Government Details Root And Branch Review Of BBC

Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, has called the future role and structure of the BBC into question and has announced details of the most extensive “root and branch” review in the Corporation’s history.

Speaking at the Royal Television Society convention in Cambridge, Jowell signalled the start of a wide-ranging review that would “look afresh at the shape and purposes of the BBC” amid growing criticism over the role of its governors and its use of the licence fee.

The Culture Secretary vowed to examine every aspect of the BBC’s operations in a process that would be “open, fair and transparent.” However, she insisted the Corporation’s independence from Government would be preserved.

“We need to ask ourselves what we want and expect the BBC to deliver, what range and scale of services it should provide, how it should be positioned in relation to the market, how it should be funded and regulated and whether it delivers good value for money.” She said.

Jowell also announced the appointment of former permanent secretary to the Treasury, Lord Burns, as an independent advisor to help the Government draft a White Paper on the future of the Corporation.

The document will involve extensive consultation with the media industry and will be presented to Parliament “well before” the current charter runs out in 2006, so that the BBC and the industry have time to adjust to any change.

The review looks certain to ask difficult questions on whether the BBC has strayed from its public service remit into commercial areas. It will also examine the contentious issue of the licence fee, the abolition of which was previously described by Jowell as somewhere between “improbable and impossible”.

BSkyB chief executive, Tony Ball, recently unleashed the first volley in a number of attacks that will undoubtedly be directed at the BBC in the run up to charter renewal.

He argued that the Corporation should be forced to sell its most popular programmes, such as Fame Academy, The Weakest Link and Holby City, to rival commercial broadcasters and concentrate more on its public service obligations (see BBC Should Sell Its Most Popular Programmes).

DCMS: 020 7211 6200 www.dcms.gov.uk

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