BBC Rolls Out Live-Broadcast Protocols for BAFTA TV Awards
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- BBC is deploying new live-broadcast safeguards for Sunday's BAFTA TV Awards, the public broadcaster's biggest test since the Film Awards where Tourette's campaigner John Davidson involuntarily shouted a racial slur that aired uncensored.
- The production contract for both the BAFTA Film and TV awards expires after Sunday's ceremony, raising questions about whether host Penny Lane will return; BAFTA, the BBC, and Lane all declined to comment on the contractual situation.
- The BBC's Executive Complaints Unit review mandated protocols including "pre-event assessment of potential on-air risks, mitigations and escalations" and an internal recommunication of the process for removing offensive content from iPlayer.
- An edited version of the BAFTA Film Awards has not been reinstated to iPlayer and is unlikely to ever return, though BAFTA has provided a sanitized cut to international partners so the broadcast remains accessible outside the UK.
- Alan Cumming, who hosted the Film Awards, publicly blamed "bad bad bad leadership" for the debacle and confirmed he will not return to host the ceremony.
- The new protocols were quietly tested at the recent Comic Relief broadcast and will be deployed again for tonight's live coverage of David Attenborough's 100th birthday celebrations.
- BBC staff are reportedly anxious about the ceremony amid 2,000 announced layoffs, with new Director General Matt Brittin taking over just eight days after the awards conclude.
Why it matters: The BAFTA TV Awards double as a credibility checkpoint for the BBC: a second live-broadcast misstep would amplify criticism during a period when 2,000 layoffs loom and new Director General Matt Brittin arrives days later, while the simultaneous expiry of the BAFTA production contract opens the door to a wholesale change in how the ceremonies are produced and who hosts them.
