Hi Roger, I had fleeting contact with the OU at AP in the 70s. I joined Studio Capital Projects (SCPD) as a Graduate Trainee in 1979. Our training "circus" included brief attachments to many operational areas. At the time VT at TVC had lost many engineers to ITV and had recruited many new staff to replace them. Because of this they were unable to accept "hangers-on" like us so for VT operations experience we were sent to OU VT at AP. I spent a week there in late 1979. The VT area was accommodated in Portacabins in one of the halls and equipped with Ampex quad 2" VT machines. I was able to watch fascinated as they carried out two-machine editing. About the first thing I was asked after introducing myself was "do you play badminton?". The VT guys there were fanatical badminton players. Next day I went equipped with kit and racket. They would stop for lunch, change, play nearly a whole hour on a court marked up in the hall alongside, then quick change, grab sandwiches and back to editing! Sadly I can't remember any names.

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.

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.

The funeral for the late Ernest Maxin will take place next Tuesday 16th October
at 13.30 at:-
Forest Park Cemetery & Crematorium
Forest Road
Hainault
IG6 3HP

All are welcome.

Thanks to Stanley Appel and Tech-ops for the information.

It's a crying shame that the BBC's TVOBs (latterly in the form of SIS) which provided the Corporation with such superb service for the best part of 70 years has been so shabbily treated by its former 'creator' that it has now been reduced to this.

Frankly, the BBC doesn't deserve the service it gets from these dedicated engineers and support staff - and it's events like this that make me feel ashamed to be associated with such an entity as the BBC of today.

Paul Royall is editor of The BBC's "Flagship" bulletins "The Six" and "The Ten".

Here is the "Media Masters" 44  minute podcast,

and here is a transcript.


"So, Paul, a busy five years then?

It’s been an amazingly busy five years, an extraordinary five years."

SIS- provider of interconnections for many UK TV OBs- .... has been bought by facilities giant NEP.

From Broadcast:-here.

SIS Live provides global connectivity services that deliver content to millions of viewers worldwide. It has a large fleet of fibre and satellite-hybrid vehicles and two operations centres, while its Anylive fibre network has 150+ access points at major sporting venues. Its clients include BBC, ITV, ITN, Sky Sports, SIS, ARC, TRP and Tata.


From IBC, here.

SIS Live’s fate is a salutary lesson. It became a major player in the UK after acquiring the BBC’s OB division in 2008 and securing the bulk of BBC contracts along with it. But after losing out when the tender was renewed in 2013 it was forced to sell off assets including 14 OB trucks

More about NEP, from their site, here. "NEP is headquartered in the United States and has operations in 24 countries."

More about SIS, here.

Members of The BBC Academy have written to our site to tell us of the sad death of Simon Major.

Simon was a former radio producer and was in "BBC Training & Development" for many years.

In an email to Academy members, Joe Godwin wrote:-

"(Simon) left the BBC in 2003 and made a very successful career as a freelance trainer. He delivered a wide range of courses, in particular the highly regarded “Train the Trainer” course which has benefitted a multitude of people across the BBC.  

Everyone he worked with thought he was kind and thoughtful with a great sense of humour. He'll be very much missed by everyone who was lucky enough to know him."



(Thanks to Phil Ross for the information.)

Source:- BBC Media Centre. here.

A Simpler BBC
More Efficient
More Open
More Creative

"BBC has delivered a third of £800 million savings target, efficiency review finds".

......Ernst & Young have benchmarked the BBC’s overheads and concluded that the BBC is within the most efficient 25% of both regulated and non-profit organisations in the UK as well as the most efficient 25% of international telecommunications and media companies. This makes the BBC better than most of government and media companies.

Property is a key strand of the BBC’s efficiency plan, and over 2017/18 the BBC moved out of several London buildings including Grafton House, Brock House, Great Portland Street and Euston Square, while BBC Monitoring also relocated from Caversham to London’s Broadcasting House.

During 2017/18, the number of senior managers has also reduced by a further 39 from the prior year bringing the total down to 270 - a reduction of 56% compared to March 2010.".

According to several sources:-

including "a516Digital".


"ITV Abandons South Bank Retourn"


"As a result, it's expected that the current arrangement - that sees several hours of ITV daytime programming being broadcast from studios at Television Centre, the ex-BBC HQ on Wood Lane - will be extended indefinitely.",

and TVBEurope.

ITV Cheif Executive Carolyn McCall said:-

"Since the original decision to redevelop the South Bank site ITV has launched its new strategy and has successfully moved to new office space in Holborn and studios in W12," a spokesperson explained. "These provide excellent modern, functional and flexible working environments.