Blogging the Beeb

BBC Future and Funding

I am well behind on noting developments in the BBC's Charter Renewal process:

The BBC Governors published the BBC's value for money report on its HR section in April.

The BBC Governorsd also published Patrick Barwise's report on public opinion on the Licence Fee.

DCMS published the independent review of the BBC Licence Fee Bid/Funding needs.

Mark Thompson's Creative Review of the BBC is published here and the detailed press briefing is here. His Fleming lecture giving more detail is here. Its new media plans are here. There is more on the BBC's Integrated Media Player, the iPlayer, here.

DCMS made appointments to the new BBC Trust from the BBC Governors.

DCMS published the White Paper on the Future of the BBC. The BBC Governors respoonse is set out here. Michael Grade's speech in response is here. Mark Thompson's BBC 2.0 speech is here.

BBC and Digital

Apparently the public doesn't want the BBC to carry the Governent's digital burden.

And the papers

The Guardian says OFCOM will be able to assess the BBC's market impact. Greg Dyke comments on the proposals on governance in particular.

Blogs on White Paper

The bloggers are out in force in advance of the BBC White Paper publication.

Here's Stephen Pollard.

And Mediawatchwatch.

And Laban at Biased-BBC.

OFCOMwatch had this interview with Select Committee Chair John Whittingdale last week.

BBC Online breaks records

Over 8 million people listened to BBC radio online in January.

Governors' papers on Dyke

The Guardian is reporting that the BBC Governors' discussions leading to Greg Dyke's sacking will remain closed for years to come.

Government responds to Lords

The Government has published its response to the first of the Lords Select Committee reports on the future of the BBC. MediaGuardian covers the response of Lord Fowler, Chair of the Committee.

Hutton Two Years On

Yesterday's Independent carried a valuable article by Ray Snoddy looking back at the lessons of Hutton. His interview with Richard Sambrook, head of BBC News at the time of Hutton, contains the following interesting observation:

That he has survived so well when BBC chairman Gavyn Davies and director-general Greg Dyke both resigned is probably down to two factors that Sambrook will not discuss even now.

It is believed that during the crisis, Sambrook argued unsuccessfully for a swifter and better apology for the part of the coverage on weapons of mass destruction the BBC was judged to have got wrong - claiming the Government deliberately misled the public - and pressing for the row to be taken to independent arbitration.

The irony was that two Labour supporters in Dyke and Davies felt they could not be seen to do a deal with a Labour government - and elected instead to fight, without compromise, on the issue of the BBC's independence.

"I think we got a lot of things right but we got one big thing wrong and there was a lot of mis-communication. Given that somebody died we should all feel bad," Sambrook admits

Former BBC Television MD Will Wyatt's observation is also right:

There was something wrong. On the day that BBC news chiefs and the director general were composing their reply to Alastair Campbell's broadside over the Kelly affair, one of those involved rang me to say, with a chuckle: "You'd never believe how different the atmosphere is to what it would have been under the former regime."

Under John Birt, there would have been a rigorous, unforgiving analysis of the issue, he implied. Now, I sensed, they were in "sod off" mode.

It's the Product, stupid

Ever since Mark Thompson and Greg Dyke highlighted the role of personal video recorders in the year 2000, advertsiing publications have been full of fears about the end of spot advertising as viewers hurtle through the ad breaks - with the obvious conclusion that ad-funded TV is in decline and in future there will have to be more sponsored programming and product placement.

Wired points out that writers for US TV are now having to insert product references, and their unions are calling for a Code of Conduct.

Product Placement rules are to be revised in the new TV Without Frontiers Directive, and OFCOM is consulting on this.

Commercial TV programmes will be even more commercial - a good reason why we need the BBC to provide an alternative.

Public Space

In the States, even some conservatives are starting to acknowledge the importance of public space.