BBC Restructure to Address the Digital Age

The BBC has announced plans for a major reorganisation of its management structure in order to ‘address the strategic challenges of the digital age’. The plans will allow the the BBC to strengthen its existing channels and create additional digital services for the licence payer.

At the heart of the new structure is the separation of broadcasting from production and the creation of a single national and international news operation. Announcing the changes John Birt, BBC Director General, said that by making the separation the BBC was ‘creating the world’s largest broadcasting production powerhouse’.

The new organisation structure’s six major components are :

• BBC Broadcast to schedule channels and commission services for audiences at home and abroad.

• BBC Production to develop the BBC’s in-house radio and television production capability across all genres and media and achieve a step change in efficiency.

• BBC News to be responsible for an integrated national and international news operation across the full range of BBC news and current affairs services.

• BBC Worldwide to be responsible for generating commercial income at home and abroad, and for the World Service.

• BBC Resources to provide the facilities and expertise to service and support BBC programme makers and broadcasters.

• The Corporate Centre to provide key strategic services to the BBC as a whole.

At the same time as endorsing the above changes the Chairman and Board of Governors have also asked John Birt to continue in his role for another four years.The new structure will be fully implemented by 1^st April 1997.

…A row has also developed over the BBC looking into the possibility of using the controversial Private Finance Initiative scheme to raise funding for its digital plans. The PFI is a private company which raises loans for public bodies and there has been criticism that any dealings between the PFI and the BBC would amount to an under-handed kind of privatisation.

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