Jims

James Purnell has the air of a diligent student who's handed his homework in early. Tony Hall's chosen strategist, in this session in the Radio Theatre, comes out fairly strongly for the licence-fee funding model, and is relaxed about the amount of viewing of BBC output over computers. Thus his work on "Towards 2022", or whatever his October strategy document is to be called, is largely done. Watch from 9.50, to around 14.30. You may have to go "full-screen" to see it all.


Some of this is backed up by a recent FOI response from Auntie:

The number of households declaring they do not need a TV Licence has remained stable at around 430,000 for the past three years. There are a number of reasons for notifying TV Licensing if no licence is needed. These include: if the address is unoccupied; if no TV receiving equipment is being used at the address; if a TV is used only to watch DVDs or for gaming purposes; or if only catch-up or on-demand services are used at the address. This last exemption applies to a tiny minority of people, as the number of adults watching only catch-up TV in a typical week is well under 2%; although over the course of a year may watch some live TV and therefore still need a licence. Therefore the overwhelming majority of viewers require a TV Licence.

• It was good to hear that the two new Jims are bonding at their new employer. Jim P played host to James Harding, in his first days as News Meister, at a fashionable eatery a fashionable distance from Broadcasting House earlier this week.