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http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl >> News and Comment >> Charlotte M's Hewlett lecture http://www.ex-bbc.net/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?num=1539336171 Message started by Administrator on Oct 12^th, 2018, 9:23am

Title: Charlotte M's Hewlett lecture
Post by Administrator on Oct 12^th, 2018, 9:23am

Charlotte Moore, Director of Content, delivered the Steve Hewlett Memorial Lecture 2018.

Courtesy of The BBC Media Centre, here is Charlotte Moore's "Steve Hewlett Memorial Lecture 2018".

She said...

".........since 2010, when the licence fee was frozen, the amount we have available to spend on content has fallen by nearly a fifth.
That’s meant half a billion less a year to spend on new British ideas and programmes.

........Netflix’s current budget for programmes is $8 billion. Amazon’s is $5 billion. But their investment into new UK programmes is only around £150 million a year. Less than 10% of their catalogues is made up of content produced in the UK.

.......Ten years ago, around 83% of independent production companies in the UK were either UK or European owned. Today it’s less than 40%, with the rest owned by US multinationals.

.......Tony Hall has talked in recent weeks about some of the pressures we face. As he’s said: the cracks are beginning to show. Because of the huge changes that have taken place in the market around us - the vast increases in competition and costs-– what we currently do is simply not sustainable with the resources we have."

The entire lecture may be read here.

It was an RTS / Media Society event.

Title: Re: Charlotte M's Hewlett lecture
Post by Burstner55 on Oct 12^th, 2018, 11:29am

The answer is simple: Stick to doing only what you have always done best; stop trying to be an organisation without bounds. I only met Steve Hewlett briefly, long before his illness, but I cannot believe he would have supported many of the trendy ventures now being promoted at the cost of his principal philosophy.....great journalism. I am currently finding this commodity in very short supply at the BBC at every level and in all its manifestations.