BBC Trust announces changes to BBC Worldwide governance

18 September 2009

The BBC Trust today announced a series of changes to the governance arrangements for BBC Worldwide. As part of its review of the BBC’s commercial activities the Trust has agreed a revised governance framework within which the BBC must operate its commercial activities.
These changes are designed to strengthen the oversight of the BBC’s commercial operation and ensure even greater clarity and confidence in the separation of the BBC’s public service and commercial activities.

Among the changes agreed are: – the BBC Worldwide Board, which is a subsidiary board of the BBC’s Executive Board, will become smaller and more focussed on the delivery of a rolling three year commercial strategy agreed by the Trust; – the new chairman of the BBC Worldwide board must be a non-executive director from the BBC’s Executive Board – thereby strengthening the link between the two boards and the role of the BBC’s public service arm as the shareholder in the company; – there will be changes to the membership of both the BBC’s Executive Board and the Worldwide Board in order to reduce the potential for conflicts of interest. Specifically, the Chief Executive Officer of BBC Worldwide will no longer be a member of the BBC’s Executive Board and staff from BBC Vision (who produce most of the BBC content subsequently sold by Worldwide) will not be eligible to be members of the Worldwide Board. This will result in Jana Bennett stepping down from the BBC Worldwide Board.

These changes will bring the business further in line with the Combined Code on Corporate Governance. The Trust has also stipulated that it expects BBC Worldwide to operate as far as possible within the principles set by the Code, and any deviation from it needs to be agreed by the BBC Trust.
This new governance framework for BBC Worldwide, proposed by the Executive Board, will be stipulated in the Trust’s protocols. The BBC’s Executive Board, led by Director-General Mark Thompson, will be responsible for ensuring compliance with it. The changes will come into effect from 1 October 2009.

In addition to the above changes, the Trust has decided that the financial threshold for referral of transactions for Trust approval should be lowered from £50m to £30m and the Trust will retain the ability to scrutinise any activity that it believes is not consistent with the strategy it has agreed.

Sir Michael Lyons, Chairman of the BBC Trust, said:
“The BBC Trust believes that these changes will strengthen the ability of BBC Worldwide to deliver value to licence fee payers through the return it makes on content owned and paid for by licence fee payers. The changes also respond to concerns raised by commercial competitors and others.
“These changes build on the principles set out in the interim conclusions of the Trust’s commercial review, in which we set out our vision for a focussed BBC Worldwide that is more closely aligned with the BBC’s public purposes. There will be no delay in progressing that objective although we must await the outcome of Government’s Digital Britain review.
“Mark Thompson is right to say that in the longer term the BBC will look at whether Worldwide needs to be 100 per cent owned by the Corporation. However, the Trust won’t contemplate any loss of direct control over BBC rights created as result of investment from the licence fee payer.”

The appointment of a new Chairman of the BBC Worldwide Board will be for the BBC’s Executive Board to make; the current Chairman’s term ends on 30 September.

This concludes the governance aspects of the Trust’s review. The Trust aims to report on the remaining elements of the review following clarification of the outcome of the Digital Britain consultations.

European journalists now producing more original content online

18 September 2009

EJC Media News reports:

European journalists are producing an increasing amount of original content for online-only publications – but teach themselves the digital skills to produce it, a new survey has suggested. PR agency network Oriella PR Network, polled 354 journalists from national, trade, regional and broadcast media from Belgium, France, Germany, Holland, Spain, Sweden and the UK, for the 2009 European Digital Journalism Survey, and results suggested a significant rise in the amount of original content being produced for online from 2008.

According to the survey, 43 per cent of those polled said at least 60 per cent of the material produced for online is original content. But 67 per cent of respondents said they had taught themselves digital skills, such as video editing and formatting for online. Only one in nine per cent of participants said they had received presenting to video training, for example.

Blogging was now part of the day job for 46 per cent of respondents, while 47 per cent said they were required to produce online video clips.

This year’s research also explored the impact of Twitter on European journalists. More than a third of European publications have Twitter channels, with the UK and Netherlands being the earliest adopters. (Journalism.co.uk)

Final Cut Pro on Quantel

18 September 2009

At IBC 2009, Quantel demonstrated complete integration of Apple’s Final Cut Pro into the Quantel sQ server News and Sports production environment. Final Cut Pro on Quantel is shipping now.

A new Quantel Final Cut Pro Gateway enables Final Cut Pro to be totally integrated into the sQ workflow in the same way as Quantel’s own editors. All the usual Quantel workflow benefits and speed to playout are available but now with Final Cut Pro – there are no compromises.

Workflow advantages of the Quantel Final Cut Pro integration are:

Ability to edit expanding clips on Final Cut Pro – editing of clips that are still being recorded

Finished edits are published instantly – edits can be played out the second they are finished

Delta publishing – only new frames created on Final Cut Pro are moved to the sQ server; a big time-saver

Final Cut Pro can finish projects started on the journalist desktop with Quantel Low Bit Rate editors

Automatic protection against deleting the frames used in FCP edits when rushes are deleted

“Our customers told us they wanted to enjoy the speed and flexibility of our sQ broadcast workflow and to tap into the large talent pool of Final Cut Pro editors,” said Steve Owen, Quantel Director of Marketing. “The FCP Gateway lets them do just that – it’s the same great workflow but now with Final Cut Pro. Judging from the reactions of broadcasters that have previewed this development in our labs, we have met their need in full.”

Enhanced entry for your company

8 September 2009

The AIB is pleased to announce that companies can now book enhanced entries in the
2009 Global Broadcasting Sourcebook.

For just £295 (plus UK VAT at 15%), companies can have an enhanced entry that includes their
logo in full colour, plus a description of up to 120 words – all set in an eye-catching
coloured box.

You can see an example of the enhanced listing
here.

To reserve your enhanced listing in the new edition of the
Global Broadcasting Sourcebook that
will be published in September 2009, use our online shop
here. We will then contact you to obtain your logo and listing.

Alternatively, download the booking form
here, or talk to Alison
Seary on
+44 (0) 20 7993 2557.

You can also book advertising in the Sourcebook – look through the
media pack
here.

Meet us at IBC

8 September 2009

The AIB will be on stand 11.F02 at IBC from 11th September to 15th September. Please drop by to meet us and update us about your activities. We can also give you a first view of the AIB 2009 Global Broadcasting Sourcebook.

Check your company data for the 2009 Sourcebook

8 September 2009

We would like to include your company in the 2009 edition of the AIB Global Broadcasting Sourcebook and want to make sure that your company data is correct and complete.

The AIB Sourcebook is an invaluable reference book for the international broadcasting industry and will be used by key executives in broadcasters, Internet companies, mobile operators, regulators, cable operators and satellite companies throughout the world.

________PLEASE EMAIL YOUR DETAILS TO________

______________________________

Company name……….