Skirmish

Must do better. 

A culture war skirmish between BBC Executives and the Commons Public Accounts Committee broke out yesterday afternoon, over something the BBC calls Atuk, and lower mortals call Across The UK.  Loose business speak was the spark point.  When "Across The UK" was first announced in March 2021 it was called both a 'strategy' and 'a programme'. 

For the NAO and the Treasury, 'a programme' is a plan, signed off at the highest level, which must have a series of clear measurable benefits, with baselines, and specific spend and time targets against the improvements required. Sadly for former marketing man, Tim, the first document was more of  'a strategy' than a plan. The formal BBC Business Case was not signed off by the Board until October 2021. 

We don't have sight of that Business Case, but the March document very much follows Tim's assumptions of what he believed blindingly obvious; spending more outside London would develop more consistent 'love' for the BBC, and deliver programming to delight audiences that currently felt left out of its benevolent munificence. 

"We will show audiences across the UK that we are relevant to their lives because the stories we tell will be rooted in, and inspired by, their communities. Our ‘Across the UK’ plan will transform the BBC by making a decisive shift in its footprint. Over the next six years we will recreate the BBC as a genuinely UK-wide organisation with a much stronger presence across the length and breadth of the country. This shift will move the creative and journalistic centre of the BBC away from London to a much more distributed model that moves not just people, but power and decision-making to the UK’s Nations and regions." 

Yesterday, the MPs poked around some inconsistencies in the transformational hunt for 'love'. They noted the cuts to local radio. Mr Davie said Across The UK was only about network spend. That's at odds with the March 2021 document, which specifically references local radio, and says the plan was to transform the whole BBC. They noted the cancellation of 'Doctors', the daytime soap opera recorded in Selly Oak. These are difficult decisions, said Tim. They noted the decision not to re-locate the BBC Concert Orchestra outside London. We couldn't make the figures add up, said Tim. 

The MPs might have questioned whether changing spend outside London is such an obvious way to level up the opinions of audiences. I suspect the perception figures are pretty ho-hum, otherwise the BBC would have presented them.  The move to MediaCity in Salford has clearly improved GVA as an attractor to the area, but is the overall opinion of the BBC across the North West now better than it was in 2010 ?  Has the investment in Pacific Quay (occupied 2007) and BBC Scotland (2019) improved audience figures across the Nation ?   Have groovy new tv studios at the new Cardiff HQ (in operation since 2020) improved audience perceptions ?  Have the 70 new jobs in the Digital Hub at Newcastle (first announced by Lord Hall in 2020) cheered up viewers and listeners in the North East ? 

It might have helped yesterday's session if Director of Across The UK Tom Wrathmell had turned up without a runny nose. The BBC had fair warning that there would be 'measurable benefits' questions from the NAO report of almost a year ago, and didn't bring the answers.