Saturday, December 30, 2023

Gong News

A mixed bag for the BBC in the New Year's Honours List. Auntie can claim a supporting role in the career development of Shirley Bassey. It has continuing involvement with Tony Blackburn, on national Radio 2 and local/regional/semi-national BBC Local Radio. Steve Wright is still available on Radio 2. 

Of former staff, James Whale had three years with BBC Essex breakfast, and Jeff Stelling, who made his name on Sky Sports Soccer Saturday, presented sport on Radio 2 in the 1980s. 

The BBC gave broadcasting opportunities to Paul Hollywood and Mary Portas; songwriter Don Black has featured regularly on Radio 2. 

Noel Cronin, honoured for Talking Pictures TV, has occasionally shown old BBC material, including Secret Army and The Onedin Line. 

Not specially relevant to this post, but the list reminds us that the founder of the Glastonbury Festival has Athelstan as his first given name; Lady Robey, honoured for music charity, used to be married to former BBC Chair Richard Sharp.  

Thursday, December 28, 2023

Habit-forming

 You'd expect the world of podcasting to be dynamic, fast-moving, with constantly changing favourites. 

The BBC's top ten podcasts in 2022 

Newscast
You’re Dead To Me
Ukrainecast
Limelight
The Coming Storm
Just One Thing - with Michael Mosley
Putin
Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley
Bad People
Uncanny

The BBC's top ten podcasts in 2023

Newscast
Just One Thing – with Michael Mosley
You’re Dead To Me
Uncanny
Limelight
Gangster: The Story Of John Palmer
Sliced Bread
I’m Not a Monster – The Shamima Begum Story
Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley
Americast

Marking the BBC

Our perceptive national press, led by The Sun, has picked up on a release from the Campaign For Common Sense, attacking the BBC for 'feeding viewers a steady diet of woke bias'. 

The Campaign for Common Sense was founded by former maths teacher Mark Lehain; he's currently working as a Special Adviser to Education Secretary Gillian Keegan. The 'research' that backs today's report is unsigned, but was actually conducted in 2022, when Mr Lehain was working for the Centre for Policy Studies. 

Apparently 60 hours of programming, from 14 drama titles, were checked for 'mistrust in institutions'; these were

- Anti-Conservative Party sentiment
- Anti-Brexit sentiment
- Exaggerating societal disharmony
- Pro-trade union
- Misrepresented demographics
- Anti-police
- Anti-military
- Anti-corporate/capitalist
- Tunnel-visioned on climate change
- Anti-nuclear

This pseudo-science is reflected in a table in the appendix. 













A flavour of the balanced world view offered by the Campaign for Common Sense can be taken from their list of recent webinars: five feature Calvin Robinson, fired from GB News, three feature Claire Fox, and four feature Douglas Carswell. 

Wednesday, December 27, 2023

Season's Greetings

Some wishes for the impending New Year. 

BBC News, on the old-fashioned tv, needs to sort out a new post-Huw hierarchy. Who's going to host election night ?  Who's now rehearsing to lead on London Bridge 2 ?   (Needn't be the same person....) Surely there are simply too many people on the roster for the 6pm and 10pm bulletins. 

BBC2, BBC3 and BBC4 are vying to be surviving archive channels. Whilst linear viewing might be in decline, it's never going to wither entirely. I'm looking forward to a new strategy, which offers some live broadcasting every night on all of them, looking particularly at the arts, cinema, music, alongside a serious reduction in daytime quiz, home improvement and antiques shows. 

BBC1 should take more risks after the 10pm news - a regular roster of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday shows that feature comedy, satire and son of This Week. Samir to fix....

Is Panorama a series that features major investigations, or short sharp hits ? Is it still a 'brand' ? Or what ?

The BBC Board should be made to watch ALL output from Rhodri's new Nations investigative teams. Samir should set a strategy that restores live broadcasting to all BBC local radio stations between 0600 and 2200 weekdays, and 0600 and 1900 weekends. 

PS If we should get a leak on the New Year's Honours List afore we next meet, remember Samir is on the Arts and Media committee.....





Saturday, December 23, 2023

Charl

The BBC has appointed its first Chief Brand Officer, reporting to Kerris Bright, Chief Customer Officer. 

The hunt has been going on since May, and has ended with Charl Bassil, 50, who's been Chief Marketing Officer for Absolut Vodka in Stockholm since 2019. 

Charl was born to Lebanese parents in Klerksdorp, outside Johannesburg, went to St Conrad's College there, and then studied mechanical engineering at the University of the Witwatersrand. He still has a home in Cape Town. 

Like DG Tim Davie, he started off with Proctor & Gamble, and then studied further at Insead, Kellogg School of Management, and Harvard. He worked at consultants Bain, and then spent ten years with brewers SAB Miller. There followed five years looking after the marketing of Pernod Ricard in southern Africa, alongside a spell as Honorary Consul for the Lebanon in Cape Town, before the move to Sweden. 

Charl has his own podcast series, natch, called Bridging The Gap.


Relegation zone

Acute observers have noted the demotion of Dan Wootton's phizog from the top tier gallery of GB News lead presenters.  Here's the previous line-up...

 


And today it looks like this, with Patrick Christys moving along, and weekday breakfast host Stephen Dixon joining the top tier. 











Dan has been moved to position 36, penultimate to Peter Andre. This week Ofcom noted that their most complained-about item of 2023 was Laurence Fox's rant about PoliticsJOE journalist Ava Evans on Dan Wootton's show. Both were suspended by the channel, with Fox later being fired. 

8,867 viewers objected to Ofcom. 

Meanwhile Calvin Robinson, also fired from GB News, has appeared on a podcast with Tommy Robinson, explaining some of his difficulties at the channel. He says he wanted Tommy Robinson and Katie Hopkins as guests, but they were blocked by Editorial Director Mick Booker and Head of Programming Ben Briscoe. 

September

A pretty dry set of minutes from the BBC Board meeting in September, held without the presence of Sir Robbie Gibb and Muriel Gray.

The Board gave the go-ahead to Radio Cymru 2, 60 hours a week of pop-led Welsh broadcasting. It noted a difficulty or two with its planned new base in Digbeth, as Birmingham City Council declared itself bankrupt.  The Board asked for a future update on Across The UK, and agreed to put more money into Everyone TV than they used to put into Freeview. 

New Northern Ireland non-executive Michael Smyth, a lawyer born in Belfast, was invited to extend his experience to cover Wales as well.  

Friday, December 22, 2023

Think piece

Press Gazette has asked a range of editor/publishers for deep and meaningful thoughts ahead of 2024, and amongst them is Jennie Baird. She's providing the strategy for the BBC's digital drive in the USA, so I make no apologies for re-printing her contribution....

As if our industry hasn’t seen enough disruption already, I think 2024 is going to be perhaps the most disrupted ever. The pace of GenAI development and integration within the platforms where consumers bump into news will hasten. As such, volume of content on those platforms will increase, while the quality of information in those places will continue to decline – but most consumers who have been raised on a steady diet info bites, misinformation, and disinformation, won’t even notice. While this is a scary prospect for society and democracy, it’s also an opportunity for news publishers to double down on serving – and expanding — our core audiences with content that is high quality, trustworthy, and valuable.

So, my forecast is: 

A difficult transition year for publishers as they grow their owned user base and lean into what differentiates them

A year of deep and sustained creativity: The major anticipated news events of the year ahead – particularly elections in the U.S. and UK, will drive some of the most exciting innovations in the engaging presentation of news and information ever

More coordination and collaboration among publishing industry peers to solve key business problems at scale, be that scaled advertising solutions, sustainable business models vis a vis LLMs, or endeavors that increase consumer trust in the very institution of journalism.  

Note: I think an LLM is a 'large language model', and in the UK we spell endeavors as 'endeavours'. 

Thursday, December 21, 2023

Steve Lai

UK fans of BBC News The Channel will soon be spending their night times with Steve Lai, new chief presenter based in Singapore.

Steve is grew up as 'lampong kid' at the old flats in Ong Sum Ping, Brunei, and then in a brick built stilt house in Manggis Satu. His first job was as a bellboy at The Brunei Hotel. He played rugby union for the Bandar Blacks, and was Brunei's first national captain in 2006 and 2007.

A career in business management seemed the track, after a University of Gloucestershire BA in Business and Marketing Management. He joined the Brunei Economic Development Board. But in 2009 he got his first opportunity to step in front of a camera, as a part-time presenter for News at Ten and World News on Radio Television Brunei. 

Then he followed his lawyer wife to her next job in Singapore, and won an online competition to become a sports pundit on ESPN. He eventually joined Channel News Asia in 2012, where he's been til BBC News came calling.  He likes Spartan races, mountain biking and scuba diving. 


Shopping around

 








I thought, when these came out in January, these were 'the people's priorities', divined by our glorious leader from genuine research.  Now, like many, I have a letter from Rishi which asks me "What are your priorities for Britain ?"

Maybe he's looking for a new list.

Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Calisthenics

 A job-seeking journalist reader has expressed worries about a BBC vacancy requiring someone who  understands when and how to include people in "agile ceremonies". 

Without putting words in my correspondent's mouth, the phrase does hint at worlds of acro dance,  rhythmic gymnastics, and leotards. 

The post is for a Senior Delivery Manager - Digital News & Streaming - BBC Studios, and further research indicates an agile ceremony is nothing more than a non-inclusive word for a meeting.  

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

Straya

GB News has just popped up down under. It's part of a news package on Fetch TV, which costs around £3.50 a month. There are no ads, with the gaps plugged by trails for GB News shows (helpfully in UK times). 

It's also available on Foxtel's "Flash" (a news streaming service); on all Samsung TVs; and on YouTube.

This can't be particularly primed by Nigel Farage's exposure on I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here, unavailable in Australia unless you use a VPN.  Network Ten has an Aussie version of the show, filmed by ITV Studios in South Africa, back on air next spring. 

Monday, December 18, 2023

Complaints

Here's a rather daft idea from Ofcom's workplan for 2024/25.  It intends to monitor the BBC's complaints handling system by using 'mystery shoppers'.  A bit like testing NHS A&E by going in and complaining of severe stomach pains when there's nothing wrong with you, to see how many consultants you can tie up.  Think again, Melanie. 

And maybe you could phrase this a little better: "We will monitor the impact on audiences in England of the proposed changes to BBC local radio". 'Proposed' is now, like many local radio staff, redundant. 

No change from Ofcom

Ofcom, over 31 pages, lays into GB News for its "Don't Kill Cash" campaign. GB News clearly tweaked the Ofcom tail in the discussions ahead of the finding. At one stage, the network complained “in every aspect of this case where a matter seems marginal or open to doubt or differing interpretations, Ofcom has simply substituted its own judgement for that of GB News rather than leaving what are essentially editorial decisions to the broadcaster”

Undaunted, Ofcom found them in breach, for expressions of the views and opinions of the
Licensee on a matter of political controversy and a matter relating to current public policy, without due impartiality. 

'In its representations the Licensee said that “the decline in usage of cash is not a policy” advocated or opposed by any political party and does not “figure in any Bill or manifesto”. However, we noted that opposition to a cashless society did feature as a policy of the political party Reform UK.' 

'In Ofcom’s view the stated aim of the Campaign was not simply to test public opinion on an interesting talking point, but to call on the Government to change the law to “protect the status of cash as legal tender and as a widely accepted means of payment in the UK until at least 2050" '.

Was it driven by GB News ? Ofcom notes 'GB News firstly, organised the Petition, placing and promoting it on its website, and then also broadcast references to the Campaign in the Programme, consistently referring to it as a GB News campaign or “our petition”; and secondly, did so with the stated aim of influencing UK Government policy through a call to action to GB News’ viewers to sign the Petition available on the Licensee’s website. It was clearly evident from the Programme that the Campaign was GB News branded and expressing the view of the Licensee on this matter.'

'This reason was restated by Dan Falvey, GB News’ Head of Digital News, in Britain’s
Newsroom, GB News on 4 July 2023'

“And this all started really just a couple of weeks ago. Rishi Sunak was asked in the House of
Commons by a Conservative MP, would he help ensure that cash continue to have to be
accepted by businesses to help the elderly, the vulnerable, those who don’t have access to
bank accounts. And he said, ‘this is up to individual businesses and for individual businesses to
decide’. And we at GB News said, ‘That’s not enough. That’s not [inaudible] enough. We need
to take action on this”.

Stunts

Another job ad I'm struggling to understand. It's for Senior Manager, Programming, FAST Channels, BBC Studios, based in New York. Not Sunshine Desserts. 

"The successful candidate will focus on audience insights and channel development, using key performance indicators to assess and reactively refine scheduling strategies, build campaigns and execute audience-building programming stunts."

You'll be required to "develop impactful channel-specific content buckets", "optimize go-to-market strategies for both new key titles and existing premium library content,"  and have the "ability to act as a BBC and/or British content evangelist". 


Sunday, December 17, 2023

Parallels

Distinguished sports journalist Martin Samuel at the interface of football, broadcasting and regulation in The Times on Saturday...... 

How a government regulator for football will work could be plainly seen in Samir Shah’s dismal performance in front of MPs last week. Shah, giving evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, is the incoming chairman of the BBC, which is a government appointment. So he told the room what many present wanted to hear — that Gary Lineker may have breached corporation guidelines by responding robustly on social media to, among others, Grant Shapps, the defence secretary.

That Lineker was defending himself against personal attacks, including one from Shapps, is important and those more familiar with BBC guidelines think keeps Lineker on the right side of the law. But it wouldn’t be a popular take for those in government who have given Shah his new role, so he ignored it. Would football’s new regulator not be inclined to do the same, becoming a stooge and making a mockery of the idea fans interests would be a priority?

Saturday, December 16, 2023

Protective ring

There's an interesting cluster of new chums forming a 'lay off Samir' loose grouping, with a view that the Culture Select Committee played too rough. 

"Childish posturing by @CommonsCMS  over Samir Shah’s refusal to play their political games. He is the most impressive proposed BBC chairman for years. I wouldn’t blame him if he walked away from their political poison."    Quentin Letts

"This report on Samir Shah by MPs seems unnecessarily grumpy. A chair-designate of the BBC can't immediately set out a full agenda with everything he thinks about current issues. But I have complete confidence that Samir has the right vision & values"    Roger Mosey

"The Commons committee report on the new BBC Chair, Samir Shah, manages to be both ludicrous and pompous, the product of puffed up MPs, most with their best days behind them, who could never aspire to chair the BBC themselves. It doesn’t sound anything like the hearing I watched. Maybe there is some petty politics going on here. Underestimate Samir Shah at your peril. He is his own man. He will make his own  judgements and do what he thinks right, rather than what individual politicians grinding their own axes might demand."       Andrew Neil


Friday, December 15, 2023

On approval

Some bits from the DCMS Select Committee report on Dr Samir Shah's appointment as BBC Chair... 

The selection panel was Susannah Storey (DCMS Permanent Secretary), Sir Ron Kalifa OBE, Bill Bush, and Hedley Finn OBE. 37 applications were received; ten were shortlisted, and, after interviews, no less than seven were deemed appointable, for Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer to pick from. 

The Committee's verdict ?

During our hearing, Dr Shah highlighted his significant experience with the BBC, but also relied on the more than 20 years since he was employed by the Corporation as a reason not to answer some of the questions we put to him. He was willing to be drawn on some issues, such as the BBC’s social media guidelines and his opinions of Gary Lineker’s adherence to them; however, on many other issues such as changes to local radio and cuts to Newsnight, he declined to express an opinion but undertook to write to the Committee with answers to some of the questions posed. We look forward to hearing from him shortly.

We were disappointed that Dr Shah was not willing to express a view on fundamental principles, such as board level interference in the BBC and other bodies and on political impartiality. In his evidence to us, Dr Shah did not sufficiently demonstrate the strength and character that is needed to challenge the executive leadership of the BBC.

While we are of the view that Dr Shah is appointable as Chair, we have serious reservations about his willingness to offer his opinions and insight on some of the most fundamental issues facing the Corporation, and his ability to provide the robust challenge that the BBC leadership requires at this time.

If the Government chooses to proceed with the appointment of Dr Shah as Chair of the BBC Board, we expect him to appear before the Committee within the first three months of appointment to demonstrate that he has sufficiently considered and addressed our concerns.

Still on the books

Creds to BBC News presenter Martine Croxall, last seen on screen at the end of March, post the arrival of the merged BBC News channel. She's been chewing the cud with members of St Catharine's College Political Society in Cambridge, and reflecting on how she feels “hugely privileged to do the job I do”, as the BBC is “a force for good”.

Body of evidence

80-odd mentions for Piers Morgan in the full judgement of Mr Justice Fancourt sitting in the High Court and finding Mirror Group Newspapers had used phone hacking and illegal information gathering to produce stories about, among other, Prince Harry. 

Justice Fancourt deemed credible and convincing a range of witnesses, at this hearing and in previous cases, who said Piers Morgan knew what was going on. They included former Mirror journalists James Hipwell and David Seymour, publicists Melanie Cantor, Benjamin Wegg-Prosser, Alastair Campbell, Fiona Miller, and, yes, Omid Scobie. 

Recruiting

Two and a half years into its existence, GB News is seeking to raise another £30m to carry the fledgling disruptor forward - and it seems to be trying to widen both its range of investors and board level experience.  

Financially, Sir Paul Marshall is the lead board member at owners All Perspectives Ltd, joined by Paul Farmer, developer of Parler, now US-based most of the time; Baroness Helena Morrissey; and a representative of Legatum. 

The network is experimenting with all sorts of fundraising, from membership schemes to lotteries. Its also paying some 'talent' rather a lot, with varying levels of return, and risks to future audiences. Is Jacob Rees Mogg worth the equivalent of £380k a year ? Is Farage the pull he once was ? Is Boris Johnson a broadcaster you can produce ?

At board level, they probably need someone with enough media savvy to calm things down with Ofcom, and steer presenters and programmes away from interviewing each other - Christys and Farage, Grimes and Tice etc. They also need someone with enough savvy to look at future digital distribution strategy. 

Thursday, December 14, 2023

Seniority

 I remain largely baffled by executive titles doled out in American companies, especially between 'senior' vice-presidents, executive vice-presidents, senior executive vice-presidents etc. 

BBC Studios seem keen to add to this mess, now seeking to hire a Director of Commercial Finance, Americas, who will report to the Head of Finance, Americas - isn't that a bit topsy-turvy ?

Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Team mates

I'm sure that, as a fervent Liverpool supporter, former BBC executive Danny Cohen will be delighted that his views on the latest activities of Gary Lineker have won the whole-hearted approval of former Sun editor Kelvin McKenzie....

Sentencing time

Extraordinary. Both the DCMS and BBC will have schooled Dr Samir Shah before his pre-appointment hearing this morning - a lugubrious Andrew Scadding, one time Conservative Head of Broadcasting, now the BBC's Head of Public Affairs, sat behind the candidate. Yet eight minutes in to Dr Shah's viva for the job of chairman, he pre-judged recent tweets from Gary Lineker as apparently in breach of the most recent set of social media guidelines.  

Driving further into the flooded road, he said he didn't think it was helpful for Lineker to sign a campaigning letter about the Government's Rwanda strategy in the first place; he thought Lineker's subsequent tweets, rising to Twitter baiting by Grant Shapps and Jonathan Gullis, were 'ad hominem'; and that the BBC needed to 'find a solution to this problem'. 

Dr Shah doesn't seem to have the sense to see that this creates a clear expectation that, as he arrives through the revolving doors at Broadcasting House, Mr Lineker will be leaving shortly afterwards. Board meetings at the V&A, however thorough, don't seem to have prepared the Doctor for this, and other mantraps. He committed to investigations about cuts to local radio, the outside London strategy, the behaviour of Sir Robbie Gibb, to thinking about whether you can be a BBC Board member and in a political party, and to reviewing plans for General Election coverage. 

If the skill set he brings to the organisation is media experience, he seemed to flounder on the Media Bill, and harked more than once back to the days of Granada and London Weekend. Perhaps his vision statement was clearer than his conversations with the MPs, but Dr Shah's one hour and 55 minutes in front of the committee will not have bolstered staff morale much. 

Bran flakes

Netflix's first six monthly list of what 247 million subscribers watched is notable for a serious amount of broadcasting bran.

It lists 18220 titles, some of them series, starting it's ranking at 100,000 hours consumed (presumably there are shows with a lower return). 30% of the total catalogue is described as 'non-English', much not distributed globally. 

But there are some shows available around the world among the 3,812 titles on 100k hours. They include 'Zion' a Netflix documentary on a legless wrestler; 'Yours sincerely, Kanan Gill' featuring an Indian stand-up comic; and a three-part mini-series, 'Whose Vote Counts, Explained' from 2020.

I suspect a few production companies will henceforward be looking for titles with higher alphabetical potential. I'm off to script Aardvark Unleashed......


Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Gripping

If you were running a public service radio station covering England only, starting from scratch, would you have dreamed up topics for conversation like these ?

Taking a taxi, eating steak or wearing suits? When you were little, what did you think was ONLY for posh people?

What do you ONLY have in at Christmas? Baileys and brandy snaps ?

Going on the swings, doing jigsaws, eating crisp butties, dancing round the kitchen? What will YOU never grow out of?

If I were to visit your town, which 3 places would you take me to? 

Ever had a dream come true?



Monday, December 11, 2023

Up and down

War fatigue ? The BBC New Channel's reach for November was 10.8m, down from last month's 11.4m, and down from 11.2m in November 2022. 

Sky News reached 8.1m, down from October's 8.4m, and down on last year's 8.6m.

GB News was up to 3.5m, from 3.2m in October, and up from 2.5m a year ago.  

And TalkTV was up to 2.3m, from 2.1m in October, and a nudge up from last year's 2.2m.  

Skipping the wrong bits ?

A sort of open letter to BBC tv producers and their suppliers. The groovy 'skip recap' option is great for binge-watching series, but increasingly it seems drama makers are putting more than the 'recap' before the opening titles, and perhaps some hidden markers are now in the wrong place. This certainly seems to be the case with series 2 of Vigil and series 2 of Hidden Assets. 

Sunday, December 10, 2023

Meaning

It looks like the BBC definition of 'irrelevant' will be tested in public, after a ruling that it should think again about 3,200 emails, documents and pieces of correspondence withheld from journalist Andy Webb chasing the story of Martin Bashir's misbehaviour at Panorama in 1995. 

Judge Brian Kennedy KC, in his Information Rights Tribunal judgement says 'It is not clear why the BBC has gone to such lengths to withhold information that it classes as 'irrelevant', despite that information falling within the scope of the search parameters that it devised and used'.

'The BBC's piecemeal and disjunctive approach to its searches for information responsive to the request, and its handling of the request more generally, is a cause of serious concern'.

 

Saturday, December 9, 2023

Jigsaw

More Shah bits. 

Between waiting for his Ph D/s and starting as a researcher at LWT, Samir worked for the Home Office Intelligence Unit, just as Mrs Thatcher arrived in Government. 

He moved from LWT to the BBC on a three-year contract, rather than a staff job; there was a hoo-ha when it was discovered that his employer, John Birt, was paid by the BBC through a company. 

John Birt decreed that News executives should have cars and health insurance. Television Today reported in 1988 that Samir chose a BMW, and was very keen to have the same extras as his direct boss, Tony Hall  - an early mobile phone and a tv. 

If confirmed in post Samir, the immigration expert, will have to present to Samir, the chairman, his report on the BBC's recent coverage of migration. It was commissioned by his Latymer Upper School contemporary, David Jordan, Director of Editorial Policy. 

Friday, December 8, 2023

Doctor Doctor

Does the nominated chairman of the BBC have more than one Ph D ?  The records seem to show one granted at Oxford University in 1980 "Aspects of the geographic analysis of Asian immigrants in London". Which would make sense, under the tutelage of Ceri Peach. In the same year tutor and pupil contributed a paper "The contribution of  council house allocation to West India desegregation in London 1961-1971" to the Journal of Urban Studies. And in 1975, Samir had "Immigrants and Employment in the Clothing Industry: The Rag Trade in London's East End" published by The Runnymede Trust. 

Yet the esteemed journalist David Goodhart, founder and first editor of Prospect, onetime director of Demos, and colleague of Samir at Policy Exchange, thinks the Shah Ph D study was of French Marxist theoretician Louis Althusser, who went a bit odd at the end of his life and strangled his wife. 

 

Thursday, December 7, 2023

Nads and Robbie

Nadine Dorries may have felt a little bullied over trying to get her man, Lord Grade, into the chair at Ofcom, and has said she was lobbied by Sir Robbie Gibb. But it seems there were no hard feelings - Grade was confirmed at Ofcom on April 1st; on 16th May, Nadine has declared that she accepted the hospitality of a dinner with Sir Robbie in his role as a BBC non-executive director. 

No dinner from BBC DG Tim Davie, but three meetings with Nadine between April and June; the BBC also gave Nadine a ticket to the Party at the Palace.  

On the chin

The BBC Board has contented itself with a minor snark about the licence fee rise. "We note that the Government has restored a link to inflation on the licence fee after two years of no increases during a time of high inflation. The BBC is focussed on providing great value, as well as programmes and services that audiences love. However, this outcome will still require further changes on top of the major savings that we are already delivering". 

US outreach

The version of bbc.com seen by users in the USA has had a makeover this week. The BBC's selfless drive to bring culture and enlightenment to the emerging democracy, in return for advertising dollars, now includes "Green Getaways," a series about greener, cleaner ways to travel, and "Changing Room," a series about moving fashion into a climate-conscious future.

It's hard to see all the stories that are promoted on this site, but this week, they have included "A designer's guide to Vienna shopping", "Meet the designer behind Beyonce's neon green sari" and a pointer to a 5 minute film "El Dorado: The remarkable story behind a mythical city". 

More to follow

Other bits about Samir Shah

From late 2014 to its demise, Samir Shah and Robbie Gibb were co-executive producers of the BBC1 politics chat show, This Week, presented by Andrew Neil.

Yesterday Mr Neil wrote: "Some good news for Aunt Beeb at last. Samir Shah to become Chairman of BBC. Superb appointment. I’ve worked on and off with Samir for decades. He gave me my start in BBC political shows. His production company made the legendary This Week on BBC1. That alone qualifies him! He’s a brilliant broadcaster. Smart, focussed, across the issues, fiercely independent. I wish him all good fortune in the job. He’ll need it!"

In 2021 Dr Shah was the broadcast face of the Sewell Report, which broadly concluded that the “claim the country is still institutionally racist is not borne out by the evidence”. Mr Shah has been an occasional columnist for the Spectator (chairman Andrew Neil). This is from 2021:

"In the 1960s, my brother Asim and I were smitten by the magical Manchester United trio of Law, Best and Charlton. We became London Reds and travelled on the MU Supporters’ Club coach to Old Trafford to watch our team — and we always went to see them play London clubs. But we stopped going in the 1970s; we feared for our physical safety. Marauding bands of skinheads outside the grounds were on the lookout for a spot of Paki-bashing."

The book Fuzzy Monsters recalls the The Birt Approach to tv journalism, including ''pre-scripting'' (writing the story before you film it) well in advance of transmission. In 1987 a Panorama reporter was promised an exclusive interview with Peter Wright, of Spycatcher fame, who was living in Australia. The reporter's first instinct was to jump on the next plane but Samir Shah, the Birt-appointed head of weekly current affairs programmes, decided a researcher should interview Wright first so that a script could be written, and ''shown to Birt for approval''. This was done, with the script redrafted several times, while Birt supplied ''the phone numbers of some intelligence officers he knew''. After hours of filming Wright finally confessed that he had invented several allegations in his book. This, the authors say, was the story the reporter had in the first place.

"LWT was an extraordinary place in the early eighties, a good clue to that I was interviewed for a lowly researcher’s job, which is the lowest in the food chain, my final interview panel consisted of John Birt who went on to be Director General at the BBC, Greg Dyke who went on to be Director General of the
BBC, Barry Cox who is the Vice Chair of Channel 4, David Cox who saved Weekend World and Nick Evans who went on the write The Horse Whisperer that became a massive thing, so it was an extraordinary place. Very interesting was the recruitment procedure at LWT, the top people interviewed the most junior people coming into the company and they left everybody else to promote them. At the BBC it is the other way around; the more senior you are the bigger the knobs that interview you. At LWT it was the other way round, they wanted to make sure that they had a real hold on
the people arriving." 

Communities Secretary Michael Gove has appointed three expert panellists to sit on an independent review into the unrest that occurred in Leicester in September 2023, and yes, Dr Shah is one of them. 

In October this year the Government published its ‘Retain and explain’ guidance on historic statues; Dr Samir Shah helped. 

Online copies of Dr Shah's 2008 RTS Fleming Memorial Lecture, entitled "Equal Opportunity-itis: a suitable case for treatment" are not available. This is a key part:  "The difficult truth I want you to accept is this: the equal opportunity policies we have followed over the last 30 years simply have not worked. Despite 30 years of trying, the upper reaches of our industry, the positions of real creative power in British broadcasting, are still controlled by a metropolitan, largely liberal, white, middle-class, cultural elite - and, until recently, largely male and largely Oxbridge.

"The fine intentions of equal opportunities - and they are fine intentions - have produced a forest of initiatives, schemes and action plans. But they have not resulted in real change. The result has been a growing resentment and irritation at the straitjacket on freedom such policies impose and, paradoxically, the occasionally embarrassing over-compensation in an effort to do the right thing."


Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Samir

The first 'broadcaster' to chair the BBC since Michael Grade, Samir Shah, 71 (Latymer Upper School, Geography and Maths at the University of Hull, D Phil, St Catherine’s College, Oxford) was brought into the BBC from LWT by John Birt to run tv current affairs in 1987. He left in 1998, having acquired enough funds to buy indie Juniper TV from Michael Wills, another LWT colleague just elected to Parliament. As CEO of Juniper, he was invited to be a BBC Non-Exec by Mark Thompson in 2007. 

His brother, Mohit Bakaya, is Controller of Radio 4. His sister, Monisha Shah, a former executive at BBC Worldwide, is now a serial non-exec, and a member of the Ofcom Content Board.  In 2008 Dr Shah said that the BBC's scale and culture created a "monolithic posture that makes it appear anti-competitive". 

Samir was born in Aurangabad and came to the UK aged 8. After university, he joined LWT's Weekend World team as a researcher in 1979. On his interview panel - Greg Dyke.  Peter Mandelson joined Weekend World in 1982, from Lambeth Council; he overlapped with Samir at St Catherine's, Oxford.

He was awarded a CBE in the 2019 Birthday Honours list for services to Television and Heritage. From 2104 to 2022 he was chair of The Geffrye, Museum of the Home. From 2005 to 2014, he was a Trustee, then Deputy Chair, of the V&A. He was a director of the Gilbert Trust for The Arts from 2008 to 2016. He is a former Chair of the Runnymede Trust (1999 to 2009) and a Trustee of Reprieve (2014 to 2020)  He was Chair of Screen West Midlands (2008-2011). From 2004-2007, Samir was a Trustee of the Medical Foundation for the Victims of Torture.

In 2019, he was appointed Visiting Professor of Creative Media, Oxford University (Faculty of English). In 2006 Samir was appointed a Special Professor in Post Conflict Studies in the School of Modern Languages and Cultures at the University of Nottingham.

Samir and his wife Belkis live not far from Wandsworth Common; they are both directors of Juniper Communications. Belkis also works in 'peace education', with the Prem Rawat Foundation. 

Will Samir still get to present his latest piece of research, looking at BBC coverage of immigration issues, commissioned by his old Weekend World colleague, David Jordan ?  How will he handle John Nicholson of the SNP, no fan of Birtism, at the Culture Select Committee appointment hearing ?


Tuesday, December 5, 2023

Distinctive ?

Today's attack on the BBC as the 'neighbours from hell' by local newspaper groups is highlighted in Wolverhampton, where the BBC has chosen to launch a new site, and where the Express and Star is about to go behind a paywall. The BBC has cut jobs in local radio to increase its daily online news provision for 43 local areas and launch dedicated services covering Bradford, Sunderland and Peterborough, as well as Wolverhampton. Here's some of the two front pages clipped at 3pm today. 

 






Extruding

One way of making the little pat of Summer County go further is determinedly thin spreading over the same size piece of toast. (Friends of Julian Worricker in Five Live breakfast days will remember this particular skillset). 

Charlotte Moore's team running BBC1 Daytime are now pushing the marge to the furthest ends of the schedule. From next year BBC Breakfast will run from 0600 to 0930; Morning Live will follow until 1045; and the News at One runs til 1400.  This saves 45 minutes of higher tariff output in the morning, multiplied by 260, and at least 15 minutes in the afternoon.  If the licence fee settlement later this week goes badly, expect the early arrival of a new magazine show, working title Afternoon Live.... 

Monday, December 4, 2023

Feedback

Some dialogue on BBC Local Radio

Trends

 A little graphic....click to go large 



Sunday, December 3, 2023

Mean

The BBC six-year licence fee settlement signed by Nadine Dorries back in January 2022 put in place a two year freeze and then said "From the third year of the settlement period (i.e. from 1 April 2024 and for each subsequent year of the period until 31 March 2028), the Licence Fee will then increase annually in line with CPI inflation". 

The last time the BBC has an increase 'in line with inflation' it was calculated by Government using the Consumer Prices Index (CPI) rate of inflation, measured as the average rate of CPI over the 12 months to September 2020, which worked out at 1.075%.  The spot measurement of CPI in September 2020 was 0.5%, so using the twelve month average was more generous to Auntie, and most would argue, fairer. 

As we know, inflation over the twelve months to September 2023 peaked at 11.1% in October 2022, and the average over the twelve months to works out at 9.0%. However, it looks like the Government is opting for the spot rate in September of 6.7%, hobbling the BBC further. 


I hear music..

The BBC has gone out to tender for the fit-out work on its new music centre at East Bank, Stratford. Top estimate is £14.5m (more than they got for Maida Vale). The project comprises two studios with control rooms, 'visualisation rooms', workshops and an edit suite and other ancillary spaces. The centre is supposed to be ready for use in 2025. 

Saturday, December 2, 2023

Digging away

The one-man Newsnight Alan Rusbridger is still pursuing the activities of Sir Robbie Gibb in the matter of appointments at Ofcom, whilst Sir Robbie was also a non-executive director at the BBC. Nadine Dorries' book, The Plot, suggests he was working with advisers at No 10, lobbying for Lord Gilbert to get the Ofcom chairmanship rather than Lord Grade. Mr Rusbridger has put a series of questions to acting BBC chair Elan Closs Stephens, and her answer neither confirms or denies that Robbie stuck his oar in....




I think this is the relevant section of the BBC Board Code of Practice. Ms Closs Stephens might also like to reflect on strictures about transparency.

7.2 Directors may be a member of a political party or organisation, however this must be disclosed on their declaration of interests and they must not engage in political activities. It is inappropriate for members of the Board to hold office in a political party or be actively involved in partisan political activities of a significant and continuing nature.


Library material

The drive to populate iPlayer is featuring more bought-in stuff. This week's additions: Series 2 of Hidden Assets, a collaboration between RTE, Screen Flanders and Acorn TV (part of AMC Networks); Bob Dylan Shadow Kingdom, a studio concert filmed during lockdown for Apple TV; Seeds of Deceit, a Dutch three-part documentary from 2021; Berlin 1933, a three part documentary made for a group of European broadcasters; Dark Hearts, a French-made tale of the Iraq war; and much more.... 

Who said it ?

"The BBC understands" was the construction used by the Radio 4 bulletins this morning. Political editor Chris Mason said "Boris Johnson is expected to apologise to the Covid Inquiry next week and acknowledge the government did not get everything right during the pandemic."

Surely the new transparent BBC News can move further than this ? Chris was briefed, either in person or by email, alongside most Fleet Street political editors, and may even have had sight of some of Johnson's written statement to the Covid inquiry, prepared with the help of barrister Brian Altman KC (Chingford Senior School and King's College London). 

Chris adds to his online report with 'a source'; The Times has words from 'a spokesman for Boris Johnson'. 


Friday, December 1, 2023

Flare up

I'm sure many of the pundits, columnists and ex-BBC staff who've recently been taking newspaper shillings for their views will be taking a punt at this job.... 

Job Introduction
This is an amazing opportunity for an innovative and creative editor to reformat and develop one of the best-known news brands in the UK.

We need a free-thinking, adventurous, confident and creative journalist with first-class editorial judgement and production flare to be the next editor of Newsnight, our flagship news programme on BBC Two.

Newsnight is evolving but needs to remain the home of major news-making interviews as well as stimulating impartial debate and valued discussion. 

By the way, they probably mean 'production flair'.

Other people who read this.......