Can the BBC please everyone?

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Under pressure: Mark Thompson faces the press By Torin Douglas Media correspondent, BBC News

The fallout from Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross's prank calls on Radio 2 highlights how difficult the BBC's job is becoming as audiences change.

When Mark Thompson became BBC director general four years ago, no one could say he didn't know what he was getting into.

His predecessor Greg Dyke had resigned after the Hutton Report and a damaging editorial row with the Government. And Thompson himself had spent 20 years in the BBC, including spells as editor of the Nine O'Clock News and Panorama, controller of BBC Two, and director of television.

Russell Brand resigned following the row over his showsHe left to become chief executive of Channel 4, where he accused the BBC of "wallowing in a jacuzzi of cash", a remark which came back to haunt him when he was offered - and accepted - its top job.

Mark Thompson said the BBC must change more radically than at any time in its history, to justify a new licence fee and cope with the digital revolution.

Thousands of jobs were to be cut, or moved out of London. When the BBC failed to get the licence fee it asked for - some blamed his negotiating tactics - further savings were needed.

'Rotten year'

A recent newspaper profile said "2007 was a rotten year for Mark Thompson, and the past 12 months have not been any better for the beleaguered BBC director general."

This was the Guardian - generally a supporter of the BBC, though increasingly a competitor too, through its website.

It listed some of the low points: "The future of the licence fee is in doubt; public service rivals are pitching for a share of the BBC's income; staff are in open revolt over unprecedented job and budget cuts; there is criticism over the amount of money it pays its biggest stars and the rampantly commercial ambition of BBC Worldwide; and the fallout continues from the row over the Queen's photoshoot footage and the various TV and radio deception scandals, such as the naming of the Blue Peter cat."

And this was before the row over Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross.

Yet the paper also noted BBC's strength under Mark Thompson, particularly compared with its commercial rivals, who face an advertising recession and growing competition, increasingly from the BBC itself.

Rude health

Strictly Come Dancing is a reminder of the BBC's traditional strengthsMany would say the BBC is in rude health - perhaps too rude. Its best TV dramas, comedies, and documentaries win praise and high audiences, as do its radio networks and new media ventures - the BBC website, the iPlayer, and Freeview, which it rescued from collapse.

It's reinvented Saturday night entertainment with Doctor Who and Strictly Come Dancing.

But the row over the behaviour of Brand and Ross, its highest paid star, on top of the programme scandals of last year - has shown the fragility of the BBC's compact with its licence-payers.

In trying to appeal to young audiences - who mostly support the pair, judging by the text messages Radio 1 has received - it risks alienating older ones, many of whom will object to this use of their licence money.

The BBC director general can never please everyone. But is there a danger in the fragmented, digital age, that he will end up pleasing nobody?