Enough

"With a 12% increase for on demand speech content, BBC Sounds continues to be the ultimate destination for high-quality audio". There, they've said it themselves. BBC Podcasts are largely super-serving the younger end of the Radio 4 audience. Why not focus a little more on, say, speech for BBC Local Radio or the Asian Network, to sustain underserved audiences, as per "Value for All" ? Or perhaps some children's output ?  Come ON, Mo.

Gong Fest for 2025

A fairish cluster of gongs for people with BBC in their cvs for the start of 2025. 

Stephen (Fry and Laurie, QI, Jeeves) Fry is knighted. 

Mai Fyfield, once with Sky and now a non-exec on the BBC Commercial Board, moves to be a CBE, as does investigative journalist-Troubles-specialist Peter Taylor, now 82. Martin Brundle, F1 driver turned grid-walker, had two years with BBC Sport; he becomes an Officer of the Order of the British Empire. Alan Hansen, 18 years a professional footballer, 22 a pundit, becomes a Member of the Order of the British Empire. 

Jasmine Dotiwala gets the OBE; she worked on the BBC Children's Development team, and 'yoof' music. Later she had a weekly show on BBC London. 

Steve Lamacq, of Radio London, XFM, Radio 1 and 6Music is made an MBE for his campaigning to support live music venues. Jackie Bird (Weir), for 30 years the main presenter of Reporting Scotland, becomes an MBE; her Wikipedia entry also awards her a Damehood. 

Novelist Robert Harris, once a Newsnight producer, is made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. BBC Radio Manchester’s Eamonn O’Neal gets an OBE for services to charitable causes and people with disabilities.

Alan Fred Titchmarsh (Radio 2, Breakfast News, Chelsea Flower Show, Gardeners' World, Ground Force, Songs of Praise) is appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire. 

There's a rather belated OBE for Tom Baker, now 90, and for Happy Valley's Sarah Lancashire

Fair play ?

There's an element of schadenfreude in examining Kemi Badenoch's concerns about GB News giving her critics too much air time.  Without recourse to statistics, you'd guess the agendas of GB News and Reform UK were pretty much aligned. The most recent 'story' analysis I can find is from June, when academics claimed 17% of the channel's news stories were pro-Reform.  8% was deemed pro-Conservative; 8% anti-Labour; and, entertainingly, 10% anti-Conservative. 

Mr Farage's man in Clacton, like many others, thinks Farage is in charge.

Under the Conservatives, there was little sense of successive Culture Secretaries putting pressure on Ofcom. Now, perhaps, Kemi wishes they had. 

In one

BBC Global Director, Deputy CEO and Director of Journalism Jonathan Munro keeping his wordsmith skills up to speed this festive season... 

Wordle 1,285 1/6*. Santa delivered me a one liner today…. happy Christmas

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

— Jonathan Munro (@jonathancmunro) December 25, 2024

The answer: "SHARE". 

 

Love it or list it ?

"The Official UK Singles Chart reflects the UK’s biggest songs of the week, based on audio and video streams, downloads, CDs and vinyl, compiled by the Official Charts Company. The UK Top 40 is broadcast on BBC Radio 1, the Top 100 is published exclusively on OfficialCharts.com."

But it really doesn't tell us what individual songs people like. The Top 40 for the current week has 37 Christmas songs - presumably counted because of the mindless, continuous streaming of Christmas playlists. 

Three new songs - from Gracie Abrams, Rose and Bruno Mars, and Lola Young - ought to be re-calculated. Perhaps they'll break through in next week's chart, due on Friday. 

Where were you ?

David Lloyd, co-founder of Boom Radio and at one time a BBC Head of Local and Regional Programmes, has secured an unexpectedly frank finding from the BBC's Executive Complaints Unit. He says Radio Devon did little or nothing to cover the spreading riots and disruption of 5th August after 6pm that evening, despite a commitment to Ofcom that 'significant local stories' would trigger appropriate coverage. 

The ECU finding, penned by former BBC News Channel editor Jonathan Greenwood, says  “I have to infer from my investigations that there were elements of systemic failure on the night of 5 August because the staff on duty did not respond adequately to this significant breaking news either due to a lack of training or clear enough instruction.”

David's whole piece is worth a read. 

People persons

There seems to be a shake-up in the HR function at BBC Studios. Global Director Jabbar Sardar, who clears his emails everyday, and takes calls in his five-times a week gym visits, was being celebrated for yet another award in October 2023. 

BBC Studios is nothing without its talented people.

We’re proud of our Global HR Director Jabbar Sardar featuring fourth on @peopleHum’s list of top HR Leaders in the UK building workplaces of tomorrow, as we continue to focus on developing and attracting the very best talent. pic.twitter.com/8uAtywWfn8

— BBC Studios (@bbcstudios) October 3, 2023

Yet Helen Cooper has been describing herself on Linkedin as Interim People Director since October 2023, and is pictured on the BBC Studios Executive webpage.  She's currently based in New York. 

Now the BBC has engaged Egon Zehnder to help fill the vacancy permanently. 

 

The BBC is not just for Christmas

The BBC press team got all Trumpy over the Christmas day viewing figures, crowing about biggly bits of metrics the licence payer isn't usually given. Indeed, BARB and other monitors usually slap down public sharing of these sort of details... 

The BBC took control of the TV set on the day - it was BBC One’s biggest share on Christmas Day since 2007. BBC One was bigger than all of SVOD combined on the TV screen, nearly double the size overall and also bigger for 16-34s. BBC One was three times the size of both Netflix & YouTube (individually), and over double the size of each for 16-34. The BBC as a whole made up over half of the viewing to the broadcaster market for 16-34s. BBC iPlayer on its own was bigger than Netflix, both overall and for 16-34s.

We're constantly told that overnight ratings don't matter, and now they do. And the 16-34 ratings hint at an internal BBC dashboard we've only ever heard about.  So, Mr Davie, to help us evaluate 'Value For All' why not share a bit more data about your audiences year round ?

Unrepeatable

"Here's a rare thing: a comedy aimed at 20- to 30-year-olds that isn't inept, insulting and out of touch. It's the story of a long-distance relationship, complicated by the lovers' ditsiness and their weird families and friends.

The starry supporting cast (Alison Steadman, Rob Brydon, Ruth Jones, James Corden) provide the vulgar belly laughs, all as larger-than-life loons who never tip over into caricature, thanks to Jones and Corden's earthy, affectionate script. Meanwhile, the fantasy romance is gentle and fluffy without being cheesy. This'll be a hit. "

Jack Seale, Radio Times, May 2007. He was rights, and on Christmas Day, 12.32m of us, tuned in to old-fashioned linear tv to watch the finale. 

I'd like to be at the post-Xmas meeting where Charlotte Moore and team shape next year's schedule. The chances of another special seem to be zero; another Wallace and Gromit might already be in the mix, but if not, it takes a year and a half to make another. 

So credit to those around in 2007 to support the Corden/Smith venture: Stuart Murphy, Controller of BBC3, who commissioned it (as a series, rather than the writers' offer of a one-off); Alan Bennett, who encouraged Corden to write while playing in The History Boys in London and New York; and BBC Wales controller Menna Richards, co-commissioner. 

Feel it

The relentless build up to Christmas continues on BBC America, where Christmas Eve offers non-stop episodes of Bones from season 6, first broadcast in 2010 on Fox, from 6am to midnight. Forensic anthropology IS Christmas. 

On message

Elegant English is alive and well in the Christmas messages of BBC executives. 

Tim Davie, Director General

"We'll keep you updated on the Culture Review which many of you are contributing to."   

Jonathan Munro, BBC News Global Director and Deputy CEO of BBC News & Current Affairs  

"Much of our journalism has won industry awards – too many to list here, but a fulsome harvest for sure."

Deborah Turness CEO News

"We have also been able to report year-end results across our platforms that I have described to the BBC Executive as ‘defying gravity’. That’s because we are not only in a fiercely competitive news environment, we are also fighting the challenges of disinformation and news avoidance as consumers shift from broadcast to digital. But we are driving growth right across our organisation. That’s thanks to your powerful journalism and creative drive, and for your support in ensuring that the digital investments we made last year are paying off. "

Trimming

                                            Monthly reach  Share     Av Daily Minutes

                                            000s     %              %      mm:ss  

November 2024 GB News 3,563  5.49         0.88      1:21

November 2023 GB News 3,535  5.56         0.56      0:54

The BARB viewing figures don't really paint the picture GB News would like to portray - romping ahead of the elite-produced mainstream media. 

So the schedule changes for 2025 should be read as operational bosses Briscoe and Booker trying to get more bang for their bucks, moving in cheaper presenters, moving out under-performing expensive presenters. 

So the new weekday offer of 2 x Jacob Rees-Mogg and 3 x Farage Fan-Boy Professor Matt Goodwin will be much cheaper than 5 x JRM. At Breakfast, Ellie Costello will be cheaper than Isabel Webster.  Ben Leo, on weekend nights, will be cheaper than Mark Dolan. 

Iain's in

BBC DG Tim Davie has swooped for YouTube's Head of Public Policy for UK and Northern Europe, Iain Bundred, as his new Director of Policy and Public Affairs. 

Iain's red - Labour, Liverpool and Wales. Before joining YouTube, Iain worked for PR Consultancy Ogilvy and the Labour Party, including serving as an adviser to James Purnell and then Prime Minister Gordon Brown in Downing Street.

He  went to Warwick School and then studied government at the LSE. Initially he viewed politics as “a fun game to play during [his] spare time”. While at the London School of Economics he edited the student union magazine, The Beaver, and in 2003 became Labour Students’ national secretary. There, he was quoted in The Guardian as saying “I’m no Bush fan – I hate the fucker in fact.”

Then came jobs on comms inside Labour - sent to Scotland during the 2007 election and the 2008 Glasgow East by-election. He joined DWP as a special adviser in November 2008, and then was press spokesman for Brown during the 2010 General Election Campaign. 

He spent most of the recent General Election night tweeting congratulations to old and new chums. 

Figure it out

The BBC News Channel reached 9.4m viewers in the UK across November, compared with 9.58m in October, and 10.85m last year. 

Sky News reached 8.25m, down from 8.58m in October, and up from 8.15m this time last year. 

GB News, currently crowing about beating everyone everywhere, reached 3.56m, compared with 3.50m in October, and 3.53m last November.

Cohen v Munro

BBC Global Director Jonathan Munro has enraged former BBC executive-turned-serial-complainer Danny Cohen with his defence of the work of BBC Arabic news teams in front of MPs earlier this week.  Mr Cohen writes in The Telegraph:  "That BBC leaders are unwilling to admit the corporation’s failings when questioned by our elected representatives is a serious breach of standards."

Here's a bit from Hansard's transcript of Mr Munro's contribution:

"In terms of complaints against Arabic, members of the Committees might be familiar with the complaints process, which is overseen at the top level by an independent group called the ECU, the executive complaints unit. It has dealt with seven, or I think it might be eight now, complaints, all of which have come from one source, against BBC Arabic. None of those complaints has been upheld. While it is important for us always to be open to critique—and we genuinely are; we have had several meetings
with internal and external stakeholders on both sides of the divide on this story, and we will continue to engage with them when helpful—any shorthand summary that says that there have been lots of complaints
upheld is not actually fair on Arabic."

Getting his kicks

Dangerous iconoclast Alan Yentob picked up his CBE from King Charles at Buckingham Palace yesterday.  

Embed from Getty Images

Around the world

We mentioned that the BBC News channel publishes different schedules for different parts of the world, and is not necessarily 'simulcast' globally, as suggested by Global Director Jonathan Munro. 

It's even more nuanced than that. A reader in Australia notes that earlier this year,  the BBC pulled all its channels, including BBC News, from Foxtel, the  country's largest TV provider, with 4.5m subscribers. 

Fans of Amroliwala et al now either have to buy a Fetch Box (c£220+) to add to their broadband, or try via the BBC app or website. (The app just takes you to the website). 

Those who click through are pointed to three time zones, branded Central African Time, East African Time, or GMT. You might have though "Asia Pacific" would make more sense. 

What's the big idea ?

It was not a bravura performance from the BBC's Tim Davie and Jonathan Munro in front of the joint select committees looking at the future of the World Service. 

They came with two 'asks'; please shift the total burden of paying for the World Service back to general taxation, as it used to be. And then, please double the funding, setting us a doubled weekly reach target of around 800m listeners/viewers/unique users per week around the world. 

But, like a pair of conservatory salesmen who've forgotten to bring the glossy brochures, there was no vision of how, where and why the extra spending would deliver.  It would, they assured us, be a conservatory to compete with the Russian and Chinese jobs down the road, if inevitably a little smaller, but there was no idea of what it would actually look like. 

Emily v Jonny (and Tim)

Emily Thornberry MP crept up on the BBC's Jonathan Munro at yesterday's joint select committee hearing on the future of the World Service, asking about the decision to end the half-hour interview programme, HardTalk, which runs on the BBC News Channel and the World Service. 

Mr Munro first indicated 'they' had done it; "The News Channel had some tough decisions to make". Mr Munro is BBC News Global Director, and Director of the BBC World Service. He is also Deputy CEO of BBC News and Current Affairs. He then revealed that people turn away from rolling news channels at busy news periods when recorded programmes appear; this is a very late discovery. The News Channel has been on air since 1997. Let's hope the coming weekend is not 'busy'; there are 32 half hour recorded programmes over 48 hours in the published schedule for BBC News in North America. Emily Thornberry said often, HardTalk was scheduled overnight; Mr Munro said it was simulcast globally (BBC News has different schedules for Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, North America, South Asia). 

Mr Munro turned to 'we' when he said 'we cleared peak-time schedules on BBC2 for interviews'. This referred to an interview with Angela Merkel on the publication of her memoir, Freedom, shown at 7pm.   

 

Rewrite

It's a shame that BBC News online pays tribute to an elegant and precise broadcaster with an infelicitous headline "Mishal Husain bids farewell in final Today episode". 

Today is a news programme, and has 'editions'. It's not a soap with 'episodes'. However, it would be possible to shape a modern drama out of the last 20 minutes, with barely-concealed point-scoring by Today presenters past and present. 

Mishal's departure for Bloomberg is not a disaster for the BBC - but it may make people think the less of Tim "Ten Hag" Davie's ability to pick executives of quality.

P's

Belatedly completing the circle - Paul Oldfield, former Controller Policy has emerged as the new Chief of Staff to BBC DG Tim Davie. Phil Harold formally starts transforming News on Monday, though he's been 'at it' for some weeks now

Gissus a job

Some guide to the replacement for Up All Night coming on Radio 5Live, from this job ad.  The production has been given to Rhodri and Jason, unwavering believers in the future of broadcast radio. 

"We are looking for an experienced speech radio presenter to work on a new overnight show that will be launched on BBC Radio 5 Live in April of next year. 

"The programme will be made by a team in Nations and Local, the base will be determined by who we hire, but 5 Live has a preference for it to be either Cardiff, Birmingham or Glasgow in line with the across the UK strategy. The programmes you would present would be broadcast on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 0100 – 0500.

"THIS WILL BE A NEWS AND CURRENT AFFAIRS PROGRAMME WITH TOPICAL CONVERSATION LED BY THE NEWS AGENDA. THERE WILL BE REGULAR PHONE-IN’S AND CONVERSATION WITH LISTENERS. We want the show to be a place where people come for companionship. It’s an all speech programme, so you will need to be able to handle a broad cross section of subject matter, including breaking news when required and live sport."

Late shifters

The i says that Newsnight editor Jonathan Aspinwall will soon be advertising for a replacement for Kirsty Wark, to work on the rota alongside Victoria Derbyshire. 

This might puzzle some of those who've been trying out on air before and since Kirsty left the show in July - Katie Razzall, Faisal Islam, Paddy O'Connell, Adam Fleming, Nicholas Watt, Christian Fraser. Who's Jonathan after ?

Intense scrutiny

No less than three Commons committees are looking at the future of the BBC World Service, and on Tuesday, they come together, to grill BBC DG Tim Davie and BBC Global Director Jonathan Munro for an hour.  

Sarah Champion leads ten other MPs on the International Development Committee, Dame Caroline Dinenage, has ten chums on the Culture Committee, and Emily Thornberry has another ten on the Foreign Affairs Committee. It's a probably world record panel of 33 MPs if they all turn up. Who will claim the chair ? 

Fur real

Reality tv fans can't wait to get through Christmas and New Year for the screen return of loveable news anchor Simon McCoy, 63 (Sherborne and the Fleet Street News Agency). He's been cast in C4's Celebrity Hunted, alongside ITN's Lucrezia Millarini. 

Despite the faux-fur anorak and disused railway setting, expect an urban struggle to escape the hunters. Simon's knowledge of big city basement eateries beyond the reach of CCTV may prove useful. It was recorded last January, so betting is unwise, but McCoy and Millarini ought to stay free for longer than their rivals. 

Mangled ?

BBC Studios Distribution in Dubai needs a "Campaign Executive". 

This seems to be the nub of the job: "The Campaign Executive will be assisting in the pre-sales process through the delivering quality integrated marketing solutions proposals and assisting in the delivery phase of branded content projects across clients in the MENAT & Mediterranean region."

Or it might just be a series of words that have ended up in the wrong order....

Wicked

The diggers at Deadline have discovered that Disney tried to sign BBC content boss Charlotte Moore, as their next head of Original Content for EMEA. They say she "held talks over a move to Disney, but ultimately turned down the opportunity." Disney and the BBC declined to comment.

That'll relieve Tim Davie; Charlotte's heir apparent Kate Phillips is a bit tied up in Gregg Wallace. But it'll add some confidence to Charlotte if she wants to succeed Tim Davie... 

Lads

Outbreaks of mansplaining in trainers on the BBC News at Six last night. 

The bulletin also offered a ground-breaking lead-in to a report by genial, unabashed-by-public-speaking host Clive Myrie. Introducing the BBC News Cost of Living Correspondent, live in the darkness in Rochdale, Clive said "Take it away, Colletta". My word, he's groovy.  

Wicked Little Letters

Febrile and closing in ?  The hunt for the owner of the X-handle @NerosSlacker is gathering pace. There haven't been scenes like it since the spoof blog of 2008, The Secret Diary of a TV Controller Aged 33¼, written by someone too close to Danny Cohen for Danny Cohen's comfort - but never identified. 

The soi-disant habitue of Caffe Nero on the piazza at Broadcaster House W1 knows his or her way round characters behind the BBC News scenes in "News Content" formerly Newsgathering, down to their daily shift patterns; and has a feel for foreign news coverage and the World Service. Some of the scuttlebut is accurate, some is reasonable surmise, and some is wrong but you'd like to believe it. It's probably a bit more hurtful that the writer realises - the disclaimer "Love the Beeb.  Not trying to cause offence (usually). Not to be taken too seriously" doesn't work for many of the Slacker's targets.  In seven weeks, Nero's Slacker followers have gone from zero to 1,400+, but needs probably 10 times that to make money from Musk. 

Former News colleagues at the highest level have claimed to know the identity of the provocateur, and have been wrong. How long will the cover last - Christmas ?

Go Jonny go

This blog has followed the fizzing Roman Candle of a career of Jonathan McGuigan at BBC News - from 250,000 likes on Facebook for BBC Yorkshire, to his latest role as "BBC News Executive News Editor, Growth and Social", announced yesterday.  

Jonny, 29, got married in September and has started a postgrad course in strategic leadership and management at the University of Exeter, to add to his 2.1 in Broadcast Journalism from Leeds. The General Election was clearly a peak for Jonny.

Now, to our next innovation trial, launched today:

Downing Street Live

As the new PM moves in - watch every development; all the movement & all the activity on one of Britain's most powerful streets non-stop during daytime, live, for the next fortnighthttps://t.co/DSz8cSG1Kj

— Jonny McGuigan (@jonnymcguigan) July 8, 2024

 But he's an endless tryer. 

Live, from Lincolnshire #BBCFarmwatch

Watch live, inside the cab, as the pea vining harvest is well under way

A @BBCNews collaboration with @BBCRadioLincs https://t.co/bcEHTu2kCq

— Jonny McGuigan (@jonnymcguigan) August 8, 2024

Next stop: AI 

Jonny McGuigan, BBC News' streaming editor, examines how AI is redefining the news landscape, sparking excitement and caution among journalists.

In this webinar, panelists from BBC and ITN share more insights on technological change in TV newsrooms.

🔗 https://t.co/R6iZDVdKdJ pic.twitter.com/x6mzMpWWwS

— Ross Video (@ross_video) October 15, 2024

Re-thinking iPlayer

Very little of note from the September meeting of the BBC Board. The non-executives minding the workplace culture review are Audit & Risk specialist Chris Jones, and Muriel Gray, once interviewer for Channel 4's The Tube, seen here within her previous workplace with a man from AHA. 

The big item was iPlayer strategy, brought back for further consideration from June. The September meeting was held in Cardiff, and dancing in attendance for the discussion were Tom Fussell CEO, BBC Studios, Sophie Garnham CRBA Director, Jo Sherlock Group Rights and Commercial Business Director, David Moody Director, Strategy, BBC Studios, Dan McGolpin Director, iPlayer and Channels, Storm Fagan Chief Product Director, Peter O’Kane Chief Technology Officer and Gunjan Bhow Non-executive, Commercial Board. 

Not intimidated by numbers, Samir and the boys seem to have given Charlotte and her team a bit of a kicking, with more work required.... 

Gifted

Do the researchers looking for guests on the alumni editions of University Challenge have a special 'be kind to them at Christmas' category ?

Mark Urban, axed from Newsnight, is there this year, representing the LSE. Spencer Kelly, who's techie show on the News Channel, Click, has been cancelled, and he's been selected in the Churchill College, Cambridge team. Andrew Harding, currently the BBC's Paris Correspondent, might be a bit worried about his inclusion for Emmanuel, Cambridge. Sophia Smith Galer worked for the BBC from 2017 to 2021, and now describes herself as a freelance journalist and content creator; she's representing Durham. Danny Robins, still hosting the podcast series Uncanny, plays for Bristol. Lauren Layfield, one-time straight person to Hacker on CBBC, is still in and out of Radio 1 podcasts, and represents Leeds Trinity, alongside Harpz Kaur, who left the BBC Asian Network in 2022, after seven years. 

Blake out

The difficult choices at BBC America  - more Star Trek or more Bones ? - are to be passed to somebody new.

Blake Callaway, a "tall, baldish, lib, snowflake, so people tell me", is leaving the channel's outright owner, AMC Networks at the end of 2024.  He's been with them for 13 years, and has been minding BBC America directly since 2021

"My near-term plans include looking for the right opportunity, and trying to keep up with my 10-year-old". Social media rules are clearly different at AMC, and Blake might have been miffed by the outcome of the November election. 

How is this pile of human garbage seriously a viable candidate for president? America come on. #110524

— blake callaway (@blakerr) September 15, 2024

Keir Change

One noticeable change for the PM at Pinewood - less shouty, less strained vocals, letting the mike do the work.  Well done to whichever coach produced him. However, they should have told the speechwriter - the usual, over-emphasised lists, captured in short phrases made up the bulk of the verbiage.... 

Paul

One presumes that the BBC has come to a parting of the ways with Controller, Policy, Paul Oldfield, who's been in post since 2019. His job has been advertised - though his successor will only be offered a two-year contract. 

Paul joined from the DCMS in the Lord Hall era. He'd been the Department's sherpa on the BBC under mercurial Culture Secretary John Whittingdale, wrangling with his BBC counterpart James Heath on the last Charter Review.  Previously he'd worked on the London Olympics, and was Principal Private Secretary to Jeremy Hunt at DCMS when News Corp backed into BSkyB. Plenty of emails discovered by Leveson....

The Fight for Truth is ON

 "Trust is earned". So, apparently, was at least £145k by Clive Myrie at 28 external events which failed to appear on a BBC register, designed to demonstrate transparency. 

"It's because of you we get up in the morning and work through the night" intones Clive on the latest BBC News promo. That, of course, leaves breakfast, lunchtime and evenings free for business breakfasts, conference hosting and after-dinner speeches. 

It was The Sunday Times that spotted four events featuring Myrie that didn't make it to the published list. At the time, a BBC spokesman said it was a 'processing error'. Otherwise known as 'a fair cop'.  

W12

 All very Christmassy outside Television Centre.... 

Talking points

Late but interesting; some quotes from current parliamentary inquiries into the future of the BBC World Service. 

First, from Jamie Angus, former Senior News Controller, Global News and World Service, in front of the Foreign Affairs Committee. 

"If I am completely honest, I think the BBC board is pulled in so many different directions that it does not have the headspace to really scrutinise and think about the strategic future of the World Service in the way that it might and arguably should." 

"In North America, if you make additional investments in editorial posts, in principle you can make enough commercial money back to fund those posts and produce a profit. That is why there is this very welcome investment into additional digital reporting roles in particular in North America—to build out a subscription product that people in the wealthiest news market on the planet will pay for. The unintended consequences are that if that happens alongside a drawing down and a reduction in editorial posts in places like east and west Africa, India and other parts of Asia, you end up with an unbalanced daily report.

"You do see this sometimes when you look at the BBC news website or use the BBC news app, which I do pretty heavily: you see a lot of commercially funded North America content. It is good quality and I have no complaints about it, but if you have a series of film reviews and in-depth digital reporting of North American politics, it is either squeezing other content out from the editorial front page or the content just is not there, because the BBC has closed editorial roles in China, for example. You end up with a skewed perception of what is happening in the world, and the international news website front page in the app is an incredibly important snapshot picture of what the BBC thinks is important on any given day."

Fiona Crack, Controller Content Language Services, at the Culture Committee, on the closure of Arabic Radio

"If you think about the timing of it, we were making those choices because of the financial situation. We were not able to foresee what happened in October in Gaza and in Israel. Looking back on that, would we have made those choices about Arabic radio? Potentially not. It is difficult to say but it does not feel like a good decision, but one that had to be held because of the funding. "

Wider ?

So far, the inquiry into the behaviour of Gregg Wallace is being conducted by lawyers Lewis Silkin on behalf of Banijay, the producers of Masterchef.  Longstanding executives David Ambler and Katie Attwood will have say whether they never heard the off-colour stuff, or it was never reported to them, or it was tolerated. Widely-read industry-gossip sheet Popbitch has carried 14 stories about Gregg and his humour since 2014. 

One presumes DG Tim Davie will also be making enquiries of the BBC commissioners of the programme; radio presenter Aasmah Mir has revealed she wrote a complaint to Kate Phillips in 2017, after her appearance on Celebrity Masterchef.  Kate is now pretty much No 2 to Chief Content Officer Charlotte Moore. And only in February 2022, Tim himself fronted the announcement of a six year deal with Banijay to move the whole Masterchef franchise to Digbeth.