Keep broadcasting public - James Purnell MP

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Posted by James Purnell MP

James' Purnell's speaking notes for the 1 April conference are reproduced below.

Introduction

It’s a great pleasure to be here to discuss the BBC.

This may come as a shock to anyone who listens to Today or Newsnight but the government is a strong and constant supporter of the BBC, and has taken a number of decisions since 1997 that demonstrate that.

And that strength is down to the people who work for it – the people in this room.

It’s been a pleasure working with the BBC’s trades unions during charter review. Tessa, my predecessor Lord McIntosh and I have met with you eight times in 18 months and your views have strongly influenced us.

That’s why in the White Paper we say that the Trust will need to consult with the trades unions. Your voice will continue to be heard in the debate to judge its ongoing success.

In 2004 your TUC resolution recognised that “the BBC is the cornerstone of our public service broadcasting system”. We agree.

The BBC really is unique – with a place in our national life matched perhaps only by the NHS in terms of the affection and support is has amongst the public. Both institutions are built on the same principles of quality and of fairness.

But the BBC faces the tough test of adapting those values to changing markets.

The challenge for the BBC is for it to build on those foundations to develop a deep and broad public consensus over the benefits that spring from public investment in our media and that’s what I would like to talk to you about today.

Aim of BBC Charter Review

Throughout Charter Review, we’ve been flexible about the means to achieve our goals but not the goals – we’ve always been clear about our goals.

In trying to deliver that we’ve done two things. The first has been to make sure that the Corporation can keep step with technological change so it can serve licence fee payers even better.

The BBC has always kept pace with innovation. After all, it was set up to exploit a hot new technology – the wireless - and from the introduction of colour television to podcasting the BBC has been right at the cutting edge. Throughout its history the BBC has been able to act as a trusted guide.

Our second aim has been to reconnect the BBC with the public. If the BBC is going to remain relevant and requisite in an era when audiences can choose between a myriad of different services it must generate a consensus on the value that it creates. The best way for the Corporation to do this is to engage in a deep and sustained conversation with its licence fee payers.

Now we’ve also been clear that the public interest is not in a world where only the BBC thrives. One of the strengths of British broadcasting has the mixed ecology, with a good balance between public and private, commercial and public service.

Harking back or looking at the horizon?

When we published the White Paper earlier this month we received criticism in some quarters that we we’re standing like some modern day King Canute against the tide of technological change. We were urged to privatise the BBC in whole or in part, to move to a subscription or even to have the BBC funded in full or in part by advertising.

Critics said that by giving the BBC a ten year charter, funded by the licence fee we were ignoring technological change.

Now of course, we’ve been there before. In 1994, The Economist predicted that the BBC would be an anachronism by 2007.

Well, here we are in 2006, and that hasn’t happened.

Despite moving from a world when choice meant asking “what’s on the other side?” to one where 70% of homes have at least digital television and radio channels to choose from, the BBC still plays a central role in our lives. It reaches 95% of the population each month and enjoys a 75% satisfaction rate.

That’s the kind of public support that most businesses – and indeed politicians – envy.

We know technology is shaking the kaleidoscope of British broadcasting.

• There are now more homes subscribing to Sky’s pay-TV services than using analogue terrestrial as their main way of getting TV.

• 70% of people with personal video recorders skip the adverts.

• And there were over 13 million requests for broadband clips on BBC online every month, up 4 times on last year.

And if anything the pace of change is even faster than we thought. In just one year we’ve gone from talking about convergence to a world in which people are talking about convenience. The public are primarily interested in the convenience they get from new technology.

People are increasingly reading, watching and listening to what they want, when they want, where they want.

But, despite this level of change over the 10 years and the whole of its history, the BBC has remained at the forefront of technology. That’s because the BBC’s popularity is not a technological accident. It will not disappear on the whim of technological change. Its lasting popularity is due to the enduring mission to inform, educate and entertain, a mission that has served the public well throughout the BBC’s history.

The BBC has continued to deliver that mission over the last ten years by being prepared to change and in particular to find ways new technologies could create new ways of meeting licence fee payers needs.

That’s why we have given the BBC a stable regulatory and policy platform for the next ten years. Because we believe it can pull off that trick again – but that it is most likely to do so from a platform of regulatory stability, where it is not constantly being second-guessed by politicians.

The White Paper

The White Paper sets out how we’re putting those guiding principles into practice.

Governance

Our desire to see a strong BBC independent of Government meant that the Corporation’s system of governance had to change.

The Board of Governors was set up to provide oversight for a single radio station. Clem Atlee once remarked that the British are particularly good at putting old wine into new bottles. That what we have done with the Board of Governors over the years.

But realistically, today that system was close to breakdown. For too long the BBC Governors have been both defendant and jury – acting as court of appeal as well as cheerleading the BBC management.

We received significant support for our plans to abolish the existing board of Governors and replace them with two new bodies: the BBC Trust and an Executive Board. I was pleased that support included the trades unions.

And we agree with you that the membership of the Trust needs the right blend of expertise. Not the Great and the Good, but the varied and the good. Its about having people appointed because of their ability and they must represent the country as a whole.

I know you were cautious about our proposal that Ofcom should conduct the market impact assessments as part of the new Public Value Test.

We did think about it in details and concluded that Ofcom did have the right expertise to assess the market impact and significant changes to existing services.

BBC Role and Purposes

The original Reithan purposes of “inform, educate and entertain” are still central today but, as we set out in both the Green and the White Paper, in today’s complex world the BBC needs a more comprehensive framework of principles. The White Paper sets out the BBC’s rationale in the five new purposes.

They are:

• To sustain citizenship and civil society

• To promote education and learning

• To stimulate creativity and cultural excellence

• To reflect the UK, its nations, regions and communities

• And bringing the world to the UK and the UK to the world

And a sixth special purpose of Building Digital Britain. I’ll talk more about Digital Switchover in a minute, but I’d like to say now that we agree with you “entertainment” is essential to fulfilling the BBC’s mission.And at the same time you should be able to tell BBC content apart from other services available because it is high quality, challenging, original, innovative and engaging.

It’s this double helix of purposes and characteristics that is the BBC’s digital DNA.

Regional production (Manchester)

Like you we agree that thriving production centres bring jobs and growth to the regions. The BBC has a responsibility to ensure that the benefits of the licence fee are felt far beyond the capital and all around the country.

We’ve confirmed the importance of regional production in the White Paper and I welcome, in principle, the BBC’s proposal to increase production in Greater Manchester.

WOCC

Now I know you had concerns about the Window of Creative Competition – known as the WOCC - and its impact on the BBC’s in-house production and, in particular on research and training.

I want to reassure you that we take these concerns very seriously. As we say in the White Paper we want the BBC to continue as “a publicly-funded broadcaster of real scale”. This was against the views of several, who urged us to raise the mandatory independent quota and turn the BBC into a publisher broadcaster like Channel 4.

In practice, there will be a 50% guaranteed in-house production quota - a level that will enable the BBC to continue to be the bedrock of the UK’s production base.

And the 25% window really is one of competition. It will be there for BBC in-house producers to compete for as much as those outside the BBC.

Creative Industries

We want the licence fee to act as venture capital for creative talent and no-where is this clearer than in the BBC’s investment in training and research and development.

We’re already a world leader – we export the second largest number of TV programmes after the US – and I believe the investment through the licence fee in research and training is a vital part of that strength. It will continue to be crucial over the lifetime of the Charter.

In last week’s budget the Chancellor set out that our future economic prosperity lies in innovation and high-skill sectors - like the media industry.

The economy’s need for high skilled workers is set to rise from 9 million today to 14 million by 2015. And securing the relevant qualifications is set to become even more important than it is today. By 2020 42% of all jobs will be filled by those with at least degree level qualifications – a 4.5 million increase on today – while unskilled jobs will not be growing at the same rate.

Employment in the highly skilled audiovisual industries alone is forecast to increase to almost half a million people by 2010.

That’s why the White Paper confirms the BBC as having a role of real scale in continuing to train and invest in the UK’s media workforce.

The independent production sector is also an important part of the UK’s creative base. The sector is rightly praised for its innovation but it is also responsible for some of our most successful exports like Jamie’s School Dinners, Spooks and Have I Got News for You.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to emphasise the role of the independent sector in training and research. They already play an important part in nurturing young talent but as the sector grows, that role will need to continue to grow too.

DSO

So broadcasting is a key sector of Britain’s future economy. But for that potential to be realised, Britain needs to be at the forefront of broadcasting technology. That’s a fundamental reason the government has got a firm timetable for digital switchover.

We’re already a world leader in digital television. Over 70% of homes have digital television and 2.5 million sets - the highest annual number so far - were connected last year. And we believe that is due partly to the announcement on the timetable that Tessa Jowell made in September last year.

As you may know, the Select Committee published their report into digital switchover this week and I welcome their contribution to the debate.

I’m pleased that the Committee commended our decision to switch over and backs our plans to start the switch in two years time.

I’m pleased that there’s now a broad consensus that switchover has to happen. And we do appreciate the extent of the task ahead, which the Committee set out.

The question is now how to make switchover happen in a way that is both systematic and fair; particularly for the most vulnerable. We think that the BBC can and should play an important role supporting that switch.

As I’ve already said the BBC has consistently led from the front when it comes to technological change. And that’s why we included the special purpose of building digital Britain. We want the BBC continue its role as a trusted guide to new technologies.

And that’s why we think its right that the licence fee should play a part in switchover. I know some will disagree with this, indeed the comments in the Select Committee Report raised this. But it is a broadcasting cost, and the licence fee has always been a way of delivering broadcasting policy objectives.

And it is therefore right to use the licence fee, as switchover will bring real benefits to the BBC, it will mean they will no longer have to broadcast on analogue and digital and will bring BBC services to the 25% of people who are paying for them. This was acceptable in the short to medium term but not in the long term.

Funding

Now the perennial question for broadcasting policy across the world has been how best to fund broadcasting. The UK has operated a unique system of mixed funding and I think that’s brought considerable benefits.

We agree with you that the licence fee remains the best way to fund the BBC and the next major milestone will be the decision on the level of the licence fee to apply from April 2007. Work on the funding review to analyse the BBC’s future funding needs is well underway and we will be making an announcement on the future level of the licence fee later in the year.

I can’t say any more today about the likely level. But I can say that the process will be the most open and robust ever. For the first time, we will shortly be publishing the findings of the independent consultant’s report.

And also for the first time, there will be an opportunity, including a seminar, for stakeholders to give us their views about those findings and their understanding of where the BBC’s funding needs are.

We very much want the trades unions to be part of that discussion.

And as Tessa set out on Thursday we will also be carrying out unprecedented public consultation on the level of the licence fee to ensure that the public’s view has a material impact on the final judgment we make on the level of the fee.

And as was made clear in the White Paper the independent National Audit Office will be responsible for monitoring those efficiency targets that we eventually set, a guarantee to the public that they will be looked at over the next Charter period.

Conclusion

We don’t know how the UK’s media landscape will evolve over the next ten years. I believe the White Paper gives us the best chance to ensure that there will be a strong BBC delivering high quality content for licence fee payers in 2016.

With the White Paper we’ve put in place the framework for the BBC to meet the challenge of building public consensus on its future. Now it’s over to them – and to you.

Thank you.

DATELINE: 25 January, 2010

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