The BBC: An Existential Crisis?

[eighthobstruction]

.....and on Monday nights Newsnight James Purnell smiled and offuscated, and avoided the charges put to him.....in much the same way as Tim 'soft soap' Davie did 9 months ago....3 Monkeys becomes : we have now heard the evil but it is in the past, we have seen the evil that happened but we will not tell you who did it, we have learned the lesson of evil and it will never happen again (or at least if it does, it will be at a lower level of £'s.....

[french frank]

this lists the challenges facing Hall but fails to mention the audience at all .... interesting that, even in the Indie they do not see any audience issues .....

One tiny relevant point (to me) was;

"Most importantly he must – in an era of austerity and an atmosphere of unrelenting hostility from cash-strapped commercial media rivals – persuade hard-pressed ministers to underwrite the BBC’s financial future until 2026."

What more could RadioCentre do but argue that Radio 3 was targeting Classic FM's 'lighter listeners' with 'little knowledge of classical music' with 'populist' and 'more accessible programming'?

"Oh, no we're not," responds the BBC loftily (specialist consultant R W Wright Esq). "Radio 3 is distinctive."

(True, Classic FM didn't think of a 'play the piece of music backwards and ask listeners to guess what it was ...' Brainteaser.)

[amateur51]

.....and on Monday nights Newsnight James Purnell smiled and offuscated, and avoided the charges put to him.....in much the same way as Tim 'soft soap' Davie did 9 months ago....3 Monkeys becomes : we have now heard the evil but it is in the past, we have seen the evil that happened but we will not tell you who did it, we have learned the lesson of evil and it will never happen again (or at least if it does, it will be at a lower level of £'s.....

The item starts at 14:00 with an astonishing admission by Paxman that "people working at the BBC have been aware for years that at a senior level there was a gravy train running through the building aboard which most of the staff would never be able to clamber".

Is there not a disturbing resonance here with the claims of "oh everyone at Television Centre knew there was something very dodgy about Jimmy Savile"?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b036fy9r/Newsnight_01_07_2013/

Mark Thompson needs to be hauled up pronto before Parliament, senior BBC management, and the BBC Trust to account for this truly shocking state of affairs. Steve Hewlett in the film says that the BBC Trust is not responsible for senior executive pay but feels that their terms of reference in this area needs to be reviewed - too true!

Tony Hall has made the stupefying statement that the BBC has saved more in gettinmg rid of many senior jobs than was spent on the pay-offs and that there is now a ceiling of £150,000 for pay-offs. Why is the ceiling so high? Surely a pay-off should be a rarity too if senior managers have a grip on their colleagues 'progress and targets.

Funny isn't it how the BBC has to negotiate with departing senior staff about capping their golden goodbyes at £150,000 while people on Housing Benefit, and other Welfare Benefits are expected to accept significant caps as a fait accompli.

Paxo gave the shambling Purnell a gentle but persistent bounce around the room. Interesting to read Purnell's CV (after graduating from Oxford University with a first class degree. he worked as a research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research before moving to the BBC to become Head of Corporate Planning, then almost entirely policy wonk and Westminster) and wonder why Tony Hall was so keen to have Purnell in the new BBC senior management team without advertising the post, at a salary of £295,000.

Questioned about this a day later by Iain Dale on LBC97.3 FM, Purnell tried to be quite blasé about it all but singularly failed to impress Dale.

http://www.iaindale.com/posts/2013/07/02/james-purnell-can-t-justify-his-salary-or-the-bbc-s-move-to-salford

[amateur51]

One tiny relevant point (to me) was;

"Most importantly he must – in an era of austerity and an atmosphere of unrelenting hostility from cash-strapped commercial media rivals – persuade hard-pressed ministers to underwrite the BBC’s financial future until 2026."

What more could RadioCentre do but argue that Radio 3 was targeting Classic FM's 'lighter listeners' with 'little knowledge of classical music' with 'populist' and 'more accessible programming'?

"Oh, no we're not," responds the BBC loftily (specialist consultant R W Wright Esq). "Radio 3 is distinctive."

(True, Classic FM didn't think of a 'play the piece of music backwards and ask listeners to guess what it was ...' Brainteaser.)

"Radio 3 is distinctive". Sadly this has become all too obvious and it is not a distinction some of its longer-term listeners would care to make.

[eighthobstruction]

Paxo gave the shambling Purnell a gentle but persistent bounce around the room. Interesting to read Purnell's CV (after graduating from Oxford University with a first class degree. he worked as a research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research before moving to the BBC to become Head of Corporate Planning, then almost entirely policy wonk and Westminster) and wonder why Tony Hall was so keen to have Purnell in the new BBC senior management team without advertising the post, at a salary of £295,000.

Questioned about this a day later by Iain Dale on LBC97.3 FM, Purnell tried to be quite blasé about it all but singularly failed to impress Dale.

http://www.iaindale.com/posts/2013/0...ove-to-salford

It was while with New Labore that Purnell employed the services of ATOS....

[amateur51]

It was while with New Labore that Purnell employed the services of ATOS....

Enough to give anyone pause, I'd have thought.

[Serial_Apologist]

Enough to give anyone pause, I'd have thought.

That's the problem if you're not Someone...

[amateur51]

A further twist to the BBC's golden goodbyes saga .....

"The BBC's director general has demanded a briefing over reports that the former controller of BBC One, Peter Fincham, received a £500,000 pay-off.

The Times reported that Mr Fincham was "secretly given" the sum when he resigned over a documentary trailer which misrepresented the Queen in 2007.

Director general Tony Hall "asked for a detailed briefing about the facts" as soon as possible, the BBC said"

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-23448279