BBC Sets Out Wide-Ranging Plan For Its Digital Future
The BBC has set out a wide-ranging nine-point plan for its future in which it envisages everyone in the UK having access to a range of digital services that will transform the relationship between audience and broadcaster.
The blueprint for the BBC’s future was announced today by newly appointed director general Mark Thompson and chairman Michael Grade, who unveiled the Corporation’s defence of the licence fee and its arguments to retain its royal charter for another ten years.
Grade said: “I want a BBC that delivers wonderful programmes that offer something of value to everyone. Our task over the next year is to convince the British public that the BBC’s role in the new digital age of plenty is both justified and necessary.”
The plan forms part of the BBC’s submission to the Government, making the case for renewal of its charter in 2006 and includes five key points for modernising and streamlining the Corporation in the years to come. The key points include: building a digital Britain, a new test of public value, shifting investment and emphasis from London to the rest of the UK, a modernised licence fee and a reform of BBC governance.
Grade is proposing to introduce a new public value test that will govern what projects and changes within the BBC are given approval. Under the scheme, projects will only get the green-light once they have satisfied four key areas: quality, impact, audience reach and value for money.
Both Grade and Thompson said that they would continue to push for a BBC licence fee, but conceded that the Corporation must be made more efficient and increase its commercial revenues in order to avoid escalating public funding. Thompson also suggested that the level of the licence fee could be determined by an independent body.
The last point in the Corporation’s plan has already been touched upon by the BBC, which recently announced the creation of three new boards to govern its main creative, journalistic and commercial activities. The new boards will also streamline decision making and will be headed by Mark Thompson, deputy director general Mark Byford and finance director John Smith respectively (see Thompson Outlines BBC’s Future In Opening Speech).
The BBC’s radical reformation is clearly the result of last year’s Hutton inquiry which claimed the jobs of Greg Dyke and Gavyn Davies, as well as spawning a new training college for BBC journalists.
As the charter review process continues, a number of institutions and companies have been asked to submit proposals for the future of the BBC, with several calling for the break-up or privatisation of the Corporation.
Earlier this year former Five chief executive, David Elstein, called for the licence fee to be abolished and for rival broadcasters to be allowed funding to make public service programmes. His call has been echoed by ISBA, which used its charter review submission to call on the Government to stop the BBC using its ‘massive licence-fee funding’ to compete with commercial broadcasters.
Earlier today outspoken Wireless Group chief executive, Kelvin MacKenzie, lampooned the BBC on Radio 4’s Today programme, arguing that the Corporation should be dismantled. He said: “There are hundreds of TV channels and dozens of commercial radio channels, digital or otherwise. Why should we face going to jail if we do not pay £121 a year for TV and radio that is not required and could be paid for by commercial forces.”
On the subject of public service broadcasting, MacKenzie added: “Where does the word public service come in EastEnders, the Lottery or Strictly Come Dancing? They are called entertainment. Entertainment is supplied by lots of different outlets in the commercial world and can be supplied for nothing.”
BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk
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