BBC.co.uk Overspent By £36 Million, ‘Ineffective’ Bosses Must Change, Investment Frozen
By Robert Andrews - Thu 29 May 2008 03:45 AM PST
BBC.co.uk overspent by 48 percent in 2007/08 because management is “not sufficiently strong” and “financial oversight has not been sufficiently effective”, according to the BBC Trust’s review in to the service, which demands an overhaul of the top team by December and has ordered online investment be frozen until then.
The review said last year’s BBC.co.uk expenditure, which excludes iPlayer and streaming media, ”at £110million, is much higher than the upper level of spend permitted in its Service Licence of £81.6million”, which includes a 10 percent overspend buffer on the actual budget of £74.2 million. And it screamed that “the true level of spending on the service has only become known as a result of this review”: “This lack of financial accountability is not acceptable.”
-- ‘More robust management’ needed: In scathing criticism, the trust primarily blamed the BBC’s 2007 restructure, which split BBC New Media across four units, leading to “misallocation between cost centres”. It noted “weaknesses in both the service’s strategic and editorial oversight which need to be addressed” and said “there need to be improvements in (management) control of BBC.co.uk, alongside clear procedures for ensuring oversight by the trust”. So it’s demanded a new management system be implemented within six months. The new-look leadership will then be reviewed after a year in post. This complicates finding a successor to outgoing Ashley Highfield because it may kill off the department he’s leaving.
-- ‘Caution’ on investment: In light of overspend and managerial concerns, the trust will now effectively withold a planned big spending hike that was due to kick off with a £39 million top-up to BBC.co.uk’s 2008/09 budget: “We will not approve the proposed new investment in BBC.co.uk until we are satisfied with management’s proposals for improved management and control of the service and have subjected them to greater scrutiny.” This kicks those hyperlocal plans in to the long grass. Nevertheless: “The baseline budget for BBC.co.uk will be revised to £114.4 million for 2008/09 with immediate effect.”
More after jump...
The trust blamed the financial mismanagement on the BBC’s 2007 reorganisation, which divided digital spending - once centralised in BBC New Media - across both four new units, Future Media & Technology, Vision, Journalism and Audio & Music. That “meant that BBC management no longer had effective control of bbc.co.uk as a single service”. Other findings…
-- Better search, navigation needed: The trust said users have reported problems finding on-site content, adding: “We found that the BBC’s internal search engine is not effective and its usage is declining.” Additionally, the BBC may be asked to can its off-site web search functionality: “We question, however, whether the BBC should have a role in providing mainstream web search and are asking management to take a decision on the future of this function following this review.”
-- Must be more ‘distinctive’: While users see the site as distinctive, competitors still fear the BBC is encroaching on their territory. The trust will ask the BBC to define and guarantee “distinctiveness”, which seems rather woolly and appears to mean “don’t overlap with the commercial sector”.
-- Must link to third parties: Following concern from newspaper groups, this was a stipulation of the 2003 Graf - and something BBC News Online responded to with its Newstracker, a Moreover-powered sidebar that showed readers a selection of related off-site stories. But Newstracker stopped operating in earnest some time ago and other efforts include paltry pointers to local news sources. The trust is “disappointed” at this and is again asking the BBC to start linking to competitors.
-- New service licence: The trust will now add annexes to its existing service licence - or, remit - including more budgetary and management stipulations on specific areas of news, sport, formal learning, nations and local, audio and music, vision.
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