Supplementary written evidence from BBC (BBC0003)
BBC Monitoring (BBCM) Finances
Explanatory Note
Prior to 2014/15 BBCM was managed as a separate entity within World Service Group as part of the BBC and as a consequence was required to produce separate financial statements and be directly accountable to Government for its expenditure.
Following the transfer of BBCM funding to the licence fee, the internal accountabilities of BBCM expenditure were transferred to the specialist departments that already existed within the BBC, for example the management of the building was transferred to the BBC’s overall property management department. This change which started in 2014/15 (and concluded in 2015/16) allowed for economies of scale across the BBC and freed the Director of BBCM to focus on the content of the operation. Further savings are being looked at for 2017/18 and beyond in this indirect spend (e.g. move to a more fit for purpose building for its UK operations).
Therefore two numbers are ascribed to BBCM activity – overall total expenditure and that of direct content or product spend.
The direct operational budget of BBC Monitoring (i.e. excluding support costs and capital) was £13.5m in 2016/17, and this is expected to be £4.1m lower in 2017/18 i.e. at £9.4m. The £4.1m reflects a reduction in licence fee funding for BBC Monitoring of £2.5m per annum, plus a residual shortfall in commercial income since the transfer from Government funding.
The change programme spend in 2016/17 is forecast at £6.3m, and this will reduce to £1.2m in 2017/18. The change programme is predominantly a technology based programme, looking to improve the efficiency of how content is manipulated and shared within BBC Monitoring and the rest of the BBC and improving the experience for external customers who come to BBCM for its information services.
Therefore the overall total expenditure on BBCM will reduce from £29.2m in 2016/17 to £20m in 2017/18.
Analysts
BBC Monitoring currently runs a separate team of ‘analysts’ who contribute material to the portal and BBC News website. The global coverage is inconsistent with some areas represented while others are not. Analysis is provided in the context of day-to-day monitoring and coverage by team, for example on Africa, Jihadist media, wider media changes or social media developments. The analyst team is run by a manager/editor.
Early discussions with the Government group as part of the negotiation of the new Agreement indicated that the definition of analysis varies in different departments, as does the demand for this content. There was agreement that the building blocks of timely, accurate reporting and translation, with the right level of context and insight to make them relevant, were more valuable than a purely analytical interpretation of events.
In the new structure editorial teams will have two main elements: one will be integrated, multi-disciplinary monitoring teams, with the relevant researchers and analysts embedded within them; and the other element will be a single, central News Desk.
Senior digital journalists will replace the existing analyst job. The new role will encompass more varied duties, including confident on air appearances and by-lined/authored output drawing together key elements and observations from the monitored content, all of which are important aspects of an analyst’s work.
In regional language teams, the senior digital journalists will work closely with the editorial leads for each team to ensure the quality of the output, provide expertise and help deliver impact on key stories and themes. On the News Desk, senior digital journalists will cover a broader, global agenda.
In the UK, there will be a total of twelve of these senior digital journalist roles across the Middle East teams and the Russian team, including seven for the News Desk. There will also be Senior Digital Journalist roles in the Jihadist media team and all our international offices and they will be expected to contribute analysis of their specialist areas and themes.
Staff numbers :
Team | Current number of posts | Future number of posts |
Analysts | 1 team manager 9 analysts (including: 1 x Russia, 2 x Iran, 1 x Arabic)
| 12 senior digital journalists in the UK: 1 x Iran 2 x Russia 2 x Arabic 7x News Desk |
Similar organisations
The organisations which provide a similar media monitoring facility to BBCM are our American OSE partners and the Australian government-funded OSB which is a small-scale operation largely pointed at Australasia, especially Indonesia. OSB also share information with OSE. A number of other governments buy services from BBCM, but this is on a smaller scale.