Episode 9 Points of View

Good afternoon and welcome to a special edition of Points of View.

Very shortly, we will be joined by Danny Cohen,

the BBC's brand-new Director of Television,

giving us his first interview since taking up the post just last month.

We're going to put your questions and your comments directly to him.

But first, here is a quick roundup of the TV

that you've been watching in the last week.

A perennial in the BBC's calendar

is the coverage of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

Lots of programmes last week, live from the site.

A team of celebrities and presenters were on board

to guide couch gardeners at home around.

We put your feedback to the executive producer responsible.

Across the week on Chelsea there are 15 programmes,

eleven and a half hours of television and Red Button.

Every single winning show garden is featured,

most of them more than once.

We major on medals day which is Tuesday,

but actually most gardens we visited at least two to three times.

We aim to produce programmes that appeal to a gardening audience,

but also go much broader. We think Chelsea's a fun event for everybody.

Of course, our presenters are not just presenters, they're all experts

and they have deep knowledge that they love to share with the audience.

There are celebrities, particularly at the beginning of the week

and we cover the Royal visit, because we know

that that is really popular with our audience.

For people who want to go deeper, there's Red Button,

all sorts of great content there and actually, if you stick with us,

you would have seen a masterclass about native plants,

what's the difference between a corm and a rhizome,

really very deep content stuff around pollination,

what we hope is something for everybody.

# Let's dance... #

BBC Two on Saturday night had a new documentary on David Bowie.

BBC One, and a documentary examining the Queen's greatest passion.

Well, I'm joined by the Director of Television, Danny Cohen.

-Thank you very much for coming in.

-Thank you for inviting me.

And we'll look first of all at your career so far

and some of the programmes that you've been responsible for.

Once described as the Boy Wonder of television,

Danny Cohen has enjoyed a meteoric rise

since he began his career, aged just 21.

Within five years, he'd go from researcher

to Head of Factual Commissioning at Channel 4.

At 33, Cohen took the reins at the fledgling BBC Three.

By 2010, he had been moved into pole position,

taking over as Controller of BBC One.

Now, as one of new Director-General Tony Hall's key appointments,

Danny Cohen will oversee all four of the BBC's main channels.

No mean feat for anyone,

even the man they once described as Boy Wonder.

So, the Wonder Boy, but of course you've now got this monster job.

Let's start with the question about what you think

the BBC has done well on television in the last year.

Well, I think we've had a really strong 12 months.

Right at the heart of the coverage has been the Olympics,

which was a really big moment for the BBC.

I think we've had a fantastic drama story in the last few months,

from Call The Midwife, Last Tango in Halifax,

The Fall... We've had some very, very strong stuff in factual,

whether that's Africa, with Sir David Attenborough,

Our War, double BAFTA-winning series about Afghanistan from BBC Three.

Other great comedies, Bluestone 42, it's been wonderful to see programmes

like Miranda and Mrs Brown get audiences of 10 million plus,

so I think we're in an exciting, healthy place on BBC television.

We do still get a lot of people who say,

"Hang on, I said something and I was ignored."

Have a look at this from Terry Robinson.

I'm beginning to wonder what the point is of writing to the BBC

to comment on anything, because every time we do,

for example, to Points of View,

we are introduced to some head of department,

who tells us that actually we're wrong and the BBC is always right.

And we've had this on things like the minimising of the credits,

the background music issue,

the trail overdose that we get to the point of thinking

that it might be aversion therapy.

So, Terry thinks you're not listening.

I thought Terry put that very succinctly

and I understand why he says that.

I think we do respond in some areas and we do make changes.

It's probably right that we don't just accept complaints

and do everything that is complained about,

because for every complaint you get,

you may get a similar amount of feedback

that people really appreciate something, so we've got to be careful

not just to react in one direction.

What I'm planning to do is continue to keep watching here

and talking to my teams about the viewer feedback that we get.

But he lists a number of things that come up again and again,

credit squeezes and so on, which people think they're still going on

and they complain and they get answers and then nothing happens.

Are you slow in taking action when you do?

I don't think the BBC's got a perfect track record on those things

and I'm sure there's room for improvement in the pace

of what we do sometimes. But I think also... As I say,

we shouldn't always respond, "We had a complaint, we must do X."

We have to think about it, work out what the right thing is

and go ahead on that route.

Let me just focus on one area that we mentioned here

which is background noise or background music.

It comes up a lot, but the complaints continue, so have a look at this.

I watched a documentary, The Genius of Marie Curie.

I found the soundtrack music intensely irritating.

It was far too intrusive, added nothing to the documentary,

and was again bafflingly irrelevant.

I'd like to express my views on the poor sound quality

of Pompeii: The Mystery of the People.

I've observed for some time the tendency

for overpowering background music and other sounds,

for so-called dramatic effect. Even if one concedes

that they are nowadays an integral part of the programme,

and perhaps afford a better understanding of the subject,

why then do you have to drown out the narrative?

I watched last night a very good programme on BBC Two

about the history of the Underground.

Let the persons off the car first, please.

It was a good programme, but spoilt for me

by the very loud, unnecessary music in the background.

At times, you can't even hear the dialogue.

-I'd like your views on this, please.

-Your views.

Well, I think audibility matters.

I think it really matters, and that's why I've been involved

with new advice for programme makers and producers in general,

to help improve on this subject.

I think we are getting better, some of that advice is getting through,

but I think we can clearly see from complaints like that

that we've still got work to do and we need to keep pushing hard on it.

There are a number of factors and I do think we're getting better at it,

but I understand we're still getting complaints and we're not there yet. There are still problems here.

I guess, in the end, you leave the producers to it, do you?

I can't be on every set, managing every programme.

Producers need to have the room to do their jobs, to be creative.

But it is something that I take seriously

and I'm determined we continue to improve our record on it.

Let us stay on technology. This is HD now.

We're going to hear from a viewer, Tom Vickery.

Now that the BBC HD channel has been replaced by BBC Two HD,

we no longer get to see the excellent documentaries

made for BBC Four in high definition.

Not being able to see them in high definition is a loss

and makes the HD schedules that much the poorer.

So, please, BBC planners,

give us back these high-quality programmes in high definition.

Our HD policy's a mess, isn't it?

Well, I wouldn't describe it as a mess,

but I think we've got work to do here.

I do really sympathise with this viewer.

These things are complex, it's about how much room we have

to distribute our programmes, there are some financial considerations

we need to bear in mind as well.

It is something we're looking at at the moment at the BBC

and looking at very, very closely.

I'm not able to announce today what we're going to do about it,

but I'd like to assure him it's something we're looking at.

Well, why not just say we're doing BBC Four HD, it's obvious, isn't it?

It's something I'd like to achieve, and it's something

we're looking at closely, and I hope we'll be able to have

a really clear and firm position to tell viewers very, very soon.

OK, sport now, Danny, and you know the complaints you get,

either there's too much or there's not enough.

So, we thought you'd enjoy this, we've got a viewer with a solution

and his name is Michael Dunne.

Can anyone tell me why it's necessary to reschedule regular programmes,

particularly on Sundays, for the sake of sports events?

Why do you broadcast them on BBC One?

Why not BBC Two? Leave BBC One alone.

And if you don't want to offend BBC Two viewers,

why not broadcast on BBC Three or BBC Four, during the day,

when their frequencies aren't otherwise used.

He's worried about stuff getting shunted by sport.

Well, I think one of the things that BBC One does for the BBC

and for the UK is bring the nation together.

It's one of its really important characteristics

and some of those big sport moments DO bring the nation together

almost like nothing else, and I think that's why

they absolutely deserve to be and should be on BBC One.

And for those who just loathe sport

and feel it's being thrust at them on their favourite channel,

you can't just say, "We'll put all sport on...call it BBC S"?

Well, we've got no plans for a sports channel.

Sports rights are one of THE most competitive things

in the broadcasting world, and there are some areas

where we cannot compete.

You'll see that with the huge Premier League live football rights,

negotiations for which have recently taken place.

What I think is really important is that the quality and range

of what we do produce for the BBC in sport is as high as it can be.

But we also have to appreciate it's a really competitive market

for sports rights, and we won't win every time.

Next up, Saturday evening entertainment and The Voice,

-and we've talked about The Voice before.

-We have.

-It was your commission.

-It was one of my commissions.

-Are you still proud of it?

-Very much so.

We're into the second series now.

I think nine or ten million people are watching every week.

It's actually at the moment the most popular programme on BBC One,

so that's a really great place for us to be.

But we do get comments from people, and we're about to see one,

who say the BBC shouldn't be competing with commercial entertainment shows.

-Well, he's not happy.

-He's not.

But what I do know is that Saturday night entertainment on BBC One

is one of the key things that viewers want from us.

It's a very, very big thing for viewers across the country.

I think, whilst Mr Wild doesn't like it,

we'd receive a lot of complaints if we just stopped it.

It cost a bomb, didn't it? 20 million?

I'm not going to get into the details.

You never do, but everyone says, there's 20 million for two years!

You've probably read that in the newspapers,

unless you've seen the contracts, I'm not sure how you'd know that.

-Is it lower?

-I'm not getting into a discussion with you about that.

-But it's worth it, is it?

-Yes, I think it is.

Saturday night entertainment is an expensive thing that we do.

Along with comedy and drama, entertainment is an expensive genre.

But you can see that it matters to licence fee payers, and I believe we should keep doing it.

But it's partly the fact that we've got this enormous organisation

with clever people in,

but they can't think up the idea, you have to buy it from somebody else!

We do a mixture of things. Strictly Come Dancing comes from within the BBC,

great shows like Top Gear come from the BBC.

We've got a fantastic new puppet show coming from within the BBC.

I also think we should be open to great things from around the world.

We shouldn't think we've got all the answers, and whilst

nearly everything we should produce should come from the UK,

we shouldn't have closed minds to creative ideas from other places.

This does come to this idea, and it's annoying to viewers,

the number of repeats on BBC One and BBC Two daytime, does that embarrass you?

Doesn't embarrass me. I think we've got financial challenges,

we know what the licence fee is, we've tried to do whatever we can

to protect the evening schedule where people watch most,

and we've had to make some hard choices on funding

and that has meant that on BBC Two daytime we do have more repeats.

That slightly sets the tone for my last question to you,

which is you're just starting this job, and you can tell us

what you're planning to do in the next year or so?

Well, I think the thing for me is to try and ensure

that the BBC provides big, bold, creative, exciting programming

across a range of genres that matter most to the audience.

We've got some great dramas coming up,

we've got The White Queen coming up in the summer,

we're going to have an adaptation of JK Rowling's latest novel on next year.

Very big thing for us in 2014,

we'll have a lot of programming looking at World War I and analysing it

and commemorating it. There's lots we're doing in the next couple of years

and I'm really excited about bringing that to viewers.

-Director of Television Danny Cohen, thank you very much.

-Thank you.

So that's about it from us for this week.

Next week is the last episode of the current series

before we break for the summer, but you can keep getting in touch with us,

you can do it in a number of ways, and here they are.

Until next week, goodbye.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd