The BBC's future, our response

A lot of the Government's recommendations are welcomed in the Campaign's response to the Charter White Paper - 'A Public Service for all: the BBC in the digital age’. But in some important respects, it's a missed opportunity. Like the NUJ, webelieve that the BBC should be sustained in the future as a major in-house provider of public service content for all of its platforms, and that it should continue to develop across emerging platforms. But we argue strongly against submitting public service broadcasters to commercial priorities, in particular against the proposed extension of Ofcom's role.

Introduction to CPBF

The Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom (CPBF) was launched in 1979 to campaign for diverse, democratic and representative media. It has the support of 20 national trades unions and numerous regions and branches, constituency Labour parties and individual members. The CPBF has been concerned with issues of broadcasting policy since the mid-1980s. The BBC’s internationally recognised reputation for high quality news and current affairs and a range of other programme strands (drama, nature, etc) is extremely important. The BBC also plays a vital role in UK cultural and political life. We therefore welcome the opportunity to respond to the DCMS white paper on BBC Charter Review.

The CPBF has engaged with ongoing consultations concerning Ofcom and the BBC and together with the NUJ and others have mounted two major conference on issues around the renewal of the BBC Charter and public service broadcasting (5 March 2005 on the Green Paper and 1 April 2006 on the White Paper addressed by James Purnell MP minister for Creative Industries and Tourism).

Comments

CPBF draws attention to the detailed submission on the White Paper from the NUJ and would particularly emphasise the following points:

1.  We welcome the commitment to a strong and independent BBC as part of a public service broadcasting ecology, but argue that

a. it should be clear that this commitment will continue after analogue switch off

b. the wider ‘ecology’ of public service broadcasting –including all commercial channels- should be actively promoted by Ofcom. This has been the essential context in which both the BBC and the commercial channels have been able to thrive

c. there is a general lack of sustained discussion in the White Paper on equal opportunities and minority programming provision. The BBC needs to have a much stronger commitment to these areas and they should be stated more explicitly.

2. The draft Charter places six new ‘public purposes’ at the centre of the BBC’s remit, while the BBC’s traditional role of providing ‘education, information and entertainment’  -in interaction with each other- is relegated to second place. We feel that this may allow the BBC to be seen as the provider of ‘public service’ only. It could imply that the BBC should be confined to a limited range of programmes, leaving those which attract large audiences for the commercial broadcasters. Such a division would unbalance the broader, public service ecology. We argue that the BBC’s commitment to its wider aim should be re-affirmed.

3.  We welcome the commitment to the funding of the BBC by licence fee for the next ten years.  However we feel that the costs of digital switch over should not be funded from the fee, as this would represent a subsidy for the commercial channels. Digital switch over benefits the whole broadcasting industry, not just the BBC, and should be funded from general taxation.  The BBC is likely to be strongly criticised for raising the licence fee, even though this substantial cost is a requirement that has been placed on it by the government.

4.  The CPBF strongly opposes any future proposal to ‘share’ the licence fee with other channels.

5.  We argue that it is inappropriate for Ofcom to assess the ‘market impact’ of BBC initiatives: 

a. Such predictions are likely to be both speculative and, by definition, unfavourable to the BBC’s aims.

b.  Balancing ‘market impact’ against ‘public value’ is not comparing like with like

c. In the longer term, the implications of this proposal are that Ofcom’s commitment to de-regulation and a communications market place are likely to undermine the BBC’s broad remit, as well as its place at the centre of a wider public service broadcasting ecology.

d. The BBC, like its commercial competitors should be subject to competition law and the Office of Fair Trading, but not to a special regime of scrutiny by Ofcom.

e. We note the lack of evidence that the BBC is ‘competing unfairly’ in market terms. We argue that competition for quality and innovation has, in the past, spurred both the BBC and the commercial channels in all programme genres.

6.  There are serious problems associated with the requirement that the BBC commissions up to 50% of its programme output to independent production companies (the so called ‘window of creative competition’).  The problems include:

a. the role of the BBC as a training organisation and a seed-bed for talent.  Training is virtually non-existent in the independent sector.  An increase in the programmes commissioned from outside the BBC would mean that the BBC is unfairly funding training for broad swathes of the industry.

b.  ‘Independent’ production companies are no longer the small and struggling creative voices they were when the sector first campaigned for an outlet. Many of them are large commercial businesses, driven by profit, and often with poorer employment practices (including equal opportunities policies) than the BBC.

c.  Especially in current affairs and similar factual programming, there is concern that the values of a well established team may not be maintained and nurtured.

d.  The BBC’s in house production may be reduced to a few well established genres, such as natural history, sport and serials, leaving little spare for in-house innovation and creativity across the genres.

7.  The BBC has already sold off many key resources, including BBC Broadcast.  Effectively these measures could amount to a creeping privatisation of the BBC.

8.  The BBC Trust.  The separation of the new Trust from the Executive Board is welcomed. However the CPBF is concerned that the membership of the Trust should be wider and more accountable than the Board of Governors, and should include both those experienced in broadcasting and representatives of viewers and listeners. In addition there should be trade union representation on the Trust. Members should also be able to devote a reasonable proportion of their time to this important role.

Conclusions 

The CPBF, like the NUJ, believes that the BBC should be sustained in the future as a major in-house provider of public service content for all of its platforms, and that it should continue to develop across emerging platforms. Equally, it believes that opportunities of independent, innovative and creative thought and work can only be fostered in this environment. The BBC should also be one of many public service providers and the whole sector, Ofcom included, should be governed in a more accountable manner. It is not the role of public service to second-guess the market. It is the role of the public services to work for the wider public interest. To this end the CPBF supports a strong BBC, made more accountable and transparent to the public and free from the corrosive influence of commercial priorities as exemplified by the proposals to put Ofcom at the centre of the Corporation’s activities.

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Campaign for Press and Broadcasting Freedom

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