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Matt Brittin

Executive

Director-general of the BBC, previously a Google executive.

Notable Quotes

"The scale of savings requires tough choices, careful work and won't all be ready at once."
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"We can and should be doing as much as possible on [enforcing] licence fee collection under the current model, but it's yesterday's model, it's a busted flush, it's no longer fit for purpose, and that's why we need to make the case for the BBC and a shift of the licence fee model."
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"I think that's one of the great things about the 100-year history of the BBC, we can do that, and we can creatively renew content and shows that people love, and we'll be working hard on that right now."
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"the licence fee system itself is a 'busted flush'"
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"a moment of real jeopardy, not just for the BBC but for public service broadcasting and the UK as a whole"
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"On the financial side, I knew that cuts had been announced and that savings had been announced, but I hadn't really understood the severity."
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"You've got very loud critics, many of whom are the commercial rivals of the corporation and you've got political pressure on everything that you do journalistically."
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"We moved to dismiss the case on the grounds of jurisdiction in that nobody in the US actually saw the show with the bad edits, and it was a bad edit, and he won the election, and he's got richer."
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"the scale of savings requires tough choices"
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"We can't guarantee any programme or channel forever."
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"The tight financial situation means that we're having to look at some of those decisions a bit sooner than we might like."
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"If most of an audience is getting things on demand, we have to look at the value and the cost of all of those different services."
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"We want to experiment with this technology and understand what it can and can't do, but I'm here because I believe in human creativity."
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"I think the BBC and our apps and services should be the antidote to the algorithm."
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"Her warmth, spirit and fight for justice and action that we saw on our screens continued long after the programme ended."
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"She brings a clarity of vision for the future, and the determined, collaborative approach needed to strengthen BBC News."
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"I would like to thank Jonathan Munro for his professionalism and leadership of BBC News in the past 11 months."
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"we wouldn't guarantee any programme or any channel will exist forever."
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September 25, 2026

BBC drops Drag Race UK after eight series

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September 9, 2026

BBC director-general says he was not aware of 'severity' of cuts needed

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