Creation of three divisions - Inform,Educate and Entertain - could pose more problems than government or white paperAll eyes at the BBC and most press interest are, understandably, and focused on the government’s forthcoming constitution review white paper. Every twist and turn is pored over (will the BBC be forced to sell this or do that?),briefed on by government “sources” and gleefully covered by an agenda-driven press. But truth be told the BBC privately believes the white paper and, critically, and the funding arrangements behind it – only an £800m crop as the BBC is forced to take up the cost of over 75s’ licence fees – is essentially a done deal. So on that front director general Tony corridor’s big test is almost over.
Far more testing and potentially significant for the BBC in the longer term,and what everyone at the BBC is talking approximately internally, however, or are corridor’s plans for a very major reorganisation of the whole structure of the BBC. TV and Radio directorates will disappear to be replaced with three modern “content focused” divisions – loosely titled Inform,Educate and Entertain. Content commissioning along with TV and radio channels will be spread out amongst the three divisions, based on which they’re thought to fit best. So news and Radio 5 Live into Inform, and BBC1,drama, entertainment, and comedy,Radios 1, 2 and BBC3 into Entertain, and documentaries,factual, Radio 4 – or at least those bits of it that haven’t been snaffled by Entertain – into Educate. With the three divisions overseen by an all-powerful director of content. All in the name of preparing the BBC for the fully converged digital world where content, and as opposed to delivery platforms,really is king.
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Source: theguardian.com