New BBC Trust chair Rona Fairhead has appeared to back management’s controversial decision to close the BBC3 TV channel but denied an MP’s accusation that she had “gone native in record time”.
Fairhead said BBC director general Tony Hall’s decision to take BBC3 online only was “in and of itself” a good idea even though the trust is yet to receive detailed proposals about the axing of the 11-year-old youth channel.
Her fellow trustee David Liddiment, who also gave evidence to MPs on Tuesday, said there was a “widespread view that the trust was not fit for purpose” and admitted there was a “faultline in the way that the trust was set up”.
Fairhead, making her first public appearance since succeeding Lord Patten last month, said: “The idea of moving BBC3 and making it online in and of itself is good.
“We haven’t done our final review of BBC3. It’s a really difficult challenge. [Younger viewers] are certainly watching very differently, typically they watch on the go,” Fairhead told the Commons culture, media and sport select committee.
Fairhead praised the BBC’s efficiency drive and programmes such as David Attenborough’s latest BBC1 natural history epic, Life Story.
Tory MP Philip Davies said he was “alarmed” that Fairhead appeared to have gone into the job thinking the BBC was wonderful and now thought it was even more wonderful.
“Have you gone native in record time?” he asked her.
She replied: “Absolutely not. I don’t think I have gone native, I don’t ever intend to go native.
“You have to recognise good quality programming where it exists. I am very clear in the role that the trust has in representing the licence fee payer. Where we think there has been a mistake or a wrong turn we will clearly say so.”
Fairhead said it was important to challenge BBC management and in-house production about how the new-look BBC3 would work because “online is different”.
She said there would be “more focus online, and catch-up television” which “appears to be a way the younger audience will use the BBC” but added: “We are there to address needs and wants of all licence fee payers.”
Labour MP Paul Farrelly, another member of the select committee, expressed disbelief that Hall, having announced plans to close the BBC3 TV channel in March, still had not submitted a formal detailed proposal to the BBC Trust.
Liddiment said the proposal was “imminent” and it would be published in full by the trust as part of a public consultation around its closure.
He added: “No one is going to do a back door deal around BBC3.”
The decision to close the TV channel prompted a groundswell of protest including BBC presenters such as Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw, comedian Jack Whitehall and presenter Richard Bacon. An online petition to save the channel has so far collected more than 260,000 signatures.
The trust’s review of the BBC’s TV channels earlier this year concluded that BBC3 had “yet to establish itself as an online destination” among younger viewers.
Liddiment said the trust had acquitted itself “clearly not very well” in recent years during a series of crises including the Jimmy Savile scandal, the £100m Digital Media Initiative fiasco and controversial payoffs to former senior staff.
He said there was a “widespread view” that the “trust is not fit for purpose. Whether that is fair is a separate issue.”
He added: “What is clear, there was a fault line in the way the trust was set up that I think we only properly came to grips with quite recently. That was getting granular and very specific about responsibilities.”
Later in the hearing, Fairhead revealed she has received two letters in relation to the Nick Pollard report, commissioned by the trust into the Savile scandal and the subsequent Newsnight crisis, published in 2012.
The trust was forced to return to the report last year after Pollard expressed regret, in an interview secretly recorded by a journalist, that he had not included a reference to a letter from lawyers representing the then BBC News chief, Helen Boaden. But Pollard said the conclusions of his report remained the same.
Fairhead did not indicate anything about the content of the letters but added: “They have made assertions which we will look into.”
The former Financial Times chief executive rejected the idea of a subscription model replacing the licence fee and called for the BBC’s funding to be set in stone in the new licence fee deal for the next 10 years.
“I think 10 years is a sensible amount of time,” she said. “It gives you some creative freedom, flexibility and the ability to plan a little. Five is too short, 15 people might feel a bit uncomfortable with.”
Committee chairman and Tory MP John Whittingdale asked about the contentious use of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act to collect the TV licence fee.
“Do you think it’s appropriate that the BBC uses the powers under Ripa to chase people who are failing to pay the licence fee, a piece of legislation designed to tackle serious crime and terrorism?” he asked.
Trust director Jon Zeff said he was “not familiar” with the specific powers Whittingdale referred to.
“The BBC and TV licensing will use the proper powers that it has,” he said. “If there are particular concerns or complaints that things are happening that are either inappropriate or shouldn’t be happening within the law, then there is a system for managing those complaints.”
Zeff added: “I think it’s right for TV licensing to use the appropriate range of powers that are available to them.”
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