IPA Report Deplores Aggressive And Commercial BBC
The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising has launched a withering attack on the BBC’s increasingly aggressive approach to programming and self-promotion in its submission on the Corporation’s Charter Review.
The advertising agency body’s document to the Department of Culture Media and Sport calls for the Government to reign in the BBC more tightly to its public service remit to complement rather than compete with the commercial sector.
It criticises the BBC’s decision to demote flagship news programmes like Panorama to Sunday nights, while mass audience offerings like Fame Academy and EastEnders have gained prominence in the broadcaster’s schedules (see IPA Attacks Increasingly Commercial Nature Of BBC).
The IPA has also joined the ranks of those demanding that the BBC’s board of governors be disbanded and replaced following the highly critical finding of the recent Hutton inquiry. It suggests that a board of directors similar to those at Channel 4 should assume responsibility for the Corporation’s operational decisions and strategy, with Ofcom assuming the role of independent regulator.
However, the industry body disagrees with proposals put forward by David Elstein’s Broadcasting Policy Group to break up the BBC and establish it as a subscription-based service. Instead, it supports the continuation of the Corporation as a single global brand and believes the licence fee is the fairest and most appropriate means for paying for the Corporation in the immediate term (see Tory Report Calls For Reduction Of BBC Licence Fee).
The IPA is also fiercely resisting any suggestion that the BBC should carry advertising as a means of alternative funding. It claims there is insufficient money in the market to support the Corporation alongside its commercial rivals and warns of a meltdown in the broadcasting ecology.
Jim Marshall chairman of the IPA’s media futures group, said: “We have enormous admiration for the BBC as an institution and force for good in the UK broadcasting ecology. This does not, however, blind us to the Corporation’s blatantly commercial approach to its activities over recent years – or the urgent need to drag it, kicking and screaming, back to an agreed, and much more limited, public service remit.”
Earlier this month research examining the BBC’s role following the Hutton enquiry revealed that almost 70% of people in the UK want fundamental changes to the way the Corporation is governed. Just 31% of those surveyed were found to support the continuation of the BBC’s annual £116 licence fee in its current form (see UK Viewers Call For Change In Way BBC Is Funded).
IPA: 020 7235 7020 www.ipa.co.uk
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