question, odd inflections, occasionally inspiring and too often patronising) and Peter Taylor (quieter, a talent-spotter, the ying to Clough's yang).
I wonder if Tim Dave and Richard Sharp are in danger of losing the dressing room.
Former BBC digital guru Dan Taylor-Watt has created this moving graph (click bottom left to play) which might illustrate to media writers on the Mail and Express how stable Radio 2 has been for the last ten years.
Is the governance superstructure of the BBC a tad overwhelmed at the mo ? Could someone remind them of their transparency commitments. Below, BBC Board committees and their last published minutes.
BBC Board - September 2022
Audit & Risk - September 2022
Finance Approvals - no minutes at all
Editorial guidelines and standards - July 2022
England - October 2021
Fair trading - April 2022
Nominations - September 2022
Northern Ireland - March 2022
Remuneration - June 2022
Scotland - July 2022
Wales - March 2022
"We’ve got to be careful at the BBC in terms of our message to the outside world".
Oh yes indeed, Tim. The BBC Director-General relaxed in front of BBC South staff on Tuesday, and chewed the fat in Davie-speak, well aware that the NUJ ballot on strike action over cuts to local radio is active, closing on 27th February - but seemingly not aware that someone might record his current marketing apothegms and attempts at irony.
Snippets of his talk have arrived at the Telegraph, and are now shared across our online newspapers.
“It’s truly amazing what we’re pulling off . . . that most households are pretty happy paying a licence, being a forced payment.
“Our budgets are slightly better than some of the commercial operators and the lovely thing is we can play long-term as well, we don’t need to make a profit on everything, which is glorious.”
"You know I get extremely well paid, but everyone in my top team takes a lot less money than they can get.”
If you think top appointments at the BBC a little iffy, try the BBC's partner running BBC America, AMC Networks. The new CEO is to be Kristin Dolan, wife of interim chairman James Dolan.
Kristin and James met while she was working on digital marketing at Cablevision, where Dolan, son of founder Charles Dolan, was CEO. They married in 2002 at Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach married. Kristin was appointed to the AMC Networks Board in 2011; the couple separated apparently amicably in 2013, and then again in 2018.
Kristin, 56 (BA English, University at Albany, MA English Long Island University) had two sons with James.
At just under 600 yards on foot, the Masons Arms on Devonshire St W1 was at the outer limits of many Beeboids seeking a liquid lunch in their breaks from Broadcasting House. Those seeking privacy made the effort, among them Radio 1 DJ Greg James.
It closed doors with the pandemic, and now has a new tenant. Alcohol-free drinks specialist Lucky Saint has taken the site, with offices above. Their brands, brewed under licence in Germany, will feature, but they also promise other companies' beverages with the dangerous stuff still in when they open in March.
Our photo of the new signage courtesy of a correspondent not afraid of distances....
TalkTV's squad is getting larger. Piers Morgan is off, both on half-term and a trip to do more formulaic programmes for other networks about jailed criminals in the States.
Step forward the elegantly-coiffed Reform UK leader Richard Tice and his journalist life partner Isabel Oakeshott. Try the first three and a half minutes of this meeting of minds with Michael Heseltine.
Ofcom might like consider whether the show is 'news and current affairs' or a campaigning broadcast on behalf of a political party.
This Government have betrayed Brexit.
— Richard Tice 🇬🇧 (@TiceRichard) February 15, 2023
It’s time to do Brexit properly.
It’s time for Reform 👉https://t.co/E8k7mNpBl4
📺 @PiersUncensored https://t.co/uwqDgUEqgS
Scandawegian fans of the BBC are getting their offer from BBC Studios rebundled. From 17th April, the channels BBC BRIT and BBC Earth will be replaced by one linear offering, BBC Nordic and one streaming service BBC Nordic+.
Jake Kanter at Deadline has got hold of an email to Lord Alton, from Sean O'Hara, Executive Vice President, Global Advertising & BBC StoryWorks at BBC Studios. Mr O'Hara defends the programmes made for BBC World News with sponsorship from a range of Chinese companies, including Huwaei.
Dear Lord Alton,
Thank you for your email outlining your concerns.
The commercial income generated from advertising provides vital investment in BBC News, ensuring that we are able to sustain our global network of journalists and continue to bring independent and impartial news to the UK and beyond. I’d like to assure you that it has no influence on our editorial output which, as our recent coverage shows, covers stories relating to China extensively and without fear or favour.
The BBC has robust guidelines which govern advertising on our platforms, and we take great care to ensure that all advertising content complies with them, as well as the external advertising laws and regulatory frameworks in the countries in which we operate. As you would expect, all of our activity is subject to a rigorous compliance process, and in the case of the content we have created for Huawei and for CGTN, was referred for senior editorial approval outside of the division. Each decision is made on a case by case basis and is considered within the context of the situation at the time.
Alongside my colleagues across the wider BBC, we regularly review our guidelines and consider whether they and their interpretation strike the right balance between achieving commercial income and safeguarding our reputation with audiences and other key stakeholders, and will absolutely feed your concerns here into that ongoing process.
With very best wishes
Sean
Since 2009, he's also appeared as tenor Gio Compario, in tv adverts for the insurance comparison website Go Compare. Perhaps that was ok, because, for the BBC, he's mainly on the radio, and the link may not have been made. But since the Covid lockdowns, Wynne has been appearing as himself in the tv ads, sometimes talking (through the magic of television) to Gio Compario. I'm sure all guidelines are being followed....
Today, somewhere in the murky back channels of the BBC 'secretariat'/DCMS muddy waters, a small team of anonymous fixers from both sides will be working on transition.
If Richard Sharp has to go (and he has), what happens next ? Timings are tricky; the Government has signalled that, if there's a footfault from the Heppinstall investigation of the appointment, that's enough. Mr Sharp may be alerted, and try to walk. Could he stay until the end of the financial year ?
Then should there be an interim ? In theory, deputy chair Sir Damon Buffini should step up, but he was brought in by Sharp, who also quickly elevated him to 'deputy'. My guess is that 'senior independent director' Sir Nicholas Serota will be invited to cover.
Can we pick up another 'also suitable' candidate from the process that led to Mr Sharp's appointment ? Diarists have speculated that they include three former Beeboids, Baroness (Tina) Stowell, Rupert Gavin and Baron Hastings. But if Heppinstall defines the process as flawed, we're surely looking at a complete re-run.
The monthly reach figures for January are in. December figures in brackets...
TalkTV 2.55m (2.02m)
GB News 2.94m (2.87m)
Sky News 8.41m (8.47m)
BBC News 10.57m (11.48m)
The crisis management team working for Richard Sharp are unwisely doing their paymaster's bidding and digging in.
Their response to a damning report by the Culture Select Committee (currently chaired by light blue Tory and former Beeboid Damian Green) is to stand by 'nothing wrong here', with a little added 'apology' and 'regret'.
I trust all Chairman Sharp's fellow BBC Board members will read the full report. It highlights that it was Mr Sharp's decision alone that only Sam Blyth, Simon Case, Simon Case's deputy and Boris Johnson should know his part in 'connecting' the Prime Minister with a potential loan of £800k - at least until the Sunday Times found out about it.
Here's some key bits from the full report "The public appointments process can only work effectively if all those involved are open and transparent. Richard Sharp chose to tell the then Prime Minister both of his application to Chair the BBC and of his involvement in the arrangement of a loan for the Mr Johnson but decided not to tell either the appointment panel or this Committee about his actions. The Prime Minister, the panel and this Committee are all integral to the appointment process for the Chair of the BBC, but only Mr Johnson was fully aware of Mr Sharp’s potential conflict at the time the appointment was made. The Government, and all those involved in the public appointments process must ensure that the future public appointments process is not clouded by partial disclosure."
"Richard Sharp’s decisions, firstly to become involved in the facilitation of a loan to the then Prime Minister while at the same time applying for a job that was in that same person’s gift, and then to fail to disclose this material relationship, were significant errors of judgement, which undermine confidence in the public appointments process and could deter qualified individuals from applying for such posts. Mr Sharp’s failure to disclose his actions to the panel and the Committee, although he believed this to be completely proper, constitute a breach of the standards expected of individuals applying for such public appointments. The booklet ‘Public Appointments, Probity & conflicts of interest: a guide for candidates’, which candidates are signposted to read, specifically cites ‘Perception of rewards for past contributions or favours’ as one of the issues that could lead to real or apparent conflicts of interest."
Here's a sentence from today's BBC News online report. "A spokesperson for Mr Sharp said he did not facilitate an introduction between Mr Johnson and Mr Blyth and he was not involved in the arrangement of a loan between them."
I put it to the BBC's Editorial Policy team, which ultimately reports to Mr Sharp - in plain English, he did facilitate an introduction, and was involved.
Amol Rajan (or Omal, as he was called by one BBC correspondent in the field) has a tendency to overshare, and he's done it again this morning, with this list of 'credits' for the Today team.
Today’s TODAY (@BBCr4today) was a team effort. Thanks so much for lending us an ear if you did pic.twitter.com/vin79KYXUM
— Amol Rajan (@amolrajan) February 11, 2023
You'll note Louisa Lewis as 'Interferer'. Never a rota-ed job in my time, but usually the editor or assistant editor who helpfully rings up the night team after the 10pm news bulletin, and asks "Have you thought about doing something about the earthquakes ?" The same person then rocks up around 0730, and says, "Have you thought about doing something about this line in the Daily Mail ?".
Amol will argue that this is transparency. Next stage, share the briefs you're given, eh ?
Nadine Dorries's second TalkTV Friday night show (the launch, with Boris Johnson, got an average audiencer of 52,000) featured a range of hard-to-land guests, starting with hacks Quentin Letts and Christopher Hope. Top billing went to ex-GB News presenter Alex Phillips, in her new role as a spokesperson for the Reform Party.
The show was recorded on Thursday, so presumably the producers of the Mike Graham TalkTV lunchtime show decided another interview with Alex was ok.
New York-based BBC Studios executive Rebecca Glashow, who's upped her glasses size for the New Year, says the commercial wing has done so well that it's looking to take more risks in the next twelve months.
"We're going in with the ability to place some more bets. My love, BBC News, and its my love because I think its the most incredible brand in the news marketplace....and I think now is the moment where we can really look to invest further."
This upbeat message will cheer all domestic news staff facing redundancy. Here's the full thing.
The commercial arm of the BBC is desperate for more clients to promote their brands via BBC Story Works on BBC World News. Below is the text of their 'case study' on working with Huawei. The writing is peppered with ad-speak, but the idea that the BBC should have any role whatsoever in making viewers feel more 'favourable towards Huawei' is the one that should stick in all our throats.
Huawei wanted to shift away from product-centric communications.
The tech giant engaged BBC StoryWorks to create awareness and positive associations for its overarching brand, highlighting R&D, giving back to society and a strong desire to further the human race.
The BBC audience loves to read about change makers creating better tomorrows, so the team presented Huawei as an innovator for the world’s future, selecting key opinion leaders who embodied aspects of Huawei’s mission. Four extraordinary films were developed, with accompanying articles, for an interactive content hub.
'The Explorers' are inspired by human endeavours and the natural world. Each piece of content adds a tangible human element to a key brand value, engaging viewers on an emotional level that resonated deeply.
The campaign resulted in over 18 million video views and a 61% uplift across five brand attributes, with engagement data increasing audience impact in both brand association and emotional connection.
While 2 in 3 respondents felt favourable towards Huawei, 9 in 10 wanted to find out more about Huawei’s story and share the content with others.
If you want to hear a demolition of the appointment of Richard Sharp as BBC Chairman, then listen to former BBC News executive Richard Ayre, in conversation with Roger Bolton, BBC-Scrutineer-In-Exile.
Richard rose to be in charge of Editorial Policy, a role in which many people become more judgely than most judges. He was later a BBC Trustee, which also handed down judgements longer than those issued by the Supreme Court. So it's good to hear condemnation of cronyism in plain language.
Mr Ayre says Mr Sharp will leave the BBC 'in good time'.
The hunt for a 'clean skin' to investigate the appointment of Richard Sharp as BBC Chairman has delivered Adam J Heppinstall, KC, of Hendersons Chambers.
Adam's career route was set in Year 9 in school in Leeds. A lesson with stalls was laid out alphabetically, so he sauntered past 'architect' to 'barrister', and, as the file suggested, he wrote to the Chairman of the Bar Council. Work experience at a magistrates' court followed, as did a First Class Law Degree, from Balliol College, University of Oxford.
Thence an Astbury Scholarship (only open to applicants from Oxford and Cambridge Universities) to the Middle Temple, and pupillage at Hendersons.
Is he likely to have crossed paths with Mr Sharp ? Not at Tulse Hill Juniors FC, or holidays in the Yorkshire Dales and Cyprus. He's moved off Twitter, but has a slight over-order of floor tiles for sale on Facebook. At work, he's defended the MoD in the class actions on nuclear testing, GSK on Seroxat, and is part of a Kingspan team at the Grenfell Inquiry. Recent cases include acting for Barking and Dagenham against Argos over selling knives.
He knows about tough recruitment processes, in charge of picking pupils for the chambers. A 2.1 degree is essential, then it's on to the application portal. “Once they make their applications through the portal, the link will take them to a website provided by Rare where they’ll be asked a range of socioeconomic questions. For example, if their academic performance was particularly high compared to the average grade at their school, they’ll get additional marks. This is done to ensure socioeconomic diversity.”
Once in, pupils spend time in the Turks and Caicos Islands on secondment. “We try not to make it sound like a four-week Caribbean holiday,” says Adam, “They do have to do some work”
Whilst we're remembering connections, a reminder that new Conservative Party chairman Greg Hands was with BBC DG Tim Davie in the Hammersmith and Fulham Conservatives in the early 90s. Both were just down from Cambridge (but I've no evidence that they met there). Tim fought a futile by-election in the College Park and Old Oak Ward in 1993 - spookily, the ward included the BBC site at White City, but not Television Centre - and failed again, this time in the Normand Ward, in the council-wide elections of 1994.
Greg joined the Hammersmith and Fulham Conservatives in 1991, got elected for Town Ward in 1998, and was council leader from 1999 to 2003.
Both are fondly remembered by Stephen Greenhalgh, elevated to the Lords by Boris Johnson in 2020.
Brilliant track record @GregHands. I thought you were my vice chair of Sherbrooke Ward in 1992. We had Tim Davie on the team + your late brother Andy. It hardly matters! https://t.co/jdqM2GAwHl
— Stephen Greenhalgh (@team_greenhalgh) February 7, 2023
The warm bath of pride enjoyed by BBC Content Director Charlotte Moore with Happy Valley was presumably made even more enjoyable by knowing that hubby Johann Perry was Director of Photography for the final three episodes.
As part of a strategy built on Sir David Attenborough, weekends on BBC America now feature lots of natural history, the perfect pairing with the weekday fodder of Star Trek: Next Generation, Bones, and fillers now including The Three Stooges.
To burnish that BBC reputation further, the network has bought a four part series Chasing Rains, a Sky Nature production, made in conjunction with Love Nature, Maramedia, and Arte France, first seen on French TV in December, and due to arrive on Sky in the UK next month. It starts on BBC America at the end of April.
Where will the emerging merged BBC World News/BBC News channel sit in terms of salary transparency ? Will the presenters all be paid via the Global News element of the commercial BBC Studios, or will they be listed alongside the rest of BBC News ? Or am I asking a silly question ?
Last year, two 'stars' of the BBC News channel appeared in the list of presenters paid above £150k. Joanna Gosling (£155k+) has left; Ben Brown (£170k+) presumably is on a little more because of appearances on BBC1 bulletins - we have yet to learn his next move. Another presenter who straddles the current networks is Stephen Sackur, from HardTalk, who is on a declared £175k+. But there's no sign of Christian Fraser, Matthew Amroliwala and the other three recently-appointed 'chief presenters', and it's hard to believe that they haven't previously made a fair pay case to bust £150k.
If there is 'commercial money' going into the new merged channel, I'm sure the BBC will want to share the balance sheet with its competitors.
It was close to a year ago that Richard Sharp re-organised BBC Board work, moving non-execs around from his position as chair of the Nominations Committee. And it was then he created the Financial Approvals Committee.....
The organisation that runs Freeview and Freesat has a new chairman. They've clearly hunted far and wide to find former Beeboid Erik Huggers, who will replace former Beeboid Caroline Thomson.
Until a couple of weeks ago, it was called Digital UK, but now it's Everyone TV.
The early days of this blog tracked Mr Huggers with interest; at the moment he has a portfolio of interests in companies around Europe, including WeTransfer (Amsterdam), Freepik (Malaga) and Hexagon AB (Stockholm).
Doesn't anyone care about the DCMS ? In yet another blow to continuity of thought, strategy or facial recognition, the new Culture Secretary will have to work with a new, as yet unidentified Permanent Secretary. After four years in post, Sarah 'Peleton' Healey, the Secretary who pointlessly asked Richard Sharp if he had anything to declare at his interview to chair the BBC, is off to try to make Michael Gove look good at the Department for Levelling Everything.
Ruth Hannant and Polly Payne, job-share directors general for culture, sport and civil society at the DCMS will lead the department while it recruits a new permanent secretary.
At Cambridge, she was elected President of the Cambridge Union, and in 1993, she invited Michael Gove to debate the motion "This House prefers a woman on top"; Mr Gove was then a reporter at the BBC, but felt comfortable enough saying Ms Frazer was “actually capable of tempting me into bed with her”; that she had a “preference for peach-flavoured condoms”; and that she had done “remarkably well” to come from “the back streets of the slums of Leeds”.
In her maiden speech as an MP in 2015, she paid tribute to her mother, "a teacher who taught in a state primary school in a very deprived area in Leeds"; she didn't mention that her grandmother, Yetta, the first female member of the Leicester Bar, helped with her school fees, or note that her father had been a successful lawyer.
In 2004, the FSA began investigating Fox Hayes, the Leeds legal firm where Lucy's father was a partner. In 2009 it decided that the firm had used its status to approve promotional material for what turned out to be a £15m 'boiler room' fraud affecting 670 investors. The firm collapsed, but the partners were still liable for £950k fine. Lucy, then a barrister specialising in insolvency cases, acted unsuccessfully in challenging her father's share in front of a Chancery Tribunal in 2010. In 2013, she became a QC.
Also in 2013, as Deputy Chairman, Membership & Fund Raising with Hampstead & Kilburn Conservatives, she was selected in a four-way contest to represent SE Cambridge, a process not without controversy.
Husband is David Leigh, who Lucy met at Cambridge. He is currently CEO of AMS, a recruitment organisation with substantial government connections.
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No error of judgement, some narrow regrets and a persistent case of tin ear. In front of the affronted members of the Culture Select Committee, BBC Chair Richard Sharp relied entirely on his personal theory that the Cabinet Secretary is allowed to issue virtual 'Get of Out Jail Free' cards when it comes to revealing conflicts of interest, real or perceived. So when specifically asked at interview for his current job if there's anything else he might like to mention that might cause embarassment in the future, he said 'No'. The MPs simply didn't believe he thought that was ok; the problem with Richard Sharp is that he really does believe it was ok.
"Due process" was his most repeated phrase. Sadly, he can't point to a book which outlines the rules for putting together financial rescue packages for profligate Prime Ministers. Nor can the Cabinet Secretary.
He should go.
Extraordinary - current BBC Chair, Richard Sharp tells me during the appointment process he met with the then Prime Minister, Boris Johnson.
— Kevin Brennan MP (@KevinBrennanMP) February 7, 2023
AND reveals he told the PM he was going to the Cab Sec to ask how to introduce him to someone who could help the PM financially. 👇 pic.twitter.com/s0XZwaDU5r
For all the pioneer spirit that might have been behind the launch of GB News, the network has come quickly to the cost-savings others adopted in the last century. No taxis or fees for 'filler' guests; no fees for better, online guests, unless they hit minimum technical standards; a central booking team for the day's big stories, to stop competition between programmes; no freelance hires unless centrally approved in advance.
Their other financial ruse - to make presenter Mark Steyn and his personal US production team liable for costs incurred handling Ofcom complaints - was also bound to fail. Mr Steyn has taken the hump, and is off, with no thanks for a solid audience performance up against big money Piers Morgan's show on TalkTV.
Two people with new jobs at BBC News join up on four 'in-person summits' in St Petersburg, Florida during 2023. Ravin Sampat, newly anointed Executive News Editor for UK News Content, and Paul Royall, just announced as interim Editor of the BBC News Channel and BBC World News (soon to be shortet title) are both 'Program Fellows' on the "Media Transformation Challenge: A Poynter Institute Executive Fellowship (2023)".
"Hi! We’re the BBC News and Sport Articles Team and we're coming to you live from the internet. It's awesome of you to stop by. I'm going to inform you about this awesome role and compel you to apply for it."
Not me, mate. And I suspect a few other intelligent life forms will baulk at this sort of infantile come-on.
"The vision and the mission .This is about a case for growth, and the choices, as the UK, to own it. Our BBC's legacy is also about our democracy and the answer must be to differentiate and not copy."
The BBC is responsible for 'owning growth' ? You sure ? Differentiate from what ? Not copy what ?
"Research by the European Broadcasting Union shows that well-funded public service broadcasters goes hand-in-hand with democratic health. The greater their audience, the more citizens tend to trust each other. "
Even the blunt Google grammar tool suggests you need to make changes.
"We are focusing on what personalisation means for the BBC both within News and Sport and across the wider BBC online product portfolio."
Still ?
"As our Senior Product Manager you'll add value by helping to define the proposition across the News and Sport portfolio, and developing our new pan-BBC digital article capability for the web, and your focus will be on the reading experience, starting with News and Sport. The team’s current focus is on completing the storytelling feature-set required to bring all our journalists over to writing in the new articles, and once that’s done we have an exciting opportunity to start to redefine what article-based storytelling looks like for the BBC’s diverse audiences."
It feels a bit like re-naming the deckchairs on the Titanic.
We wish former gas executive Leigh Tavaziva all the best in her attempt to rename Broadcasting House as 'London Broadcasting House", and no success at all in her next steps to make it easier to deliver people and snail mail around the complex.
"How it will work is that Old Broadcasting House will become Zones E and F, the Bridge becomes Zone G and the Peel Wing is Zone H. In New Broadcasting House, Zones A – D remain the same.
"As the improvement works continue across Broadcasting House, the meeting rooms will be refreshed and the room numbers updated to reflect their new zone identity."
In other (fake) news, MPs reject Palace of Westminster moves to rename the Commons Zone 2.
As the MPs of the Culture Select Committee work on their briefs for Tuesday's session, here's a few other lines to throw into the mix for their interview with BBC Chairman Richard Sharp, as they probe possible conflicts of interest.
In November, Richard Sharp unveiled Sir Damon Buffini as a new BBC non-executive, brought in specifically to chair the Commercial Board. In December, Sharp announced that Sir Damon would also be deputy chair, a post that had previously not existed, and that Sir Damon had brought in three new non-executives to the Commercial Board. Clearly, there's nothing wrong with seeking specific expertise for a company seeking to make money, but this deputy chair business doesn't seem to be consistent with the fair selection needed for a PSB. Mr Sharp has also increased salaries for Commercial non-executives.
As if to demonstrate the tin-ear of entitlement, the Chairman addressed BBC senior leaders in Greenwich at the very start of this conflict of interest row, and told them he had known Sir Damon for over 20 years. Their paths would have crossed in tasks and personnel swapped between Schroders, Permira and Goldman Sachs over the years, as they both pursued benign wealth creation through the buying and selling of other people's enterprises.
Meanwhile, the exploitation and devaluation of BBC News continues apace in New York, driven by the commercial imperatives of Sharp and Buffini.
Another good question for Mr Sharp might be to ask for a description of his typical four-day week at the BBC, his typical interactions with staff, and whether he can clearly express the differences there should be between a non-executive chairman and an executive chairman.
Amol Rajan captured another BBC 'Munro' last night, as a guest on Would I Lie To You. The cheeky chappy challenged other guests to disbelieve his claim to have featured in agony aunt-style photo recreations of problems in the bedroom, featured in an unnamed a newspaper. It was true. The appearance, at least. Less sure about the storyline.
Things move fast in this digital world. BBC DG Tim Davie has finally realised that, whilst Freeview and Freesat might be carrying digital signals, they are broadcast - and many of his licence-fee payers rely on them. So, in many ways does the UK-universality of the BBC's offering. So, our adaptable DG has dropped 'Digital First' from his sloganeering, and shifted to the equally vague 'Value for All'.
How are the new kids on the block doing as radio stations ?
GB News' latest quarterly reach on RAJAR is 306k, down from 414k in the previous three months.
TalkTV/Radio has gone backwards in the evenings, when shows originally conceived as TV are now simulcast on radio. From 7pm to 11pm, the reach is 86k, whereas a year ago, the radio-only output was reaching 107k. More excellent insight from Matt Deegan.
Meanwhile Radio Scotland is down to 780k, from 976k a year ago; Radio Wales is down to 309k, from 371k; Radio Cymru is down to 135k, from 164k; and Radio Ulster is down to 475k, from 514k.
Times Radio has nudged up year on year, from 502k to 563k.
The 'merger' of the BBC News Channel with BBC World News is not one of equals. Deadline says it's confirmed five names selected as 'chief presenters' for the new entity, and they all currently sit with World News - Matthew Amroliwala, Yalda Hakim, Christian Fraser, Lucy Hockings, and Maryam Moshiri.
Unsuccessful at the test/interview: Jane Hill, Martine Croxall, Ben Brown, Annita McVeigh and Shaun Ley. This does not mean we won't see them again after April - 24 hour rotas require more than five names to fill them. We'll have to see if pride plays a part in their future with BBC News.
Last month David Eades, Joanna Gosling and Tim Willcox decided to cash out.
In a week in which the BBC's use of statistics got a paid-for pasting, let's take a longer-term look at radio listening, as we review the latest quarterly figures, up to December - whilst also remembering there've been various changes to the way the figures are collected over the years.
All BBC network stations are down year-on-year, with the exceptions of Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, because of the first winter World Cup, and 1Xtra. The total for BBC Local Radio is down, from around 9m a year ago, to 7.7m - that may be because of their rights issues with the World Cup, or that the December 2021 figures were something of an outlier.
Weekly reach going back this century smoothed over five year chunks...
And total weekly hours over the same period
BBC DG Tim Davie popped up to Liverpool yesterday, for a bit of EBU Eurovision stuff. Making a whole programme out of a tedious semi-final allocation draw is, apparently, part of the magic. The BBC version, at St George's Hall, was 10 minutes shorter than the 2022 event in the Palazzo Madama, Turin. The BBC gave it airtime on BBC2; RAI screened their version via a live stream and YouTube. RAI's 'presenting partner' was Moroccan Oil, mentioned in the covergae; Moroccan Oil, Tik Tok, booking.com and Riedel Communications are still Eurovision Song Contest Partners, but weren't mentioned last night.
Here's Tim with Liverpool city councillor Harry Doyle, Labour/Co-op member for Knotty Ash, and Cabinet Member for Culture, Visitor Economy & Eurovision. The Council has doshed up £2m.
