Partners

I am sure that the BBC Board will have approved the move back to paying the Met Office for a weather forecasting service, but wonder how they've assessed 'value for money' in what was clearly not a competitive tender process....

"BBC News understands it is not a commercial relationship involving procurement, but an agreement between the two organisations in the interests of public service."

Presumably former Company Secretary Phil Harrold, now Director of Transformation at News, delivered a satisfactory 'business case': "I’m proud to have led the BBC team, and to have partnered with our colleagues at the Met Office to develop something that will deliver great results for both organisations and our audiences."

It was a competitive tender process that 'did' for the Met Office back in 2017. The Dutch-based Meteo Group scored better on graphics, apps and price - and the price included using Met Office data. There was a bit of an alarm bell when Meteo had to delay their start to 2018, with an embarassing one year extension given to the Met Office. 

From 2014, Meteo had been owned by private equity group General Atlantic. In 2018, during the BBC contract, Meteo was sold to TBG AG, a Zurich-based private investment firm run on behalf of the Thyssen-Bornemisza family.  They moved Meteo in to the DTN Group, which they also owned.  DTN is big in the States, and big in aviation, agriculture, and wind and wave energy forecasting.

In October last year, a technical fault in data supply to the BBC Weather service produced forecasts including wind speeds of over 15,000 mph and temperatures over 400 °C to appear on the website and app.