BBC

Leading technology executives from the BBC, AP, the Partnership on AI and Adobe said news organizations won’t be able to avoid the profound changes being ushered in by generative AI, and the time to frame up ethical and safe guidelines for its use is today.

BBC insiders are very concerned about a funding deal that has blown a £90M ($113 million) hole in the U.K. broadcaster’s finances and sources say potentially threatens its independence. The British government announced on Thursday that it would increase the BBC’s income in line with inflation, but ministers have ripped up the agreed way of measuring this price hike and the timetable for future funding settlements. A senior BBC insider said it was an “unhealthy way to do business.”

Juniper TV CEO Samir Shah is set to become the new chair of the BBC, the U.K.’s culture secretary, Lucy Frazer, said today. Shah, who has worked in broadcasting for more than 40 years, will appear before the Culture, Media and Sport committee in the U.K. for what’s known as “pre-appointment scrutiny” before officially taking up the role, which is worth £160,000 a year ($200,000).

The BBC is staring down the barrel of another real terms funding cut after the U.K. government signaled its intention to renege on the 2022 license fee deal. Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer told BBC Radio 4’s Today show that the government would announce the new level of the license fee “very soon.”

More than half of the jobs at the flagship BBC Two political program to be lost as the corporation diverts money to digital platforms. Pictured: Kirsty Wark on the Newsnight set.

Katty Kay, the veteran BBC newscaster, is set to launch a new deep-dive interview program that will take her away — not permanently — from her usual role covering U.S. politics in favor of long-form conversations with interesting figures.

In this repeat of the Talking TV episode from Aug. 18, Pia Blumenthal, design manager for the AContent Authenticity Initiative at Adobe and co-chair of the UX Task Force at the Coalition for Content, Provenance and Authenticity, explains how the proliferation of generative AI is making that job a lot harder. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

The British broadcasters are collaborating on a landmark free TV service that will deliver live television over broadband. Freely is being organized by Everyone TV, the organization that runs Freeview in the U.K. and is jointly owned by the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5.

Laura Ellis, head of technology forecasting at the BBC, say the time is nigh for news organizations to confront the manifold opportunities — and dangers — that generative AI has ushered in. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

Pia Blumenthal, design manager for the AContent Authenticity Initiative at Adobe and co-chair of the UX Task Force at the Coalition for Content, Provenance and Authenticity, is on the front lines against news disinformation. She explains how the proliferation of generative AI is making that job a lot harder. A full transcript of the conversation is included.

The BBC staffer accused of paying a teenager for sexually explicit photographs has been named as Huw Edwards, one of the network’s top anchors. Edwards is one of the most senior on-air figures at the corporation and was the anchor chosen to break news of Queen Elizabeth II’s death to the world last September. He is the fourth highest paid figure at the BBC.

The BBC is more aggressively bringing “open source” reporting and efforts to expose disinformation to its day-to-day reporting, a move that signals a potential shift in journalism’s embrace of new technology. The just-announced creation of a new BBC Verify unit is also an attempt by the news organization to be more transparent in its reporting, said Deborah Turness, BBC News chief executive officer.

Elan Closs Stephens has been named the acting chair of the BBC, replacing Richard Sharp who recently unveiled his resignation, effective June 27, following a report that said he had breached appointment rules by not fully disclosing his role in a loan given to former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

Broadcasters are now making active use of 5G in everyday production operations, usually alongside LTE in contribution feeds sent with bonded cellular systems. But the most exciting production applications to date for 5G have actually used private 5G networks that broadcasters have set up themselves for big-event coverage.

The BBC has unveiled its findings following a review into the conduct of recently-ousted chair Richard Sharp. The corporation said Sharp’s conduct did not give rise to any conflicts of interest. Sharp resigned two weeks ago after it was revealed he had helped former Prime Minister Boris Johnson secure a loan in 2020 just weeks before Johnson recommended him for the role of BBC chair. Sharp was then formally appointed in Jan. 2021.

On the eve of King Charles III’s Coronation, a row has erupted over access to UK television footage of the historic event. Rupert Murdoch’s TalkTV and rival GB News have united to condemn an “anti-competitive” decision by the BBC, Sky, and ITN to restrict access to Coronation coverage. In a statement on the “blackout,” the two news channels said they are being charged an “excessive commercial fee” to access pool footage of Saturday’s proceedings.

You wait 70 years for a Coronation and 25 to host the Eurovision Song Contest and then the two come along at once. Over the next eight days, the BBC will air two of its biggest live events of the past generation and the corporation has spent months gearing up for celebrations that are estimated to cost roughly £125M ($157.1M), the brunt of which is going towards King Charles III’s Coronation – kicking off tomorrow. There is also the small matter of the BAFTA TV Awards, taking place the day after Eurovision next weekend.

BBC Chair Richard Sharp has resigned after a report found he breached appointment rules by failing to declare his role in the Boris Johnson loan scandal. In a statement given prior to the release of the long-awaited report, Sharp said the conclusion by Adam Heppinstall KC had found that he had “breached the code for public appointments” and he is resigning “to prioritise the interests of the BBC.”

Executives from Fox Sports, BBC and Sinclair Inc. will unpack the pace of the 5G rollout and its application in news and sports production in a TVNewsCheck Working Lunch webinar at 1 p.m. ET on May 18. Register here.

The pair has teamed to take domestic format rights to Destination X for their respective countries, having previously co-commissioned The Traitors, the Dutch format in which constestants have to guess who among them is “faithful” and who is secretly working against the rest.

The BBC is set to slash its annual output by 1,000 hours worth of shows to cope with savings requirements that have shot up by some 40% to almost half a billion dollars.

BBC employees will stage their biggest strike in 13 years today as they walk out in protest over job losses and changes to local content. Around 1,000 National Union of Journalists (NUJ) members are expected to down tools for 24 hours from 11 a.m. local time and the BBC has acknowledged that it will be a difficult day.