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Tag: BBC Radio 4

  • BBC Worldwide makes senior appointments in audio and music biz

    BBC Worldwide makes senior appointments in audio and music biz

    MUMBAI: BBC Worldwide’s audio and music business, under a new five-year strategy developed to drive the exploitation of popular music and capitalise on the corporation’s rich archive, has strengthened its team with several senior appointments.

    Jon Mansfield who was Emap Music MD has been appointed BBC Worldwide’s audio and music business head of content development.

    Mansfield will be joined by Stephen Davies who comes on board as head of digital ventures and Salim Mukaddam, who has been promoted to head commercial affairs.

    Mansfield will develop and deliver unique content for the commercial Audio & Music business for exploitation on various platforms both in the UK and internationally.

    His role will involve working closely with colleagues from BBC Radio and TV to maximise the potential of audio and music content for commercial purposes as well as looking at new ways of packaging the archives. Mansfield will also seek agreements/partnerships with Talent, record labels and agents to develop mutually beneficial new opportunities. Davies rejoins BBC Worldwide after a two year hiatus steering business development at TK Maxx.

    Prior to this he was responsible for BBC Worldwide Audiobook’s emerging digital deals. His new role will see him develop and build commercial consumer websites that will deliver music and speech-based content around BBC output.

    Although based on archive material from stations such as BBC Radio 4 and BBC Radio 2, Davies’s commercial offerings will be distinct from anything available from the public service.

    Mukaddam, meanwhile, has been promoted to head commercial affairs, audio and music. Previosuly of Nabarro and Music Choice, he has been responsible for BBC Music’s Legal and Business Affairs for over two years, focusing on putting in place framework deals with record labels to open up the BBC’s vast archive of music programming.

    Mukaddam is now additionally charged with managing BBC Audio & Music’s Content Sales and Track Licensing business (which includes BBC Radio International), as well as taking responsibility for branding & marketing, label and artist relations.

    BBC Worldwide director of audio and music Paul Dempsey says, “I’m thrilled that Jon, Stephen and Salim are now in place to help me deliver on an ambitious, but thoroughly realistic, commercial growth strategy for our Audio & Music business.

    “With access to an archive and existing content as unrivalled as the BBC’s, including Top of the Pops, The Old Grey Whistle Test, the Electric Proms and Radio 1’s Live Lounge to name but a few, we aim to fully and uniquely capitalise on the huge appetite for this kind of special content from consumers.”

  • BBC launches season asking ‘Why Democracy?’ globally

    MUMBAI: The Why Democracy? season is a multimedia event – exploring the state of democracy in the world today – with the BBC at its heart.

    From next month, the season will run globally on TV, radio and online, on over 40 broadcasters, in over 200 countries and territories – a potential audience of 300 million people.

    In the UK, BBC Two, BBC Four, BBC World, BBC Parliament, BBC Radio 4 and BBC World Service will all run programming dedicated to the idea of democracy.

    Central to the season are ten documentaries, made by filmmakers from around the world, taking a wide-ranging and in-depth look at the nature of democracy. Subjects include US torture in Afghanistan, the election of a class monitor in a Chinese primary school, Che Guevara and the Danish cartoons controversy.

    Why Democracy? has teamed up with Metro Newspapers worldwide, and The Observer in the UK, to ask national leaders, celebrities and everyday people to answer ten questions about democracy. Their answers will appear online, in the press and in a series of short films. The same questions will be part of a global opinion poll.

    And people all over the world can join in the discussion on the web. A global film premiere on MySpace.com will launch the online debate. whydemocracy.net will host discussion forums, chat rooms, educational resources and interviews with key figures who have had a direct hand in shaping democracy.

    The ten films in the season include:

    Please Vote For Me: Weijun Chen’s comic but profound film charts the election of the class monitor in a Chinese school. At first all goes well, but soon the manipulation and dirty tricks start, posing the question of whether democracy could ever exist without them.

    Looking For The Revolution: Here Rodrigo Vazquez travels to Bolivia to see whether the idea of a revolution started by Che Guevara 40 years ago is still alive today. Evo Morales seems to be trying to keep revolution on the agenda, but others wonder whether it can ever actually happen.

    Taxi To The Dark Side: Dilawar, a young Afghani taxi driver, was arrested and tortured to death by United States forces in Bagram. Oscar-nominated director Alex Gibney provides a forensic account of how such abuses became possible, and finds a trail leading to the door of the White House.

    Bloody Cartoons: Life and livelihood were at stake when a small Danish newspaper chose to print a selection of cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad. Karsten Kjaer looks at the events that followed and travels the world to question the protesters and explore their motivations. Could the Muhammad cartoons have affected the future of free speech?