Conservatives Call On BBC To Abolish Commercial Arm
Shadow Culture Secretary, John Whittingdale, has called on the BBC to scrap its commercial arm and franchise out the exploitation of its programme brands to outside companies.
Whittingdale reportedly urged BBC Worldwide to scale down activities and said he did not understand why the Corporation had launched ten magazines this year, published books, or launched its own record label.
According to the Times, he said: “I have serious doubts about the about the legitimacy of BBC Worldwide. Of course the BBC should seek to maximise its resources, but it should not necessarily be engaged in commercial activities itself.”
Whittingdale has established a committee under the chairmanship of former Channel Five chief executive, David Elstein, to draft a policy on the future role and funding of the BBC to be published next year.
He argued that the BBC should simply franchise out the right to capitalise on its most popular programmes and brands, such as Top Of The Pops and Antiques Roadshow. He also claimed there was a case for the BBC withdrawing from areas that are now well served by the market.
However, Whittingdale pointed to areas of BBC output that still provide a distinctive public service and should be retained, including BBC Radio 1, EastEnders and the Corporation’s two digital children’s channels, CBBC and CBeebies.
He also said that the BBC licence fee had become harder to justify in the modern broadcasting landscape, but emphasised that he would wait to review the report of the Elstein committee before deciding on any change to broadcasting policy.
Whittingdale’s comments come just weeks after Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, 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 (see Government Details Root And Branch Review Of BBC).
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