News Broadcasting
BBC welcomes 10 year Charter proposal
MUMBAI: UK broadcaster The BBC has welcomed the British Government’s proposal for a new 10 year Charter from 2007 and continued secure funding through the licence fee.
These recommendations were detailed in the Green Paper published by the UK Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport.
BBC chairman, Michael Grade, said, “This is a strong endorsement of the BBC as the cornerstone of public service broadcasting in the UK now, and through digital switchover. On behalf of the Board of Governors, I accept the Government’s conclusions for future governance of the corporation. It is regrettable that our own reforms have not had time to prove themselves. But it is important that the issue has now been settled ahead of the new Charter, providing the BBC with the necessary certainty and stability.”
Grade pointed out that in the BBC’s Building Public Value (BPV) manifesto, published last year the broadcaster had set out a series of radical steps to modernise BBC governance. This had included the creation of an independent Governance Unit, the introduction of service licences and a stringent public value test.
“These are being implemented in full and are already having the desired effect.
For the first time in the BBC’s history, there is now a clear distinction and appropriate separation between governance and management, and a greater emphasis on objective, evidence-based scrutiny of BBC activities. I recognise that our changes have been essentially more behavioural than structural. We had hoped that these crucial reforms would be allowed time to prove their worth. However, we recognise that the consensus in the public debate has been to move beyond behavioural changes and to buttress them with a new structure.”
BBC DG Mark Thompson said, “The Green Paper endorses the ambitious public purposes we set out in Building Public Value, adding for the first time an explicit purpose for the BBC to lead the building of digital Britain. A 10 year Charter and secure funding for the BBC will give us the right foundation on which to take on these challenges.
“Audience expectations are rising all the time and it’s hard to predict what platforms, technology and innovations might emerge between now and 2016. But the assurance that original, British content, consistently aiming for excellence, from the BBC will be a guaranteed fixture of any future landscape is good news for the industry and our audiences. Over the coming months, as the Charter debate continues, we intend to show by our actions that we are committed to creating a BBC fit for the future, open to new technologies and new ways of serving our audiences, with fair access to the best ideas from wherever they come, drawing on talent from the whole UK, with transparent and coherent commercial activities and with rigorous plans to deliver the best possible value to licence-payers.”
Thompson conceded that it was equally important that as the Executive Board of a public service broadcaster, funded by the licence fee, they should be properly supervised and held accountable for decisions taken.
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
