A lesson for the BBC’s future?
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ew media initiatives during the pandemic have been as successful or as significant as the expansion of the BBC Bitesize education service. For parents attempting to homeschool their offspring while also working from home, having famous faces such as Marcus Rashford or David Attenborough helping children with their lessons was nothing less than a lifesaver. No wonder the BBC’s director of radio and education, James Purnell, who helped spearhead the service, sounded so confident and relaxed during a recent RTS event, when he was interviewed by The Observer’s radio critic, Miranda Sawyer. “Amazingly, we provided an entirely new education
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James Purnell tells Miranda Sawyer how the BBC acted fast to transform its education service in lockdown – and why he’s a licence-fee fundamentalist service in lockdown – 10 hours of new TV a week, 150 lessons a week, which hit a chord with the public,” he said. Bitesize Daily lessons attracted record numbers, as 3 million children tuned in on day one. The need for a rapid response to the coronavirus crisis for once forced the BBC to ignore traditional processes and regulatory hurdles. Consequently, the expanded service was up and running at record speed. “We had an education service and lots of resources that we could suddenly point at this crisis. We were able to think about what the audience needed,” Purnell recalled. “We found the money quickly. “In difficult circumstances we were able to move faster than we can some other times, because of that very clear
intent. It was a moment of crisis that galvanised people. The commercial sector was brilliant in saying, ‘Fine, you can use our content’. We cut through a whole bunch of licensing and rights issues. “I do think that there is a general lesson for the future in how we can move quickly.… We created a new education service in four weeks – maybe we can bring that to our business as usual.” Time will tell if the BBC, so often criticised for being a management- heavy organisation that moves slowly, can be as fleet of foot in the future. Purnell, who was once regarded as a future Director-General, not to mention leader of the Labour Party, acknowledged that Bitesize Daily’s success had
