The culture secretary, John Whittingdale, has launched a “root and branch” review of the future of the BBC.
Speaking to the House of Commons on Thursday, Whittingdale said the government needed to “consider the overall purpose of the BBC, what services it should provide, how it should be funded, and how it should be regulated”. In the charter review document (pdf), he outlined the details of these four considerations as:
- Mission, purpose and values – what the BBC is for, examining the overall rationale for the BBC and the case for reform of its public purposes;
- Scale and scope – what the BBC therefore should do, examining the services it should deliver and the audiences it should be seeking to serve;
- Funding – how the BBC should be paid for, examining not just future potential funding models but related issues, such as how best to enforce payment;
- Governance – how the BBC should be overseen, examining options for reform of the current trust model alongside other governance issues.
Within these goals, Whittingdale announced the following:
- A subscription model could be a long-term funding option for the BBC, but not a short-term one because not all households have the suitable technologies for this. In the short term, a reformed licence fee, household levy or a hybrid model should be considered.
- While an independent report on the decriminalisation of licence fee evasion found it would not be appropriate under the current funding model, it will be considered as part of the review.
- The iPlayer loophole, whereby people can watch BBC programmes online without a licence fee, should be closed in the coming years, and the government will bring in legislation to do this.
- The BBC trust model needs to be reformed. Options include creating a unitary board, a standalone oversight body, or a third-party regulatory body, such as Ofcom, each of which have “pros and cons”.
- A decision has to be made about whether the BBC continues trying to do “all things” or takes on a more “precise” mission in terms of output. BBC programmes should be distinct, and the corporation should not have the same imperatives as commercial companies, such as trying to maximise audience share. The review will consider both the “mixture and quality” of the programmes broadcast by the BBC as well as how they are produced.
- All options will be considered for reforming the BBC’s commercial operations, including full or part privatisation of BBC Worldwide.
