Policy Exchange calls for radical changes to television industry
The Policy Exchange, a key right-wing thinktank, has called for the BBC Trust to be abolished and for Channel 4 to be privatised.
In a controversial new report into Public Service Broadcasting (PSB), the Policy Exchange has made a number of recommendations to change a system that it calls “worryingly out of date”.
The ‘Changing the Channel’ report, which the Policy Exchange said is “a case for radical reform of the Public Service Broadcasting in the UK”, calls for the BBC to place quality before ratings and stop “spending huge resources” on sports rights, programmes for young people and popular entertainment.
In addition, the report said the BBC should spend up to 5% of total licence fee income on co-funding PSB programmes on other channels, instead of “crowding out commercial schemes”.
Under the heading “Reforming the BBC”, the report proposes that a level of contestability to BBC resource allocation is introduced, the corporation focuses its assessment of new and existing services on quality and differentiation rather than reach, the BBC Trust is abolished and replaced with a BBC Joint Board, and finally, that a Public Service Content Trust is established to promote PSB across all platforms.
However, the BBC is not the only focus of the report. The Policy Exchange also suggests that ITV1 and Channel Five should be allowed to opt out of the PSB system after 2012 – two years before their contracts end but after the digital switchover.
As for Channel 4, it should remain a PSB but be allocated more access privileges and be privatised, according to the Policy Exchange. The report said C4 should be privatised in 2012 but retain a PSB licence for at least 10 years. In addition, the broadcaster should receive most of the proceeds from the privatisation if it remains a PSB.
The report also suggests that C4 should receive extra digital capacity from ITV and the BBC, and should be granted cross-promotional and linked access to BBC services such as the iPlayer and Project Canvas (the BBC’s joint venture with ITV, BT, Five, Channel 4 and TalkTalk to make VoD services such as the iPlayer available on television sets via a set-top box).
The Policy Exchange proposals would also revive talks about a merger between C4 and Five “under a more relaxed ownership and competition regime”.
Finally, the report said the incoming Telecom Tax should be dropped. “The need for £3.5 billion to build out high speed internet infrastructure to the whole UK is not yet proven but if the need does materialize, it should be funded out of general taxation.”
Mark Oliver, author of the report, said: “The current UK broadcasting system was set up in the 1950s and now struggles to keep up with the extraordinary changes of the digital age. It is clear that the 20th century analogue institutions that were created are now worryingly out of date. We need a dramatic rethink if we are to continue to deliver public service broadcasting in an entirely new age.”
Anna Fazackerley, editor of the report and head of the Policy Exchange’s Arts and Culture Unit, added: “The UK needs to prepare a new system of public service broadcasting. We now have the ideal opportunity to address it as a whole – without waiting until 2014 which is the timescale the Government is largely operating on.”
In response to today’s report, Channel 4 said: “Channel 4 welcomes [the report’s] recognition of Channel 4’s role as the key source of public service competition to the BBC. But we oppose privatisation and remain firmly of the view that our publicly owned, not-for-profit status is the most effective means of ensuring that Channel 4 can continue to play the public service role that the report so strongly endorses.”