MGEITF 2006: BBC Must Resist Cross-Media Dominance

The BBC has been criticised for its attempt at cross-media dominance, with industry experts calling for the Corporation to resist turning into an enormous media conglomerate.

Key industry figures gathered for a Sunday morning Question Time style session at the MGEITF on the weekend. Martin Bell, the veteran BBC correspondent and former MP, was particularly harsh, claiming that full spectrum dominance is damaging, particularly for the organisation itself.

Bell said that “global dominance is a dangerous ambition”, whilst Conservative chairman of the Commons media select committee, John Whittingdale, was also highly critical, accusing the BBC of basing its bid for an inflation-busting increase in the licence fee on figures that have been “plucked out of the air”.

“[The BBC] says it needs £1.6 billion to cover increased base costs over the next seven years but has no rationale for those kind of specific figures,” he said.

Bell expressed concern that the BBC is crowding out other new media offerings, with some panellists expressing concern over the Corporation’s various activities, such as its magazine division. He also believes that the BBC should make its programmes available on whatever platforms its viewers want to see them. “It’s essential that the BBC is regulated by Ofcom on digital markets,” he said.

Whittingdale also felt that the Corporation’s dominance would make competition increasingly problematic and that the company’s ability for cross-promotion was “dangerous and potent”.

BBC policy, strategy, legal and distribution director Caroline Thomson defended the BBC, saying that she was pleased that the general consensus from the panel was that the BBC is imperative to the ever-mutable British broadcasting landscape, and admitted that a few years ago, this might not have been the case.

Whilst Les Hinton, executive chairman of News International, simply felt that the licence fee will become unsustainable, Thomson said that the licence fee was a direct incentive for the Corporation to serve the maximum amount of licence fee payers as possible, saying: “We’re competing for audiences but not for revenue with the rest of the sector and I think if those are the two principles we have to keep in mind for the next charter period, perhaps I will enjoy negotiating it.”

MGEITF www.mgeitf.co.uk