Restriction of BBC Radio HLS/DASH to authorised third parties

[tommyrot]

I’m reminded that this is a forum is to resolve issues and that by opining too much runs the risk of this forum becoming a Speakers’ Corner for the intemperate. So, I’ll try to give that a wide berth. But cold data dictates the agenda today at BBC Sounds.

I’m pro-data and support evidence-based decisions. But that means using data to inform judgement, not using data to remove judgement from decision-making. I think the BBC are aping some of the same follies of other big media organisations today. They force listening habits and construct mega infrastructures to mine listening/viewing data hoping to gain mystical insights, but it’s the human judgement that follows that is essential (and so often lacking today). Execs attribute such importance to data as to replace human judgement from decision-making. This is no accident. This approach de-risks their decisions and keeps execs in post, buffering them from any potential failures, but at the same time, it evaporates those unlikely successes. It’s remarkable when you look back how short-sighted this is across TV, radio and publishing. Countless cultural TV, Radio and literary classics were approved by heretical execs with an appetite to take creative risks; and many started out enjoying only modest numbers. These include TV/Radio classics such as Only Fools and Horses, A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Monty Python, The Young Ones etc. In the hands of today’s risk-averse, data-reliant execs, these wouldn’t have been commissioned at all and if they had, might have been ended prematurely.

Alison Winters and Ben Chapman take note.