BBC Director General Tim Davie Talks “Enormous Decisions” Over Queen Elizabeth II Coverage – RTS London

BBC Director General Tim Davie has discussed how “enormous decisions” had to be made following the death of Queen Elizabeth II as he chaired a working group featuring senior broadcasting bosses. He also rejected the notion outright that there is a “major short term crisis” in terms of the number of people watching the BBC.

Davie gave RTS London attendees an insight into the days immediately following the death two-and-a-half weeks ago and said he learned from past events about how to handle the situation.

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The BBC uprooted its schedules for the 10 days of mourning following Queen Elizabeth II’s death, with shows such as Strictly Come Dancing pushed back.

“We had enormous decisions to make, thinking about Strictly and other big shows,” he added. “We knew we had to do this right and that it was about flawless rehearsal.”

Davie, who chaired a working group featuring senior broadcasting bosses, said the trickiest decision was around Last Night of the Proms, which was cancelled across the first weekend after the Queen’s death. He put the decision partly down to a lack of available broadcast trucks, and the fact the Premier League had just been cancelled.

Davie praised the “broad squad” of presenters who oversaw the BBC’s roundly-praised coverage of the mourning period, and schedules have swiftly returned to normal.

Speaking earlier in the day, Channel 4 CEO Alex Mahon said “complex choices” had to be made upon the Queen’s passing, including the decision to keep Gogglebox in the schedules one day after her death.

No crisis

Moving on to other issues, Davie rejected the notion that “there is some sort of major short-term crisis” in terms of BBC viewer numbers, although reiterated criticism of the government for freezing the BBC’s license fee income over the next two years.

The future funding model is currently being debated, with the BBC publishing principles earlier this month. Davie backed the current license fee model but said he is open to new models if they stick to the principles.

Talking up commercial opportunities with the likes of producer-distributor BBC Studios, he said he is “not interested in growing at the expense of the market” and that the license fee is still the best way of obtaining the majority of funding.

“You will never be in a position where commercial revenues offset that massive amount from the license fee,” he said. “The license fee allows you spend against your objectives and mission. I am not interested in the BBC growing at the expense of the market.”

BBC Studios recently came off the back of a record year and Davie has been under pressure to generate more commercial income.

Most of the discussion at BBC Board level has been about “how to ensure Public Service Broadcasting has a distinctive offer,” he added.

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