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Roger Mosey - BBC Director, London 2012

Listed below are comments made by Roger Mosey - BBC Director, London 2012 between Friday, 30th October 2009 and Sunday, 29th November 2009 (22 Hours Ago) .

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Setting out our ambitions for 2012 10:33am on 29 Nov 2009 D_M_N in #9: it's a good question. But Olympics, like World Cups, are known events that we can plan for. So in setting long-term budgets within the BBC, we factor in the extra costs for sport and events around the major landmarks. The overall BBC income from the licence fee remains the same, of course; but the expenditure on the Olympics can be balanced by savings elsewhere. For instance, BBC One won't need to spend anything else on its peak schedule on July 27th 2012 because the whole evening will be taken up by the Opening Ceremony.

#10: I'd spotted Foxes don't like Monkey. The explanation of how that came about is in a very good blog by my colleague Ollie Williams:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/olympics/2008/05/monkeys_journey_begins.html

My point about 2012 is simply that these are designed to be Olympic Games for the 21st century and reflecting modern Britain. So we'd want our titles and music to capture that spirit.

But I understand the point you and digitalscoobiedoo in #11 are making about innovation. (If you haven't followed the HD debate, you can find it here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/bbcinternet/2009/11/points_of_view_and_hd_picture.html)

What we're planning is pretty straightforward:
*As much of London 2012 as possible in HD
*Super HD will be a very small scale experiment - just to show the technical capabilities - and will not be available via a domestic TV
*Similarly with 3D: I've simply said it would be a shame not to at least capture some of the action in 3D for the archive.

There are two points here: (1) we want London 2012 to support technical innovation and drive the new digital era; and (2) we want to "future-proof" some of the content so that it can be viewed by audiences when the new technologies have become mainstream. Best example of what I mean by this is the World Cup Final in 1966 was only covered by television in black and white - even though colour television technology existed and coverage began at Wimbledon in 1967, only a year later. So we don't want London to miss out on innovation.
Setting out our ambitions for 2012 11:54pm on 26 Nov 2009 Thanks for the comments. Trying to pick up the main points:

Jauntycyclist in #1: I think the difference in 2012 is that there are so many different big events that there'll be plenty of variety both in what audiences can choose to watch and in how we promote it.

Bluehaggis in #2: What we aim to do is offer first-hand reporting. We want our viewers and listeners to feel like they're there, and that's often achieved better by having presenters on location rather than in a studio. But we keep a keen eye on costs because budgets are finite.

JMH in #3: kind words much appreciated. There'll be lots of build-up around the competitors: Olympic Dreams reappears on BBC One in 2010 and we have hopes of a global version too. Then nearer the time we'll have guides to all the sports as well as practical information about how to enjoy them in London 2012.

Rjaggar in #4: spot on about public service broadcasting, I reckon.

George Matthews in #5: good idea and we're thinking on those lines. However, there are rights issues - some of our events can't be put online - and we also have a major digitisation project to get underway. But fingers crossed...

D_M_N in #6: there will be a balance to be struck between people who want build-up (like JMH) and people who don't. We're going to concentrate on landmark programmes and events, so it won't be just about volume; and there will be non-Olympic zones across some of our services. But worth saying that all the tracking research shows that levels of interest are very high in (for instance) Northern Ireland, and as I go round the country I find plenty of enthusiasm well away from London.

Not sure why you think the F1 budget is disappearing, because it isn't. And BBC Sport is funded for major events like World Cups and Olympic Games, so their budget is higher in big years like 2010 and 2012 than in 2011 or 2013. Wimbledon will still be a jewel in the crown in 2012 - and we will, of course, have the added bonus of Olympic tennis from SW19 too.

FoxesofNuneaton in #7: yes, the BBC hold Olympic rights for tv, radio, broadband, mobile and on-demand within the UK. We're not anticipating any problems with our friends from NBC, and the swimming will revert to its normal place in the schedule with finals in the evening peak schedule.

But while we agree about it all being fantastic - and a moment of royal history - we're going to have to disagree about Monkey. And sorry to disappoint you but there's no chance of us going retro for a theme tune: it will be something that captures the spirit of 2012, not the 1970s...
How important are big sports events to a country's identity? 1:16pm on 17 Nov 2009 FoxesofNuneaton in #6: I haven't seen any nicknames for the Stadium yet, but I see what you mean. And good to know you're enthusiastic: Birmingham has done particularly well in attracting the big teams.

Snowy_ajw in #8 and TheTomTyke in #9: I couldn't really add to those comments because they capture the spirit the BBC 2012 team finds around the UK. And Tom - you're right that sporting success is a pleasant alternative to some of the gloomier news we're surrounded by.
How important are big sports events to a country's identity? 10:41pm on 16 Nov 2009 Thanks for the comments so far. Working backwards:

Steel-city-blade in #5 - well, that sums up the case for big events. A lot of the people I meet, especially younger ones, say what you do. I don't think there's going to be any problem selling the 9m tickets for the Olympics...

Stracepipe in #4 - same applies. And I agree that some of the arguments against major events lack a sense of how much pleasure a big sporting moment can give people.

Admiralandrea in #3: thanks for the link about the Somerset intiative. I hadn't heard of it either and it sounds really interesting.

Rjaggar in #2: I always enjoy your contributions, and you make the case for Manchester very powerfully.

JimClark07 in #1: the point about the UK's games is a good one. There's definitely a creative tension between the focus on London as a host city and the aim of representing all parts of the UK - and I think this is going to become a significant debate in the coming months. It's something I'll return to soon here.
Vancouver lights the way for London 2:18pm on 15 Nov 2009 Brekkie - thanks for the interesting points as ever. On Freeview: ultimately the solution is around IPTV, and my colleague Erik Huggers was setting out some of the possibilities there last week:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/nov/13/bbc-digital-media-canvas-iptv-future-media
Vancouver lights the way for London 9:38pm on 13 Nov 2009 Andrew - on the Winter Olympics point, I asked Dave Gordon (head of major events for BBC Sport) to spell out what's planned. He says:

"All the big Skiing & Snowboarding events will be live on BBC 2 and BBC HD in the evenings, UK time, with more live coverage on both channels from late evening right through the night, featuring events such as the Figure Skating, Curling, Bobsleigh & Skeleton and Short-Track. The best of the overnight action will also be available on both channels for a couple of hours after lunch the next day. The red button and broadband streaming will, as usual, provide even more coverage. Overall, this will be our biggest ever Winter Olympic offering."

Hope this helps. On HD in general, the amount of BBC production will continue to increase - and for London 2012 we expect to deliver considerably more HD content than ever before.
2012 preparation hots up 00:11am on 06 Nov 2009 The story rjaggar refers to on the BBC website is here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8343784.stm

And you can read Visit London's response here:
http://www.visitlondonmediacentre.com/press_releases/press_release/visit_london_dismisses_report_on_tourism_and_the_olympic_games
The time for making decisions has arrived 5:46pm on 31 Oct 2009 I know there were people from LOCOG at Dame Shirley's concert...
2012 preparation hots up 5:27pm on 31 Oct 2009 Grafix135 - yes, there's a discussion underway about possible coverage on BBC platforms. Details will follow next year from BBC Sport.

Supercharybdis - I agree with you. There should be upbeat reporting when there's good news to tell. What I was trying to say was that I don't think there should be a single, imposed BBC view; and our news and sport correspondents rightly operate independently from me and the 2012 project team.

While I'm writing - interesting comments from Seb Coe today: http://www.insidethegames.biz/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7731%3Acoe-london-2012-will-be-here-in-the-blink-of-an-eye&catid=1%3Alatest-news&Itemid=73

And if you want a slightly different take from me on 1000 Days, I've written a blog in the BBC's new "About Us" section: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/aboutthebbc/2009/10/1000-days-and-counting.shtml
2012 preparation hots up 3:08pm on 30 Oct 2009 FairplayOldie - interesting comments. But actually I don't want the BBC to sing from the same song sheet, because it's important we preserve the independence of our reporting. I'd expect colleagues in BBC News to take a robust approach to issues around the Games, and that may at times not be comfortable for the organisers or even for ourselves. But it's important we represent all opinions, much as we corporately want London 2012 to be a success in the same way as you.

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