The clue was in Mark Thompson’s light-hearted opening reference to the make-up of a classic MacTaggart Edinburgh TV festival lecture.
The BBC Director-General, primed to give the speech of his life, said the most fondly-remembered orations always ended with ”Proposals, of course. Improbable, unworkable and wholly self-serving proposals, yes – but uttered in the certain knowledge that by the end of the weekend they’ll be long forgotten.”
And so 50 minutes later the BBC DG is proposing his own cheeky, improbably and unworkable plan to get Sky to pay re-transmission fees to carry terrestrial public service broadcasters.
That was the tone of Thommo’s curiously jaunty speech, as if he’d come back from his US hols with more than a tan. Possibly, who knows, a juicy job offer to take him away from the White City grimness to come?
The most substantial pledge was to create an international commercial iPlayer service to exploit the popularity of BBC shows abroad already evident on iTunes. And Brits abroad will soon be able to use the iPlayer too.
But the rest of the speech was a predictable collection of the very best of BBC corporate lobbying – audiences love BBC programmes more than ever, the BBC will do more to cut waste and executive spending, talent salaries will be reduced even if it means more Christine Bleakley’s walking away, our best shows are the envy of the world.
A disproportionate amount of time was spent attacking newspaper coverage of the BBC, like a beleaguered third-term government – but who was the broadsheet journalist who told the BBC press office his paper wanted to “trash the BBC” whatever the facts?
Mostly Thompson wanted to give the impression that he was standing up for all UK public service broadcasters, appealing for less regulation for ITV and calling on indie producers and other networks to work together to counter a deficit in programme funding.
He was determined to let the Tories know that the BBC isn’t just another public sector organisation ripe for a populist 40% cut - every £1 taken out of the licence fee is a £1 taken out of the UK creative economy, he warned.
