Separating Progress From Horizontal Motion

Michael Hedges March 23, 2015 Follow on Twitter

The biggest executive challenge in handling a crisis is knowing what is and isn’t a crisis. It’s a qualifying attribute, requiring a certain distance from the moment or, at least, good noise-abatement technique. The best executives love, worts and all, their people, programs and jobs. The rest are simply accountants.

When Radio France president Mathieu Gallet addressed an employee assembly of 600 last week he was met with jeers, hissing and boos. This is all quite normal, even in the best of times. Filling a €21 million budget hole will require “courage,” he said, quoted by Les Echos (March 20). There will be job reductions, voluntary of course, and service cuts. Unions began their third industrial action this month last week.

What brought M. Gallet to the assembly hall at the partially reopened Maison de la Radio were “revelations” in Le Canard Enchaîné (March 18), known equally for satire and investigations, of rather extensive “sumptuous” renovations of the presidential office. The cost of woodwork, carpeting and painting was “two times greater than the initial estimate.” Add to that new furniture was purchased, including “designer Italian leather chair.”

Although renovations at the Maison de la Radio, in which the presidential office is located, have dragged on for a decade after the building was declared a fire-trap in 2003, every public expenditure in austerity-rattled France faces critics. The office renovations were actually budgeted in 2013, several months before he took the job, M.Gallet explained. The Ministries of Culture and Finance will be investigating “expenditures of the Presidency, general management and supervision of Radio France,” reported Le Monde (March 20).

Regulator CSA (Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel) is hanging back. “We regulate radio and television, not president’s offices,” said an insider, quoted by Le Monde. “We have the impression he struggles to cope with the storm,” said another. The CSA nominates presidents-directors general of French public radio and television and, thus, is under some pressure over the next France Televisions president, due to be nominated in May.

The current “indefinite” strike by Radio France employees prompted cancellation of a planned Philharmonic Orchestra concert in the renovated Maison de la Radio grand hall. Musicians gathered up their bows and oboes and played, instead, to the empty Paris Philharmonic Hall at which they displayed large signs declaring “forbidden concert.” Musicians union members walked out of M.Gallet’s Friday morning meeting.

Getting ahead of the crisis cycle once the frenzy takes hold. At the start of last week at the RadioDays Europe trade show in Milan M.Gallet mentioned “facing some difficulties” as well as “investing more and more money in digital radio.” By the end of the week he faced down yet another critic, left-leaning newspaper Libération (March 19), charging he ditched the company car - Citroën C6 - for a new Peugeot 508 RXH because he didn’t like the seat color. Eventually, Libération backed down and admitted the 2010 C6 was past its prime, the Peugeot actually less expensive and, indeed, M.Gallet had no input into colors.

Cars are probably not a fun topic among executives at UK public broadcaster BBC, at least not car shows and certainly not car show hosts. One of the BBC’s biggest TV shows - Top Gear - has been in the news for not being on the air while the show host - Jeremy Clarkson - is suspended for allegedly throwing a punch at a producer. Everyone in the UK has an opinion on this show of shows.

BBC director of television Danny Cohen suspended production of Top Gear earlier this month and ordered Mr. Clarkson to chill out while an internal panel reviews a myriad of issues from contracts and money to stardom and politics. Mr. Clarkson has been well compensated for appearing on Top Gear since 2002 when the BBC revived a show for motor-heads of the same name in which he had appeared between 1988 and 2000. Last year he received a substantial sum when BBC Worldwide, the BBC’s commercial arm, acquired full interest in Top Gear’s production company. His current contract expires at the end of March.

Top Gear is a big deal to the BBC: each episode in the UK viewed by 5 million at least, sold on to broadcasters and cable operators in more than 170 countries, forget not the DVD sales. But the show has become, to more detached critics, a parody of itself. Five years ago executive producer Andy Wilman said “Top Gear is nearer the end than the beginning and our job is to land this plane with its dignity still intact,” quoted by broadcastnow.com.uk (December 22 2009).

That admirable goal appears lost as Mr. Clarkson continues to publicly rage against the BBC, its management and “political correctness” in raw and colorful language. Executives charged with managing highly paid top talent nearing career change have seen this story before. “The hubris of the meteorically risen” litters the show business ranks once audiences, as they always do, move on.

The Clarkson/Top Gear episode - headlines and petitions notwithstanding - is but one more in the never-ending trials and tribulations over what and how the BBC does everything. Director general Tony Hall is more interested in how, if at all, the UK government will change the license fee, the BBC’s primary revenue source, and what will become of the BBC Trust, the main oversight body. The results of upcoming UK general elections will have certain bearing on those weighty issues.

Setting aside the question of whether or not televised election debates affect outcome, all UK broadcasters, the BBC included, pressed hard for a certain plan for presenting together the main representatives of political parties ahead of the general election. Prime Minister David Cameron, representing the Conservative Party, resisted the plans, schedules and, it seems, the idea as broadcasters threatened to place an “empty chair” in front of the cameras in his stead. UK politicians of all stripe grumbled about bullying by the broadcasters, with not so subtile nods toward regulation and other repercussions.

See also in ftm Knowledge

The BBC

Few pure media brands transcend borders and boundries to acheive the iconic status of the BBC. The institution has come to define public service broadcasting. Yet missteps, errors and judgment questions fuel critics. The BBC battles those critics and competitors and, sometimes, itself. 155 pages PDF (August 2015)

Order here

Public Broadcasting - Arguments, Battles and Changes

Public broadcasters have - mostly - thrown off the musty stain of State broadcasting. And audiences for public channels are growing. But arguments and battles with politicians, publishers and commercial broadcasters threatens more changes. The ftm Knowledge file examines all sides. 168 pages PDF (March 2014)

Order here