The BBC has apologised for the misleading way that its flagship current affairs programme Panorama edited a speech by President Trump. It says it has no plans to rebroadcast it but does not accept that there is a basis for a defamation claim. The President has threated to sue the corporation for at least a billion dollars in damages.

Lawyers for the BBC have responded to a letter received from a law firm acting on behalf of President Trump, who has nevertheless told reporters: “We’ll sue them for anywhere between $1 billion and $5 billion”.

Samir Shah, the chair of the BBC has separately sent a personal letter to the White House, making clear to President Trump that he and the corporation are sorry for the edit of the President’s speech on 6 January 2021, which featured in the programme.

During his address, the President told supporters: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators and congressmen and women.”

The Panorama episode, produced by an independent company October Films, cut this together with a clip taken from more than 50 minutes later in the speech, so the President appeared to say: “We’re going to walk down to the Capitol and I’ll be there with you. And we fight. We fight like hell.”

The programme was broadcast in the United Kingdom on 28 October 2024, just days before the 2024 United States presidential election.

In a statement on the BBC web site corrections and clarifications section it says the Panorama programme, Trump: A Second Chance? was reviewed after criticism of how the speech was edited.

“During that sequence, we showed excerpts taken from different parts of the speech,” it states. “However, we accept that our edit unintentionally created the impression that we were showing a single continuous section of the speech, rather than excerpts from different points in the speech, and that this gave the mistaken impression that President Trump had made a direct call for violent action.”

It adds: “The BBC would like to apologise to President Trump for that error of judgement. This programme was not scheduled to be re-broadcast and will not be broadcast again in this form on any BBC platforms.”

In its response to the lawyers for President Trump, the BBC set out five main arguments that it did not accept it was defamatory.

Firstly, it said the BBC did not have the rights to, and did not, distribute the programme on its channels in the United States and when it was available online it was restricted to viewers in the United Kingdom.

Secondly, it argues that it did not cause harm as the President was subsequently re-elected.

Thirdly, it suggests the edit was not designed to mislead or done with malice.

Fourthly, the edited speech was not meant to be considered in isolation.

Finally, an opinion on a matter of public concern and political speech is heavily protected under defamation laws in the United States.

Even if the apparent defamation is legally defensible, what is indefensible is that it has allowed President Trump to brand the BBC as “fake news” and seriously undermine its claim to impartiality and trust.

It seems that it is not the first time that a BBC current affairs programme has misleadingly edited this speech.

On Newsnight in 2022 there was a similar juxtaposition. On that occasion a former White House chief of staff immediately observed that it had taken a line from later in the speech.

Whether or not this ever comes to court, it seems extraordinary that the BBC managed to turn an egregious error of editing judgement into a crisis that has claimed another resignation of its most senior executive at a critical time for the corporation.

www.bbc.co.uk

The global active installed base of connected televisions will reach 1.1 billion by the end of 2025. If it continues to grow at the same rate if will overtake the number of households on pay television platforms by 2027. The projections were shared by Orphélie Boucaud of Dataxis at the annual HbbTV Symposium, which was held in Istanbul this year.

The active installed base of televisions connected to the internet was about 1 billion in 2024 and is expected to be 1.1 billion by the end of 2025. Projecting that forward, it is likely to reach 1.2 billion in 2027, matching the number of homes with pay television subscriptions.

While pay-television homes are expected to remain the same through to the end of the decade, as they continue to grow in some territories while in decline in more mature markets, the number of active connected televisions is expected to rise beyond 1.4 billion by the end of the decade.

Globally, online video subscription revenue has already overtaken that for pay television, as has advertising revenue for video sharing platforms, while other online video advertising revenue has overtaken the level of public funding for television.

In Europe, online video subscriptions now account for 24% of total television and video revenues of $164 billion, followed by subscription television at 23%, public funding at 18%, television advertising at 18%, online video sharing platforms at 13%, and other online video advertising at 4%.

Dataxis estimates that Samsung has 19% of the market share for connected television devices and displays, followed by LG with 11%, TCL with 8%, Hisense with 7%, and Fire TV with 7%. Other platforms account for nearly half the market, which is highly fragmented.

dataxis.com
www.hbbtv.org

The number of homes in the United Kingdom with access to an online video subscription service has remained relatively static at 20.5 million homes, or just under 70%, led by Netflix at just under 60% of homes. The proportion of subscribers taking the advertising tier has risen over the last year, with advertising on online video subscription services now becoming a more substantial competitor to commercial television channels.

The quarterly establishment survey from the audience measurement organisation Barb showed a slight dip from a total of 20.6 million homes with access to an online video subscription service, compared to the last quarter.

The number of homes in the United Kingdom with access to Netflix was unchanged at 17.6 million or 59.5% of homes. 6.1 million of them, or 35%, were on the advertising tier, up from 5.5 million, or 20.8%, the previous quarter.

13.6 million homes, or 46.0%, had access to Amazon Prime Video, down slightly from 13.7 million the previous quarter. 87% of them were on its advertising tier.

7.5 million homes, or 25.4%, had access to Disney+, down slightly from 7.6 million the previous quarter. 30% of them were on its advertising tier, up from 28% the previous quarter.

Paramount had 3.3 million homes, or 11.1%, which was unchanged on the previous quarter but up from 2.8 million in 12 months.

Discovery, with 3.2 million homes, 10.7%, was up from 3.0 million the previous quarter, but the same number as a year before.

Apple TV, at 2.8 million, or 9.6%, was up from 2.7 million the previous quarter and 2.5 million a year before.

NOW, from Sky, had 2.0 million homes, 6.8%, up slightly on 1.9 million the previous quarter but down on 2.1 million the previous year.

Doug Whelpdale, head of insight at Barb, said: “With overall SVOD subscriptions largely flat, it’s interesting to see continued growth for the ad tiers of Disney+ and Netflix. Compared to a year ago, the Disney+ ad tier has almost doubled in size, while that for Netflix has increased by 60%.”

www.barb.co.uk