Beyond the M25: a BBC for All of the UK
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Beyond the M25: A BBC for all of the UK Jana Bennett OBE Director of Vision, BBC Speech to the Royal Television Society 15 October 2008 The Commonwealth Club, London Thank you so much for coming along this evening to hear about our plans for the BBC outside of London. I am not the only American to recognise what is so precious about every part of this country. It was Bill Bryson in Notes from a Small Island who observed: ‘Can there anywhere on earth be, in such a modest span, a landscape more packed with centuries of busy, productive attainment?’ This American would like to see more attainment from every part of the UK reflected in network television production. And I am delighted to say that is exactly what the BBC is going to do. Our intention is nothing less than changing the very DNA of the BBC to bring the production of programmes closer to the audiences we serve. That means permanently increasing the production and commissioning of programmes in other parts of the country. More than ever before, it will be a BBC for all of the UK. The extensive programme that we are embarking on will boost jobs and the creative industries across the UK for both in-house and independents. There are those who doubt that moving resources on a serious scale can be achieved without jeopardising creative quality. Those that think at regional and national centres of excellence cannot possibly be sustainable. They are right to appreciate the scale of the challenge but wrong in their conclusions. Jana Bennett: BBC Beyond the M25 Page 1 of 14 The plans are ambitious, certainly. But creative quality and sustainability are precisely what the strategy is designed to achieve. BACKGROUND TO ‘OUT OF LONDON’ Let me start by explaining why we are embarking on such a far-reaching undertaking. If you think making more programmes out of London is something the BBC has been talking about for quite a while, you are of course right. The fundamental issue is how to achieve one of the BBC’s key public purposes, namely to represent the UK to itself. We are determined to ensure that people in every part of the country have a sense of themselves on screen. And, in the process, to spread the Licence Fee more equitably. Of course the Nations and Regions have always been a fundamental part of the BBC. We have always had real strength in depth in terms of radio, television and in more recent times the web in the Nations and Regions. And the Nations and Regions have always made many great Network shows. But there is much more to it than that. The transformation that we are about to undertake will refresh the way network programmes are commissioned and produced, the voices we hear, the local faces and lives we see reflected on our screens. The case for action by the BBC is stronger than ever because of the chill winds blowing through the UK broadcasting industry right now. In the last few weeks we have seen how ITV has retreated further from its traditional role as a regionally networked broadcaster. We would nevertheless welcome partnerships with ITV and Channel 4 to join us in developing the creative clusters that are at the heart of our strategy. I’d like to add my own commitment to production across the UK. I may live in the South East but I do not regard myself as a southerner, a Metropolitan type or even the woman from the south coast where I partly grew up. I don’t stand for a BBC of either the South or the North. I embrace diversity. I recognise its value. Jana Bennett: BBC Beyond the M25 Page 2 of 14 My own history with the BBC was forged by my early regional experience as a news trainee with Look North and Radio Sheffield. It taught me there is no substitute for being there. That is another reason why I have a real commitment to taking the BBC to the nations and regions of the UK. Not just news but across the whole spectrum of programmes. To seizing the opportunities of having different creative voices on our airwaves – both in terms of ethnicity and regional voices. Since we set out the case for renewal of the BBC Charter we carried out a full scale review of the supply of network television programming. We are now implementing its recommendations, which have been approved by the BBC Trust. The Trust challenged us to be ambitious and last November the Chairman unveiled the stark contrast in approval around the UK. It approved the Executive’s recommendation for a new target for Out of London of 50% by 2016. We pledged to achieve growth in the Nations from the 2007 figure of 6% of network spend to 17% by 2016, with an interim target of 12% by 2012, and in English Regions the growth will be from 26% now to 33% in 2016. We have made it clear that the 17% target for the Nations is a floor not a ceiling. The latest step will add up to nothing less than a radical shift in the whole set-up of broadcasting. To achieve it our strategy is to develop ‘creative clusters’, built around a more sustainable set of production centres across the UK. Each of the centres is a hub stimulating the creative economy across a wide region. We recognised that our historic definitions of network production out of London were too broad to underpin sustainable production. Instead we have opted for the Ofcom definition for Nations production, which provides a straightforward measure of production spend and where creative teams work. Moving to the Ofcom definition means that more hours ‘count’ in the Nations economy. For example it adds in around 1,500 hours of daytime programming each year. The definition now includes all the hours across our schedules with the exception of News which effectively means we will put even more production hours outside London. Daytime is a fantastic place for developing talent and formats, and of course for healthy audiences. Much of BBC Birmingham and Endemol’s business was founded on it, for instance. And Jana Bennett: BBC Beyond the M25 Page 3 of 14 Daytime is important for sustainability, providing returning volume and an environment where both formats and talent can come to the fore. OPENING UP CREATIVE OPPORTUNITIES All this adds up to a massive entry of new hours into the creative economy for Nations to compete for. This new policy will ramp up our spend right across this Charter period until 2016. And we have voluntarily shifted to a measure with much greater depth. It is important to understand that we are not starting out from Year Zero, however. We have been on this road for a while. The commitment is there in steel, glass and concrete in the shape of BBC Scotland’s fantastic new digital broadcast centre at Pacific Quay in Glasgow and the major new centre under construction at MediaCityUK in Salford. Both new centres are models for the kind of outward-looking, partnering BBC that makes a virtue of its roots and connections across the UK. Based on the Ofcom definitions, the proportion of spend outside London has increased by 4.5 percentage points over the two years to 2007, which equates to a 15% growth in spend. Last year we spent £300m outside London. Growth will take place in both the Nations and English Regions. Both independent and in-house sectors will benefit. In order to deliver these commitments 50% of the WOCC (Window of Creative Competition) will have to come from outside of London. We have set out guideline percentages for the proportion of network spending in each of the Nations by 2016. Although these are not formal commitments, and may vary year on year, they are indicators that the BBC Executive and BBC Trust will monitor closely. We’ve planned on the assumption that the current licence fee settlement continues. All this is only possible because we have the ability to plan for the long term – one of the most important benefits of the Licence Fee. In Scotland, Network spend is planned to at least meet the population level by 2016, increasing from 3.3% currently to around 9%. The same thing will happen in Wales, where spend will increase from 2.6% to around 5%. And also in Northern Ireland, where it will go up from 0.4% to around 3%. Jana Bennett: BBC Beyond the M25 Page 4 of 14 Growth in the Nations will not come at the expense of the English regions, which we expect to account for one third of Network production by 2016. And London will still account for just under 50% of Network production. CREATIVE SUSTAINABILITY AND HOW TO ACHIEVE IT With finite resources, the crucial issue is how to achieve creative sustainability. If you want to source network television from across the UK you need to establish sustainable creative centres, each capable of developing and delivering a flow of network- quality ideas over the long term. We know that a scatter gun approach is not the answer. You can’t just share out all the money. Giving each centre a major entertainment series to make won’t turn them into sustainable centres of entertainment production. The money would be spread too thinly to have any sustainable impact. Instead we are building strategic centres of expertise, location by location, focusing on hiring the right talent in each centre, developing the talent that already exists and getting the development process right, with appropriate levels of funding made available to our commissioning teams there.