The BBC has confirmed what has been UK industry gossip for months: That it is scrapping TV channel controller roles after decades in favor of a model placing greater emphasis on streaming-first commissioning.
BBC chief content officer Charlotte Moore outlined the radical overhaul to staff on Tuesday after conducting a review of the way the British broadcaster greenlights shows at a time when U.S. streamers like Netflix are hoovering up viewers.
From April next year, the BBC will no longer have controllers overseeing BBC One, BBC Two, and BBC Four. Instead, portfolio editors will be appointed to handpick shows commissioned largely for iPlayer by genre heads with supercharged powers.
Didn't they do this a few years ago only to bring them back fairly recently?
Yes, I thought Charlotte Moore took on all the roles as others quit then they were separated out again.
Guess the new channel editors become schedulers rather than commissioners although surely the commissioners will still be required to do so with certain slots in mind - Saturday night entertainment and Sunday night drama for example.
It does make some sense to approach commissioning in this way. The Channels then need to rethink their purposes however.
BBC doesn't tie particular genres to each channel that strongly. So assessing which content goes on One or Two will be interesting.
As I see things:
BBC Two
tends to favour Lifestyle, Culture, Political, Factual, and "Alternative" content.
Leaving
BBC One
with Entertainment, Comedy, Drama, Sport, with an occasional Movie.
We have heard that
BBC Four
will transition to being a place for Archive content, but not sure what genres it applies to.
And then
BBC Three
may be returning for Young Adult content and a place for younger producers to be featured.
Is there anything missing? BBC News handles News Broadcasts, with Parliament for the procedural and process activities of Politics and Government. CBeebies and CBBC for Children's programming.
Are there content types that could be iPlayer bound, which do not work on Linear TV. Shows with unusual running times, interactive content, pilots maybe which could become full series?
The genre heads would essentially end up filling the schedules of the Linear channels if those continue to delineate their programming by the very nature of defining channels by the shows they include. But is that an outdated way of doing things? I wouldn't have thought the channels had a specific age demographic without significant overlap, or a clear delineation with attitude or economic status.
There may be some issues if a celebrity brought in to front a series was deemed "too big" to be on TWO rather than ONE - but again this may be a distinction of the past, that ONE comes before TWO.
I also wonder if any of these changes will be followed by BBC's UKTV channels? These are Genre defined, and typically take BBC content after the Air Dates and iPlayer exclusivity window. But UKTV Play and BritBox may add some complication.
And a final thought. Is this really laying the ground work for a Subscription or Tiered BBC when/if the License Fee is phased out. Do the Linear Channels make way for genre channels with varying levels of Advertising/Funding?
I don't see BBC Two getting rid of drama, comedy or entertainment. Things like Only Connect and University Challenge which provide some of their higher ratings each week would look very out of place on BBC One and it would hurt BBC Two in the long run.
I don't see BBC Two getting rid of drama, comedy or entertainment. Things like Only Connect and University Challenge which provide some of their higher ratings each week would look very out of place on BBC One and it would hurt BBC Two in the long run.
I agree that BBC Two should still have those categories - in fact, I think certain programmes like the ones you mentioned have a more academic and niche quality that works far better on Two than One. Same applies with scripted drama and comedy; not all of it would gel with the more mainstream stuff on One.
Didn't they do this a few years ago only to bring them back fairly recently?
Yes, I thought Charlotte Moore took on all the roles as others quit then they were separated out again.
Guess the new channel editors become schedulers rather than commissioners although surely the commissioners will still be required to do so with certain slots in mind - Saturday night entertainment and Sunday night drama for example.
Thats what I'm thinking, as surely when they come to 'handpick' something for Sunday at 9pm or Saturday at 7pm, there needs to be something suitable available?
The fear is a schedule with big shows but then lots of filler to fill up the spaces, which I think could hasten the demise of linear and hence speed up the decline of the BBC's dominance
I don't see BBC Two getting rid of drama, comedy or entertainment. Things like Only Connect and University Challenge which provide some of their higher ratings each week would look very out of place on BBC One and it would hurt BBC Two in the long run.
Indeed, and likewise there are some factual programmes that are more suited to BBC One. I don't think there's any prospect of that changing.
I do wonder if this was in part to reshuffle the BBC and to allow the BBC Three channel to return, as I'd imagine the new "category" iPlayer comissioners and head of iPlayer would jump at the chance of having a linear Youth TV slot again, mainly in part due to the fact BBC iPlayer is going for a more youth-oriented approach.
Simply cutting the middle man (or woman, aka Channel Controller) I'd imagine it'd make the whole process a lot more easier for that approach.