lecture

TV I spent Thursday evening at the Whitworth Hall of Manchester University in the company of a few hundred people and Mark Thompson, Director General of the BBC who was speaking at the invitation the RSA. He presented his vision for the relocation of some of the BBCs 'genre' services to the North West (some news, sport, children's programming). He's a very clear speaker, with a greater passion than was portrayed during the hot resignation shuffle which happened post Hutton.

As usually happens in these situations, I fairwell stood out as the only student in my white t-shirt and jeans amongst the ties and dresses. I'd just run out of a late seminar and hadn't had time to change. There was a reception beforehand which featured some very large goblets of wine and no one I knew. Although I did manage to stand two feet away from local tv newsreader Nigel Jay whilst he bemoaned to someone that he never meets anyone he knows at these kinds of gatherings either. I almost asked why we don't see him on the screen quite so much of late but didn't. Instead (after a false start with a couple of people) I managed to randomly get onto the topic of films with a different total stranger who said that he did 'some freelance things for the BBC' but didn't want to go into any further details.

I really shouldn't drink and I really shouldn't drink wine. Some people cry under the influence of alcohol, others get violent and the lucky ones fall asleep. I talk and always end up saying the strangest of things, as the sub-editor in my brain goes on strike, which means there's nothing stopping the stuff I really shouldn't be saying from being said (it happened again last night but that's a story for another time). Secretly I think this man was a producer from the BBC's film department and I hung myself quite well as the words skidded out of my mouth describing how most film producers are rubbish because they don't leave the real creativity to the writers (this after saying I thought I'd make a good producer).

In the hall, Thompson, who had been fashionably late, treated his audience to a montage sequence of clips from recent and upcoming BBC programmes to demonstrate actually how much of the BBCs output has been created regionally. I'd love to report some great new series they've been keeping under wraps but I didn't actually notice anything which hasn't been on yet, other than some children's gameshow from Scotland which looked like Knightmare crossed with We Are The Champions. Yes, Doctor Who was shown, the trailer for Parting of the Ways which played at the end of Bad Wolf, with hundreds of Daleks filling the massive projection screen. The best reaction was for the Johnny Vegas sitcom Ideal with some bug eating in the documentary series Tribe a close second.

It came time for questions and well, I couldn't not. As the microphone passed about the room and questions about the project and how diverse Radio Four might become were asked and answered I was quite surprised when my chance came. Before each question we were asked to present our names and 'affiliations' and as I stood, clutching my microphone I found myself fishing for both.

'I'm Stuart ... Burns. I'm a student. At the university....'

What I wanted to ask, of course was.

'How many years has Doctor Who got in it?'

But instead I decided to be sober and journalistic. So what Mark got was:

'In the last couple of days there have been stories that the BBC are going to start charging users, international users ... anyone outside the ... license fee paying area ... for the use of the BBC's website. Which I can understand. But isn't it important that the BBC's content be free? Particularly as an ambassador for freedom in news gathering?'

By now I had the demeanor of one of those marxist activist types you see in grainy 70s documentaries asking about nuclear proliforation or drug legalisation.

Mark took a deep breath and said that they were considering charging for some aspects of the site -- for the same reason that they sell their work internationally bringing in £100 million which is ploughed back into programme making. He mentioned that they'd looked at advertising as well. But he pleasingly went on to say that their news sites were a different matter and should remain free for the reason I gave -- that they have a certain set of values and a charter and it would be incorrect to subvert that for commercial reasons. I sat and beamed at him.

He then went on to diversify the answer and mentioned that they would be launching an Arabic news tv station. I don't think this is news, but I was under the impression that they'd already tried this experiment before and suspicion from local broadcasters led its closure with its staff joining together to open Al-Jazerra instead to great success. Without an answer I'm pondering how the circumstances have changed in the area to make this a viable option (other than the odd regime change).

There were some areas in which Thompson seemed less clear in his knowledge and opinion. Someone from a new media organisation asked about the expansion of blogging on the website and mentioned political editor Nick Robinson's blog. Whilst he was able to compliment the BBC's audience on their knowledge of the media and their impressive ability to see that what Robinson's broadcasts on the 10 o'clock news is a package developed across the day, he seemed to be under the impression (although I could be wrong) that Nick was slightly looser with his opinons online. Nick himself has mentioned that he still needs to write within corporation guidelines.

What I might have looked for is a commitment to a blogging network across the website with individual staff members able to present their vision and whatever projects are boiling over. Obviously there are policy difficulties (not least the idea that hot projects might be copied by rival networks before they're even broadcast) but I have read reports from BBC staff members who work in less sensitive areas such as radio who have been presenting the semblance of a blog that is actually something far from spontaneous and under even greater scrutiny than a guest on a live television programme (for example) might be under.

Overall, the presentation was very positive in relation to new media and the possiblities being presented. Citizen journalism was mentioned as was a newly piloted service amongst five thousand households who have access to all of the BBC's programmes for up to five days after broadcast through a service similar to the website's listen again feature (something I wasn't aware had reached anything close to beta testing). My only concern is that the corporation doesn't get too wrapped up in delivering their content and message and lose sight of what their content and message is. For every Making Your Mind Up there's a Life on Mars or Bleak House so on reflection the balance is just right and we shouldn't be anything but positive about the future.

[Horrifyingly yet brilliantly, the RSA will be posting a podcast of the event on their website soon. They usually include the Q&A so you'll be able to hear how much of the wine had gone to my head and how little I've probably understood about what anyone was saying. I'll link to the file when it's been posted there.]