With the imminent appointment of former Google President for Europe, Matt Brittin as Director-General of the BBC, it poses the question of whether the broadcaster is no longer automatically the natural heir to the broadcaster’s throne and a change of direction for Auntie.

Auntie Beeb used to be the slightly disapproving relative telling you to sit up straight, watch the news, read a book and eat your greens; now she’s turned up knowing Google, talking about platforms, data and discoverability!

In fact, I guess the question is, after giving the top seats to people fluent in platform power (also see the hire of Rak Patel at Channel 4, having come from Spotify) can these huge tech businessmen still persuade the public that “TV for all” means something more than scaled content and efficient delivery?

The irony is that after all this talk of transformation, the answer may still be painfully old-fashioned! MAKE BETTER STUFF. Not more stuff, not thinner stuff, not algorithmic content engineered into relevance, but work with enough originality, authority and cultural force to cut through whatever device it lands on.

Great content will always trump streamlining processes.

Link to the BBC article here

Credit: Alex Pilkington, Director of Growth