BBG's Lansing to Outline Agency Plans

New Broadcasting Board of Governors president and CEO John Lansing will meet those governors Oct. 8 when the board meets at the headquarters of BBG's Middle East networks in Springfield, Va.

It is the first meeting since Lansing joined BBG in August. He had headed CTAM since taking over for the retiring Char Beales in 2013. Before that he was the president of Scripps Networks.

In a conversation with Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Richard Stengel, Lansing is scheduled to outline his "thoughts and plans" for the agency, according to BBG.

BBG is the independent federal agency that oversees U.S. international media in 61 languages reaching 215 million. Those include Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Middle East Broadcasting Networks (Alhurra TV and Radio Sawa), Radio Free Asia, and Radio and TV Marti.

Lansing replaced Andy Lack, former NBC News chief and first BBG CEO, who joined the agency at the end of January, but exited in March to return to NBC News as chairman.

The board will also get a status report on its Middle East nets.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.