Structure shake-up for BBC

Published Wednesday 19 July 2006 at 17:05

BBC programme commissioning, production and management will be grouped together as BBC Vision under a major reorganisation of the Corporation’s structure, director general Mark Thompson has announced.

Thompson described BBC Vision as ‘360 degree content creation’, producing programming for television as well as on-demand and internet services.

Jana Bennett, currently director of television, will head the department. Four new controller positions - Fiction, Entertainment, Knowledge and Children’s - will be in charge of commissioning. Drama and comedy will both fall under the umbrella of fiction.

There is an increased emphasis on new media under the restructuring with the creation of a Future Media and Technology department, led by Ashley Highfield. The section will control the BBC website and the BBCiPlayer among other responsibilities and a controller will be placed in each of the new content departments of Vision, Journalism and Audio and Music.

This restructuring sees the new media budget rise from £250 million to nearly £400 million. Highfield plans to make the BBC’s extensive archives available online and predicts that in the future this could make up as much as 30% of public demand for content.

“We need a BBC ready for digital,” said Thompson, “for 360 degree multi-platform content creation which brings different kinds of creativity together - in technology as well as content - to deliver what we need in this converging world.”

Despite his calls for a “simpler, more open BBC” Thompson was quick to reassure staff that the reorganisation “won’t significantly add to either job losses or efficiency targets”.

• Simpsons star Harry Shearer has had to cancel an appearance on Radio 4 comedy series Not Today Thank You due to a ‘problem with his work permit’, the BBC has announced.

Shearer missed the recordings of the first two episodes of the show, to be broadcast in August, but is expected to feature in the rest of the series.

The Spinal Tap star was to lend his voice to Nostrils, a disturbed tenant of Brian Hughes, played by Brian Hayes. Mark Perry of Dead Ringers filled in for Shearer.