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The BBC under threat
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be the first to commentPosted by Francis Balfour
The current cry is: “Is the BBC in Crisis?" The response tends to be that it is always in crisis. The crises that one is in the middle of – Jimmy Saville, executive pay and expensive IT write-offs – always seem worse than the crises of the past.
But it was clear from this year's Vouice of the Listener and Viewer (VLV) Spring Conference: 'Moving towards a new Era in Broadcasting: what does it mean for listeners and viewers', held on 1 May, that the BBC is facing far more serious threats than the normal recurrent crises. It is endangered by the current freezing of the licence fee and by possible future reductions in funding.
Professor Steven Barnett, University of Westminster, chaired an afternoon session: 'Is the BBC in Crisis?' at the conference. During the session Patrick Barwise, Emeritus Professor of Management and Marketing, presented a complex study entitled 'What if there were no BBC Television? the Net impact on UK Viewers'* written jointly with Robert C Picard and published by the Reuters Institute. It examines the assumption, made by the Treasury and others, that the BBC is crowding out other producers of programmes. The brief introduction to a 94-page document1 states that if there were no BBC television “the net impact would vary but most viewers would suffer a reduction in both choice and value for money" and concludes:
“None of the BBC's critics want it to be abolished overnight but many want it scaled back without providing any evidence that a smaller BBC would be better for the public. Our analysis suggests the opposite.
Nor is the idea of the market without the BBC just a theoretical abstraction. On the contrary it is the logical conclusion of the current 'salami slicing ' policy – freezing the BBC licence fee and diverting more and more of it to fund activities and organizations other than the BBC's UK services while the rest of the market grows. If this policy continues (or even accelerates, as some are advocating) within a generation the BBC will be reduced to a minor sideshow, the UK equivalent of PBS in America."
In the same session Professor Jean Seaton pointed out that there is public policy acceptance that the licence fee can be used for purposes other than the BBC. She also emphasized that the BBC is the only broadcaster that makes programmes for English children.
Tim Suter spoke of governance 'going through a process' - there needs to be more distance between the BBC and those responsible for it - and stressed that more battles for top slicing the BBC licence fee in favour of other PSBs were likely.
David Liddiment also spoke on governance, stating that a body is needed to ensure that the BBC stays honest in its objectives and produces services of real value to the public.
Earlier in the day James Purnell, Director of Strategy and Digital – BBC, had pointed out that the precedent has already been established that the BBC can be asked to use the licence fee for more than making programmes: switch over to digital, super-fast broadband, in addition to taking on the costs of the World Service: SC4 and local television.
Caroline Thompson, Chair Digital UK, explained that Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT), known as 'Freeview' is also at risk. it is threatened by the salami slicing of the spectrum available for television. 10% of the spectrum is now marked as either for TV or mobile, even though it is currently allocated to broadcast. If too much spectrum is lost there is a risk that Freeview would be switched off.
In the final session. 'Pay Television's contribution to quality and diversity', Sophie Laing, Managing Director for Content, BSkyB, stated that though BSkyB's heartland is in the underserved areas of sport and movies it is now progressing towards making a contribution to British creative industries: comedy, drama and arts. It aims, she said, to produce great British content.
In a presentation which sounded remarkably like a BBC spokesperson enumerating successful programmes in justification of the licence fee and the BBC's existence. she listed some flagship programmes: Doll & M, which was resold to HBO, An Anglo-French drama, 'The Tunnel', based on 'The Bridge', Dracula, and a 50,000 contribution for Sky Arts and the South Bank Show. She mentioned partnerships and cinematic drama, and a medical drama. (It is interesting to note that she worked at the BBC from 1998 to 2003, ending her career as Acting Director of Television. She then launched Sky Atlantic in 2011.) She claimed that BSkyB was providing the fastest source of investment in British drama: £600 million a year in content by 2014 with the intention to continue that until 2016.
In response to a question from the floor she acknowledged that the focus has to be return on investment: a myriad of different measures are included in that because pay TV is about subscription and volume. They cannot make content on the cheap. The listeners might have concluded that without the BBC we would be paying more for a restricted range of programmes – programmes that appeal to, or are only affordable by, those who can afford to pay without consideration of those with low incomes.
It was clear from the conference that reduction in spectrum available for television may destroy DTT and that the gradual accumulation of freezing, or reducing increases to, the licence fee, combined with commercial competition and the placing of increasing demands on what it is used for, will eventually virtually destroy the BBC.
1The full 94 document can be found at HYPERLINK “https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk" https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk and there is a useful Executive Summary.
DATELINE: 30 September, 2014
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