Archives for January 2010

There were, generally speaking, two schools of thought about the BBC's Beijing Olympic coverage.

The first is that it was one of the highlights of 2008 and some of the best sports coverage in recent memory. This was the clear finding of our audience research, and also of a lot of the emails, blog responses and letters we received - for which, many thanks.

The second view is that may have been the case but we were extravagant in the number of staff we sent and the amount of money we spent, and this fits into accusations of the BBC not being careful enough in the spending of the licence fee.

Well, now we have a judgement.

The BBC Trust invited the government's National Audit Office to review the coverage of six major events: Beijing, Euro 2008 and Wimbledon from BBC Sport - and The Proms, Glastonbury and Radio 1's Big Weekend from our colleagues in Audio and Music.

Please note: this is an extract. Read the rest of Roger Mosey's blog post and leave comments on his blog.

PR firm Edelman have published their 2010 Global Trust Barometer today , it surveyed 1,000 people in the UK and many more around the world asking what they think about politicians, bankers, CEOs and media companies, providing a window on national and international levels of public trust.

At the BBC we know we have to work hard day-in day-out to earn the trust of our audiences, the report shows that Trust in the BBC TV as a provider of information is 72 per cent, ahead of any other British broadcaster.

These findings also mirror a poll by the Guardian/ICM last September which showed Trust in the BBC had grown from 60 to 69 per cent over the past five years, as well as our own research.

Audiences tell us the reason they trust the BBC is down to quality, impartiality and transparency.

High quality impartial news is central to the BBC remaining a trusted institution. When you watch, listen or read BBC News you can be sure that it is not influenced by any political or commercial interest. As a public service your trust in us, rather than profit, is our bottom line.

Many people surveyed cited 'transparency and honesty in how corporations conduct business' as a key factor in gaining trust. In recent years we have increased openness and accountability to audiences by introducing BBC Newswatch and the Editor's blog. This also confirms my view that the steps we are now taking to become even more transparent, including disclosing the salaries and expenses of our top decision makers each quarter, are the right ones. We will continue to put the BBC at the forefront of transparency in both broadcasting and the public sector.

We must also be honest and big enough to admit when we get things wrong, and take the appropriate action to put it right again.

Whilst this evidence is in contrast to the highly pitched noise you often hear about the BBC, it reinforces my view that we must never take public trust for granted.

It is important for the BBC to listen to our audiences and gain a thorough understanding of what you want and expect for your licence fee.

We must keep working hard to open up, become more transparent and continue to focus on quality programmes if we are to maintain your trust in us. As announced last week we are currently exploring the potential for spending an even higher proportion of the licence fee on quality UK originated content in our forthcoming Strategy Review.

The Lords Communication Committee's report this week once again brought the state of children's TV in this country sharply into focus. It also reignited the debate around how much we value programmes for children in this country, and how seriously we value programmes MADE in this country for our children..

As the new Director of Children's, I'm pretty clear on this - the BBC's commitment to children is unwavering and remains now, as ever, at the heart of what we do. We're spending more than ever before on content for children across television, radio and online. Far from cutting the budget, or 'paring it to the bone', we're increasing it - on top of the £125 million we spend every year, last September we announced that this would be boosted by an additional £25.5million over the next three years.

Why have we done that? First of all because we strongly believe high quality British programmes and websites for UK children are a really vital part of growing up. You probably remember the TV programmes that made an impact on you as a child, as I do - memorable and inspiring stuff on TV and online is much more significant for children than for jaded and overloaded adults.

We also know that there's less money in the market for co-productions, and less investment elsewhere. The BBC needs to continue to set the benchmark for high quality UK children's production and commissioning - something we've always done, and something central to the BBC's purpose. Despite the huge choice of programming and websites on offer, our CBBC and CBeebies channels are the most watched by their target audiences.

This money gives us a chance to keep backing shows made in this country - both by the BBC and by independent producers. I'd like every child in every part of the UK to feel CBBC and CBeebies reflect their lives, as well as showing the world around them and the facts and inspiration they need to become active and curious citizens. The extra investment gives us a chance to keep on taking risks; to keep on introducing children to subjects like religion; history; natural history and quality drama. We can help them tackle difficult subjects - coming up on February 9th, Newsround is doing a one-off show dedicated to online grooming and the dangers children face online; this is real, practical stuff done in an engaging way.

Nowhere else but at the BBC could you see Blue Peter's Helen Skelton kayaking 2010 miles down the Amazon for Sport Relief, introducing the cultures and sights of South America as she goes. Deadly 60 (pictured above), made with the Natural History Unit, teaches children about creatures around the globe; Horrible Histories adapted from the best-selling books by Terry Deary uses comedy to bring history to life; and in February, we will air a series of documentaries for children called My Life which looks at the different lives children in this country are living today.

Far from paring back, or dumbing down, we're doing more, even 'braining up' - because what we do is guided by what children need and want. It's a complicated world for kids, and they really want information, inspiration, and to help them grow up in Britain today.

Today the BBC announced that it has commissioned a piece of research to help us gain a deeper understanding into how the lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) community are portrayed across all our services.

We will talk to audiences up and down the UK so that we get the widest range of views and opinions about how they think we're portraying LGB people across everything we do; whether it's television, radio or online

We'll ask people their views on language, tone, stereotyping, on screen talent, humour and scheduling to name just a few areas, and I'm sure will uncover many others that will deepen our understanding of you.

This is the most comprehensive piece of research ever carried out in this area by the BBC and we're doing it because, as a public service broadcaster, we have a responsibility to serve all of our audiences and it's vital that we reflect the differences among all of the UK's diverse communities, nations and regions.

The work- which is being conducted by research agency 2CV who have experience in in-depth audience research - will be supported by an online questionnaire which you will find at https://www.perceptor.com/perceplive/survey/bbc_lgb_portrayal. This questionnaire is open for anyone to answer and we are actively encouraging as many people as possible to participate and have their views recorded.

Additionally throughout the process we'll be in contact with LGB community organisations across the UK. In this way, through the research, via the online questionnaire and engaging with grass-root organisations we will hear from as many voices as possible.

This work is being driven by a pan-BBC Working Group on Portrayal and Inclusion of Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Audiences, which I chair. It was set up last year to examine how we portray this section of our diverse audience - in part because we know that LGB communities are concerned about how they are portrayed in the media - but also because the licence fee and our public purposes means it is our job to reflect the diversity of the nation and to do that well.

The remit of this working group reflects our overall diversity strategy and builds on similar work we have carried out in recent years with other distinct audience groups.

For example, last year we conducted audience research looking at disability portrayal and we are currently looking at regional audiences - all as part of our ongoing commitment to serve all licence-fee payers.

As part of an ongoing conversation we have with our audiences on a range of issues and topics we want and expect it to make a difference.

When the research findings are delivered this summer I think we can expect an in-depth - and perhaps surprising - reflection of your range of views on how we're serving you.

The findings will be embedded in programme making at the BBC - made available to all programme makers, commissioners and other key decision makers at the BBC to ensure that when we make editorial decisions that there is continued consideration of LGB storylines or characters based on the best information and research about what audiences want and expect.

We will also make recommendations to the BBC's Diversity Board, chaired by Mark Thompson, and we intend to publish a full report which will be made available widely.

Like all my colleagues on the working group, I am genuinely excited about the prospect of getting to that stage.

We are aware that people may have strong views, both positively and negatively, about how the BBC is portraying the LGB community across our services and that's why it's so important to hear what you're thinking. Only in this way can the BBC be part of a real step change in delivering accurate, authentic portrayals of LGB people's lives.



I look forward to sharing the research when it's complete. Until then I encourage you all to get involved, click on the link below and tell us what you think.

Click here to complete the questionnaire.

We're delighted with this morning's announcement from BAFTA, signalling a record 13 nominations for BBC Films. It's a great reward for the hard work and commitment of the filmmakers we've worked with and the breadth of British talent we're regularly engaging with at BBC Films. 

Lone Scherfig's 'An Education' (see the trailer below), alone, has trawled 8 nominations which puts it alongside James Cameron's 'Avatar' and Katherine Bigelow's 'The Hurt Locker'. Given 'An Education's' relatively low budget of £4.5 million (compared with about $300 million for 'Avatar') this is quite an achievement and a heartening recommendation for well observed drama about ordinary people. (That said, we're also very excited about BBC Films' first 3D movie, 'Streetdance', due out this May..)

The interesting thing about 'An Education', in the light of today's nominations, is that it was very difficult to get off the ground at all. The period (the late fifties) and the nature of the story were not immediately appealling in the conservative arena of international film finance. Yet these were precisely the things that inspired Nick Hornby when he first read Lynn Barber's memoir in Granta one Saturday morning. In commissioning 'An Education', BBC Films was able to provide vital early development and cornerstone finance while the BBC Films brand helped in eventually attracting the necessary investment from elsewhere.

Nick Hornby's nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay is very gratifying, given his relative freshness in this territory as is that for Armando Iannucci, in the same category, for 'In The Loop'. Indeed, recognition for 'In The Loop' signifies a very successful transition for Armando Iannucci from television into film and a celebration of what can be achieved within BBC Fiction when new opportunities are extended to the best creative talent.

In some categories, our films will be in competition with each other. We have three nominations in the Outstanding British Film category, for example for 'An Education', 'In The Loop' and Andrea Arnold's 'Fish Tank'. To be nominated, alone, is clearly an honour and a testament to the range of films that can be produced, can really connect with an audience and be celebrated as part of a rich and eclectic British film culture. The hope is that a presence like this will help communicate the BBC's commitment to the film industry and to film culture. Needless to say, we hope that the profile raising aspect of the nominations will also help to make our films a vital part of the television schedules when they eventually come to the small screen.

(Christine Langan is the Creative Director of BBC Films)

I'm speaking later today at the Oxford Media Convention about how the BBC can best support our creative industries where I will be outlining the key findings of a new report into our economic value.

The study, carried out by Deloitte and published in the coming weeks, will show that the BBC (including its commercial subsidiaries) contributed at least £7.6bn to the UK economy in 2008/09, supporting jobs and generating at least two pounds of economic value for every pound of the licence fee, on top of providing the great quality content that we all enjoy.

The BBC's raison d'être is providing programmes and content of real value and quality to licence fee payers, and we must never forget this. But in delivering this broader benefits stretch into the digital and creative industries - which in turn spills over into the wider economy.

The report will also show funding through the licence fee is a vital source of stability across the whole UK broadcasting industry as the economy slows.

Key private sector beneficiaries of the BBC's investment include independent production companies who produce around 40 per cent of BBC TV programmes around the UK including Spooks, Waterloo Road, Who Do You Think You Are? and Question Time.

In our forthcoming Strategy Review we will also explore the potential for spending an even higher proportion of the licence fee on quality content, providing a further shot in the arm for our creative industries.

This new evidence shows the licence fee is a force for good. It provides us with more than just quality programmes - it also boosts UK PLC supporting thousands of jobs and businesses, many of which are in the private sector.

This evidence will ensure that as we focus on creating quality programming we can also think about how best to spread the knock-on economic benefits to local and regional economies, including through our Strategy Review.

The Report will also reveal:

• BBC TV, Radio and Online services each contribute at least £4.5bn, £1bn and £300m respectively to the UK economy each year.

• BBC Worldwide and our other commercial operations contribute £866m to the UK economy as well as directly returning profits back to licence fee payers.

• The BBC's activity in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland contributes £330m, £248m and £131m respectively to the UK economy.

• The BBC's role in promoting digital markets such as Freeview and digital switchover has helped the process to be completed far earlier than it would have been without the BBC. This contribution has led to an extra £95m (up to £250m in some scenarios) created for the UK economy in 2008/09 alone.

• The BBC also plays a critical role in providing training for the media industry. Deloitte estimates that BBC training leads to a benefit of £59m each year of improved productivity to the creative economy.

• BBC activity directly and indirectly supports around 7,000 jobs in Glasgow, Cardiff and Bristol, which creates £200m of economic value that would be lost if the BBC was not licence fee funded

• The BBC's spend on the independent production sector, one of the crown jewels of the UK creative economy, directly generates £867m of economic value. Deloitte estimates that including wider benefits this value could be up to £1.4bn.

Our Strategy Review will bring a laser focus on how to guarantee that quality continues. We will work to ensure that excellent content and benefitting the economy go hand in hand.

However, we also need to go further, be more efficient and secure still better value for money. We are driving down spend on both senior manager pay and talent as the market changes. Whilst we operate in a competitive market and the public tell they do expect top artists on the BBC, we are already getting the best for less.



In a tough economic climate, we need to be more conscious of our market 'footprint'. Our Strategy Review will consider issues of the BBC's size and scope carefully. It will define the boundaries. At the same time, it is important to nail the myth the BBC only has a negative market impact - in fact, it is very often an important force for good in the economy.

The shocking images that we continue to see from Haiti are a stark reminder of just how quickly tragedy can strike, and in equal measure how compassionate we can be as a nation in response to it.

Today sees the official launch of Sport Relief 2010, the fund raising collaboration between the BBC and Comic Relief. On the weekend of the 19 - 21 March, Dragons' Den, Top Gear, Strictly on Tour, BBC Sport's stars and hundreds of thousands of members of the public will 'rise to the challenge' for a weekend of fund-raising to help some of the neediest people, many of them in the UK and some, like those in Haiti, on the other side of the world.

Recently I was lucky enough to join colleagues from both the BBC and Comic relief, as well as Strictly and former England rugby star Austin Healey and Something for The Weekend presenter Tim Lovejoy on a visit to one of these places: Zambia.

Although the name conjures up images of the epic Victoria Falls, romantic steam engines traversing the Benguela Railway and colourful postage stamps, since gaining independence in 1964, Zambia has witnessed the inevitable boom and bust of tying your prospects to just one crop - copper - and it is now struggling to feed its people.

Zambia is one of more than 40 African countries where Comic Relief cash is at work and making some progress battling the worst of the continent's problems - shortage of food and water, poor infrastructure, corruption and chronic health issues including the devastation of HIV/ Aids.

The huge challenge it faces is reflected in some devastating statistics - 15 percent of the population is suffering from Aids/ HIV, 64 percent of people live on less than one dollar a day and life-expectancy has fallen to just 42 years.

But in a land where you could excuse people for feeling downtrodden the support from Comic Relief is bolstering the spirit and energy of small neighbourhood, self-help schemes that use local expertise to provide management, support and training to help young and old get on their feet and through the day.

Two of these schemes - the Bwaafana Home Based care organisation which received nearly £300,000 from Comic Relief and the Lusaka-based Women For Change, with a grant of £637,000 - epitomise this resilience. Inspirational leaders Harriet and Bridget manage teams which make a difference on a daily basis by building networks of helpers, nurses, teachers and farmers that tackle the challenges head on where people live - and die.

Even our short time in Zambia made us appreciate how tough these projects have to work to stay afloat amid the challenges and prejudice of what one local school headmaster told us was the traditional mantra of "Educate The Boy and Marry The Girl".

So many of the major inequalities in Zambia stem from a lack of knowledge about health, gender and education, so it was wonderful to visit Mabele School and see boys and girls in class together, getting a basic education in their tiny, hot classrooms. Although a beneficiary of Comic Relief funding, the headmaster has 250 children in six classes, all orphans, and is the sole teacher. Some children walk two hours each way to school without any breakfast in their stomachs - so you understand the scale of the problems he still faces.

But the joy when Tim and Austin handed over a proper football for them to play with on the school's sandy and bumpy pitch showed the huge difference small gestures can make. The kids had real dreams and ambitions - to be teachers, a doctor, a pilot and a lawyer and it filled you with hope that these self-help projects will catch on and take off - an epidemic of goodness in a land where other epidemics have brought only misery and a rising death toll.

We can do so much to help combat such misery and suffering at home and abroad. Since Comic Relief began in 1988 it has raised more than £500m through its Red Nose campaigning on BBC Television. And now Sport Relief, a relative newcomer only born in 2002, is building yet more momentum, fusing the power of entertainment, sport and personal challenge to make a difference too.

My abiding memory of that trip is of an abjectly poor family farm where a mother of seven with her goats and gaggle of hungry children lived, emaciated and exhausted. I remember how her scrawny baby boy reached into her blouse and pulled out a tiny empty breast. Nothing to eat, no meal in sight, not even there. We gave them bananas and the few bottles of water we had with us and as we left the baby boy was sucking hard on some fruit: perhaps enough goodness and nourishment to get through another week. For this family as well as for those in Haiti and across the globe, Sport Relief 2010 just can't come soon enough...

Get involved in Sport Relief or donate at www.sportrelief.com

Though science is a subject that shapes everything around us, it feels like the 21st century is a time when science, technology, engineering and maths are always on the front pages. Cancer treatments, climate change, nuclear power, the NHS, children's lunches - science has become something that everyone talks about, and one we're expecting to be a hot topic at the next general election. Frankly, I've got little truck with the idea you occasionally hear, that viewers aren't interested in science. I firmly believe we underestimate their interest in the way the world works at our peril.

But the way that we relate to science as a subject varies greatly. There are those who love it, and those who only feel the earth move from time to time. Those who won't miss a programme on genetics (you're out there, I know!), and those who want to know how you construct the Empire State Building. The challenge that the BBC has is to create science programming that is able to touch on this full range, whilst appealing to different audiences, with very different needs. Not a challenge that we take lightly and one that, as Commissioning Editor for Science & Natural History on television, has made me appreciate the sheer breadth and depth of what we do.

But as much as science often makes good television and radio programmes, we feel that it's important (if not imperative) to try to do more. When I was making Bang Goes The Theory, our mantra was simple - science isn't a subject: it's a state of mind. Which is one reason we're trying to do more to get people actively taking part in science, trying experiments at home, taking part in Lab UK surveys, coming along to one of our science roadshows - questioning the world around them, having a stab at being scientists themselves. And it's great to see my compadres in radio steering a bit of their output in a similar direction with the Material World hosted programme So You Want to Be a Scientist?, which I love the look of.

I'm personally passionate about getting people involved in science early. Some colleagues of mine recently interviewed Sir Tim Hunt for a new series we're doing called Beautiful Minds. He spoke really beautifully about sitting in Brixton library as a kid, hoovering up science he didn't always understand, but which absolutely burned into his brain. And although not everyone will agree with me, I think TV's got a big role to play here. The other day I was staring a picture of Cern - as you do - and my son asked, "What's that, mum?" "A particle accelerator," I said. "Oh, like Brian Cox and the Hadron collider!" he said. "I saw that on CBBC - Dani Harmer had a dream about smashing up atoms!" Not far off, and not a bad bit of information for an 8 year old to have knocking around in his head. We don't always get it right and, like everyone I guess, there are days when I doubt what I do. But that wasn't one of them.

As ever, it'll be up to the audiences to decide what they make of our output this year, but I hope that all our different viewers, young and old, serendipitous and committed, will find something they like - whether its Chemistry: A Volatile History on BBC Four telling the story of the discovery of the elements, E Numbers on BBC Two or Invisible Worlds on BBC One. Comments welcome! (As a postscript: I've just heard that last night's showing of How Earth Made Us - the first major science series in the BBC's Science season this year - drew in 3.5 million viewers; a staggering 13.1% share. This makes it the highest rating science programme on BBC Two for the last four years! It's only one measure of what we do of course, but I think we're off to a great start.)

Image © REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz

I'm writing this from one of the editing suites at Television Centre. The Producer and Editor are choosing shots to go in today's DEC Appeal for the Haiti Earthquake. Anyone watching the Appeal can't fail to be aware of appalling situation, but putting the pictures together really brings things home.

During the day the BBC will broadcast over 70 appeals for the disaster, across radio and television and also online. The first appeal was at 8 o'clock this morning on Radio 3 - there will also be appeals on channels as varied as BBC One, BBC Parliament, the HD Channel, BBC Alba and all the local radio stations.

Because of the scale of the Appeal, over a hundred BBC staff will also be involved, often doing quite small things, but all contributing to the overall impact of the Appeal. There are the radio and television producers, schedulers, web designers, presenters. Yesterday a lawyer volunteered, not to do legal work, but to sort out stills for web pages. Everyone says 'yes' when they are asked.

Back to the editing: The BBC has Editorial Policy and Guidelines which apply to all our output, we also have to comply with our Charter obligations.

For appeals, the guidelines most relevant are usually taste and decency and impartiality. For taste and decency, there's a fine line to be drawn between giving the audience information about the appalling plight of people affected by a disaster and respecting the dignity of those who are suffering.

There's also the issue of how graphic an image of suffering we can show, especially before the watershed. At the moment we're looking at a picture of a man lying on the ground. His hips, arms and legs are clearly broken and there's plenty of blood. The picture could go out in the BBC News at Ten, but probably not in the BBC News at Six, and not in our Appeal, as several of the transmissions are also before the watershed. Impartiality is not an issue for this appeal.

There are also criteria specifically for emergency appeals, which are agreed between the broadcasters and the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC). These are:

1) The disaster must be on such a scale and of such urgency as to call for swift international humanitarian assistance.

2) The DEC agencies, or some of them, must be in a position to provide effective and swift humanitarian assistance at a scale to justify a national Appeal.

3) There must be reasonable grounds for concluding that a public appeal would be successful, either because of evidence of existing public sympathy for the humanitarian situation or because there is a compelling case indicating the likelihood of significant public support should an appeal be launched.

The first criterion is primarily about need. For this appeal, the need is evidenced on our screens and by governments and the humanitarian agencies. A second consideration is how much money is needed, i.e. are other organisations funding aid effort? In the case of Haiti, a huge amount of money is promised. However, the need is so great it cannot even be measured at this stage.

On a personal level, my own donation feels like a drop in the ocean. But it means I'm part of trying to make things better for people in Haiti. I would only hope that people watching the appeal feel the same way.

The second criterion is about the ability of the agencies to deliver aid on the ground. Things that get in the way of this can be physical access: this is the case in Haiti. For some emergencies, there may be government opposition to foreign aid, or a weak infrastructure. In Haiti, aid agencies have been working in the country for many years - they know the area and the people which will make a very difficult task easier.

The third criterion is about public sympathy. If we ask our audience, will they want to donate?

We're asking.

Over at the BBC Internet blog, Matthew McDonnell, the BBC's Portfolio Executive for Search, takes a fascinating look at the phased roll-out of the new BBC site search.

Click here to read the full post and to comment.

There was also additional investment into BBC Two drama that allowed us to produce more world-class offerings like Five Minutes of Heaven; and the Women We Loved season on BBC Four, which attracted the best of British talent including Helena Bonham Carter and Jane Horrocks.

But drama is a living and breathing thing and at the beginning of 2010 it feels the right time to look ahead to what BBC Drama will mean in the future. The best drama always needs to look forward to what is fresh, risky and different.

BBC Drama should be an environment in which the best writers can fully explore all their best and most imaginative ideas without commercial pressures.

By creating this environment I believe we will see a huge variety of passionate dramas that will ensure that all the different demands of the BBC audience are engaged. Thrilling genre drama, authentic stories about our own lives, fresh perspectives on our past and drama that makes you smile: it is this variety of tastes and passions that goes to the heart of everything we are and believe in.



It is key that we keep making dramas across all the channels that excite broad audiences. And we aim do this whilst exploring fresh ideas in the mainstream.

But two of the biggest successes for me last year were Small Island and Occupation - neither of these are going to feature on any Top 10 ratings lists and it is important that the BBC views success in more complex terms than other channels.

I hope the Winter/Spring launch showreel, which is only a taster of some of our upcoming drama, gives a flavour of some of these values and the beginning of something very exciting.

David Bunker is Head of Audience Research, BBC Vision

Of course much of it was due to the advent of colour TV. Tested over the previous three years, BBC One had only just gone to colour in November 1969, so literally only a couple of months before this. Suddenly, costume drama - be it literary or historical - had a whole different purpose. It showed off and challenged the new innovation to the maximum. Listen to the series costume designer, John Bloomfield, on the Great Moments slide show, as he recounted in 1970 to Blue Peter's Valerie Singleton (herself in Anne Boleyn costume) how he had used cheap fabrics, glass, piped glue and even household washers to achieve the sumptuous period effect! And, following the series, audiences queued for hours to see the glittering costumes in real life, as they toured their way round the UK.

And so began TV's love affair with Henry VIII, and indeed the Tudors in general. Of course, the big screen had already featured Henry's larger-than-life persona - as early as 1911 Arthur Bourchier played the egoistical monarch, followed by Charles Laughton in 1933, Richard Burton in 1969 and Sid James in the Carry On version in 1971... Television would now take up the historical baton, producing Glenda Jackson in Elizabeth R a year later. And so it went on, right up to the current moment when we have Jonathan Rhys Meyers giving us the latest (and much slimmer) version in 2007-9. It seems that Henry VIII is to historical drama what Jane Austen is to literary drama: endlessly fascinating, endlessly bankable.

I suppose the answer to his perennial attraction lies in that predictable and heady mix of dramatic ingredients: power, sex, religion, politics, death. Oh, and six wives! Of course there have been academic scuffles around the edges - over factual inaccuracies and inappropriate dramatic licence - and these debates are likely to go on, as drama and history align themselves in different partnerships along the TV continuum. Now the formats blur, with more drama in documentary, more documentary in drama...

As we enter a new decade, what next for historical drama? On the immediate horizon are Atlantis on BBC One, a dramatisation of the submersion of that ancient civilisation, and Royal Wedding on BBC Two - a drama set in rural Wales against the backdrop of the 1981 wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer. So, distant past and almost contemporary history. It may be that we'll have to wait a few more years for the Henry VIII of this new decade, but almost certainly he will come.

Happy New Year, and thanks for taking the time to look at BBC Three's plans for 2010.

We're starting the year on a roll. Since our relaunch in February 2008, the channel has increased its share of young audiences by 29%.

And in 2009 BBC Three became the most watched digital channel for 16-34 year olds during its broadcast hours.

But I want the channel to keep growing and improving - in both our appeal to young audiences, and the richness, range and public reputation of our output.

BBC Three's mission is clear - to provide thought-provoking and entertaining programmes for young viewers, featuring young British talent. I believe our new programme line-up delivers on this promise. It is a rich combination of documentaries, comedy, drama and entertainment - all underpinned by a host of young television stars.

In 2010 you'll see young stars from Russell Howard to Simon Bird, Russell Tovey to Dan Clark. There are also opportunities for puppets, vampires, ghosts, werewolves and princesses...

Thought-provoking factual programming now sits at the heart of BBC Three, and this year the channel will continue to tackle a powerful range of complex subjects in ways that appeal to our young audiences. Over the next few months we'll cover autism, globalisation, disability sports and child trafficking. We will also continue to increase our coverage of the wider world with documentaries on women's rights in Afghanistan and the use of rape as a weapon of war in the Congo.

BBC Three is very committed to developing the next generation of young British talent, both in front of and behind the camera. I am excited by the way home-grown British drama is developing on the channel. This month sees the return of the hit series Being Human, and later in the year comes a new relationship drama, Lip Service.

But we also have plans in place to develop the next generation of stand-out scripts and talented young performers. Being Human started life as one of a series of drama pilots broadcast by BBC Three in 2008. This year we are going to repeat that experiment with three new drama pilots featuring vibrant young casts. We will ask our audience for their feedback on the pilots, and will take this into account when we decide which to commission as a full series.

Shows that make young viewers laugh continue to be the lifeblood of BBC Three and commitment to new talent is deeply embedded in our comedy plans for 2010. It has been fantastic to witness Gavin and Stacey's hugely successful transfer from BBC Three to BBC One, and we are working hard to develop the next generation of young stars. New shows this year include character comedy from Simon Brodkin in the form of The Lee Nelson Show; an ambitious new puppet show, We Are Mongrels; and the beautifully written new sitcom Young, Lazy and Unemployed.

Our entertainment plans should also give young audiences plenty to make them smile in the coming months. The last year has been something of a renaissance for entertainment programming on BBC Three, from break-out hit Russell Howard's Good News to the recent Move Like Michael Jackson. We plan to build on this momentum in 2010 with The King Is Dead, a unique new entertainment show starring Simon Bird that combines character comedy with elements of a panel show, a chat show and a spoof job interview. We will also be bringing three foreign princesses to Essex to find love in The Undercover Princesses, and Russell Howard will return with more of his Good News.

This is just a taste of the line-up on BBC Three in the coming months, and I hope you find plenty to enjoy. In 2010, there is certainly a great range of programmes on the channel that find contemporary and energetic ways to inform, educate and entertain young viewers.

Danny Cohen is the Controller, BBC Three 

Mark Thompson talks about pay, content and funding in this article published today in Ariel, the BBC staff magazine.

Mark Thompson looks ahead to a year when the size and shape of the post-switchover BBC will emerge; the Canvas internet TV partnership should forge ahead; some of question marks over BBC Worldwide may be removed; and a new government could be calling the shots on how a future BBC will be paid for.

Canvas

Thompson has no doubt that the joint venture to bring catch-up TV into the living-room via broadband will be one of the biggest developments and challenges. "Canvas has the potential to utterly transform the way people think about broadcasting, the internet and universal take-up of broadband, with BBC iPlayer, itv.com and 4oD accessed by millions of households via their main TV set," he says.

Funding

Expected any day, Greg Dyke's heavily leaked creative review for the Conservatives will almost certainly call for the licence fee to be scrapped and replaced by funding from central taxation.

But Thompson would be surprised to see any great change this year. "[Culture Secretary] Ben Bradshaw has said he believes in the licence fee and [Shadow Culture Secretary] Jeremy Hunt that the Tories will abide by the multi-year settlement."

Meanwhile, BBC Worldwide - restricted to a tighter remit by the commercial review - may be heading for a record trading year, the Director-General says. And BBC World Service will talk to the government about grant-in-aid, amid immense pressure on public spending, ahead of its next settlement in 2011.

Strategic review

Thompson plans to publish his first proposals in February. He has already suggested that the BBC website might be trimmed back and that there will be fewer acquired programmes.

"For the public, the biggest question marks are around programme quality and distinctiveness," he notes. "So our focus is on big-impact, quality content that makes a difference. In 2010 that will include Radio 4's A History of the World in 100 Objects and content around the Year of Science."

What about the onward march of bbc.co.uk? "The website is an amazing media success, with 27million users a month, but it's grown like Topsy and some parts are less focused than others."

Is it inevitable that broadcast services will close? "There is not one service that's not there for a good reason, but in a world where there are lots of ways to get quality content, it's reasonable to ask whether there are other ways to access that content."

On Worldwide: "It's right to keep an open mind [on ownership] but continue to look at all the opportunities to develop BBC intellectual properties, not just simple privatisation."

And the proposed joint venture with Channel 4? "A partnership around secondary exploitation of great programmes makes good sense. I hope we can make progress. That will depend on Channel 4's new chief executive."

Salaries

On the continuing pressure over executive pay and star salaries, Thompson - grilled on the subject by Today guest editor PD James - says "We've been tougher on bonuses and executive pay than any other public company or broadcaster."

"The public sector pay debate will continue... but we're not a county council. If you want someone to run BBC One or develop iPlayer, you need the very best people in the world. And they're paid much less here than they would be at ITV or Sky."

He adds: "The public has every right to know what we spend on stars' salaries as a whole, but there is no public interest served in revealing individual [details]."

Out-of-London

"There were," says the Director-General, "dire predictions that no one would want to go to Salford [46 per cent have said yes]. We'll soon be recruiting new talent in the North West. Salford is looking good."

The commitment to base 50 per cent of network TV production out of the capital will be "one of way we add value": "You've only to go to Glasgow and see the critical mass that is developing along the Clyde."

IT systems

The Director-General is candid about the lessons to be learned from recent massive IT failures affecting phones and PCs.

"The frailty of our overall systems has been exposed. We have a legacy of IT systems which we've been trying to do more and more with, and we've now had a series of warnings. We're working hard to minimise the same thing happening again - thinking strategically to make sure we've got the infrastructure we need."

Content

The World Cup and another F1 season will make it a great sporting year, Thompson says, and drama highlights will include Patrick Stewart's Macbeth at Easter.

"Radio 4 is on amazing form and, internationally, Persian TV will continue to have huge impact." At home, the general election promises to be "one of the most interesting in my time in broadcasting".

Confidence

Given everything on the horizon, can the BBC feel confident at the start of the new decade? "There was an interesting moment in 2009, after James Murdoch's MacTaggart lecture. Yes, there was criticism of the BBC, but did people want to lose it? No, and that includes most politicians. There won't be any less noise around us in 2010, but yes, we have room to be confident."

Bridget Middleton is editing the About the BBC blog this week. Chris Jones is on holiday.