Policy & advocacy @mediareformUK @hackinginquiry. PhD press & broadcasting policy, lectured @Kingspol_econ @MediaComGold, future of PSB research @CardiffJOMEC
Joined June 2010
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We’re told the BBC belongs to all of us. In reality, we have no power over how 'our BBC' is run, governed or funded.
Now the BBC Charter review has begun, I've started Whose Beeb? to write about the politics & policy shaping the future of UK public media: whosebeeb.substack.com/p/gre…
You can tell this leak is trash because it wasn’t dribbled out to the Sunday Times by unnamed ‘senior BBC insiders’ or ‘Whitehall sources’, as is the official BBC public relations process during Charter Review
This quoted post is unavailable.
In 2010 the BBC Trust threatened to resign if Osborne ended funding for free over-75s licences. It worked - until new Trustees buckled 5 years later
Now the Board is stacked with patsies & seat-warmers, who put padding their CVs above licence fee payers’ interests
Tom Chivers retweeted
As BBC local radio proposes yet more change despite ample budget in decent hands - is the game all over? How has it come to this? Who's responsible? I've tried to pull it together
davidlloydradio.com/post/why…
Tom Chivers retweeted
Here’s what actually happened with the new Goldsmiths campus:
- Labour negotiates a deal with a university they know is on the brink of bankruptcy.
- They announce this as a done deal BEFORE getting Goldsmiths to sign a lease - giving up the Council’s negotiating leverage to score political points a few months ahead of the local elections.
- The new Green administration then has to work to deliver this new campus, in a much weaker position than we would be had Labour not jumped the gun on the announcement.
- Predictably, Goldsmiths cancels their expansion plans because they can’t pay for them.
- Labour then try to suggest, with zero evidence, that the Green Party are to blame for the deal collapsing. When, in reality, it was their mismanagement that has led to a huge amount of wasted time, money, and effort.
We had no intention of politicising this hugely disappointing news for the borough. But if Labour councillors are going to spread this kind of misinformation I feel it’s important for someone to correct the record here.
Tom Chivers retweeted
I've posted a new edition of Whose Beeb?, my blog on the future of the BBC
It analyses the financial realities behind the BBC's recent brutal cuts, the Government's obscenely stupid proposals for a 'YouTube tax', and why it's all George Osborne's fault: whosebeeb.substack.com/p/rec…
I've posted a new edition of Whose Beeb?, my blog on the future of the BBC
It analyses the financial realities behind the BBC's recent brutal cuts, the Government's obscenely stupid proposals for a 'YouTube tax', and why it's all George Osborne's fault: whosebeeb.substack.com/p/rec…
Tom Chivers retweeted
Laura Davison, NUJ general secretary, said:
“Instead of drip-feeding cuts, we urge BBC management to support calls for investment to secure the broadcaster's future. It is incumbent on the government to intervene in the Autumn budget and #BackTheBBC.”
nuj.org.uk/resource/bbc-cuts…
It staggers me that Pact, representing a huge bloc of the UK's £4bn film & TV production sector, supports replacing the TV licence with a household levy.
Staggered not because they support it, but because this major endorsement has done nothing to move stubborn DCMS ministers
The BBC's decision to close BBC Three and BBC Scotland linear channels underlines the urgent need for a sustainable funding model for the BBC, and producers need transparency around redirected funding and support.
Read our statement in full: pact.co.uk/resource/pact-sta…
ALT Broadcast test pattern showing colorful alignment bars with on-screen label BBCTX-1 1080i/59.94, indicating a television signal and resolution used for calibration.
Tom Chivers retweeted
The BBC's decision to close BBC Three and BBC Scotland linear channels underlines the urgent need for a sustainable funding model for the BBC, and producers need transparency around redirected funding and support.
Read our statement in full: pact.co.uk/resource/pact-sta…
ALT Broadcast test pattern showing colorful alignment bars with on-screen label BBCTX-1 1080i/59.94, indicating a television signal and resolution used for calibration.
Tom Chivers retweeted
We are all saddened by the announcement that @R4Extra is scheduled for closure. Not only has the channel been the ideal outlet for the many programmes we have recovered, the staff have always been very encouraging, helpful, and, most importantly, have promoted what we do. (1/3)
Tom Chivers retweeted
In my opinion, we're going to lose something incredibly valuable to the cultural fabric & history of this country. If Radio 4 Extra with its carefully curated archive isn't the epitome of public service broadcasting, well, I don't know what is. Only the BBC can do it. A sad day.
Our brazenly corrupt political/media culture distilled in 10s.
When most politicians watch this chummy crap or see Farage heading GB News for £££, they don't think "god, what an insult to democracy, journalism & the public's intelligence". They think "god, I wish that was me!"
FWIW this is what a ‘permanent’ BBC Charter means in practice. Proponents don’t really want to protect the BBC from gov, and certainly don’t care for real democratic accountability - it’s a transparent gimmick to ‘shield’ an unreformed BBC from Reform
I have no problem with the mainstream media shining a light on Reform. Supporting the principle of a free press means defending that type of scrutiny. However, if *every* undercover investigation is targeted at Reform and not at other parties (all of whom have their bad apples), it will just look like a politically-motivated witch-hunt by a partisan media establishment. Ironically, that will end up playing into Reform's hands - reinforcing the party's message that the entire establishment is against it.