INTRODUCTION BY MARK THOMPSON THE CREATIVE PERSPECTIVE THE FUTURE ROLE OF PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE DAVID ATTENBOROUGH STEPHEN FRY WILL HUTTON THE CREATIVE PERSPECTIVE THE FUTURE ROLE OF PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING First published 2008 Copyright © 2008 Premium Publishing The moral rights of the authors have been asserted. All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved Front cover photography: above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, Sir David Attenborough: stored or introduced into a retrieval system or © JonnyThompson Photography transmitted in any form or by any means without Stephen Fry: © MJ Kim the prior knowledge and written permission of the Will Hutton © JohnWildgoose copyright owner and the above publisher of the book. Photography 2005 ISBN 0-9550411-8-X Photography: © Dipak Gohil Photography A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Design by: Loman Street Studio Premium Publishing www.lomanstreetstudio.com 27 Bassein Park Road London Printed by: W12 9RW The Colourhouse www.premiumpublishing.co.uk www.thecolourhouse.com THE CREATIVE PERSPECTIVE THE FUTURE ROLE OF PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING EDITED BY GLENWYN BENSON AND ROBIN FOSTER PREMIUM_Publishing CONTENTS Foreword 6 MarkThompson Introduction 10 Glenwyn Benson and Robin Foster THE BBC LECTURES 1.1 Sir David Attenborough 24 1.2 Stephen Fry 38 1.3 Will Hutton 56 1.4 The Debates chaired by KirstyWark 70 THE WIDER CREATIVE COMMUNITY 2.1 BBC Survey of the Creative Community 100 SimonTerrington 2.2 Contributors’ Comments 138 Roy Ackerman, Denys Blakeway, Lorraine Heggessey, Nigel Pickard, John Smithson THE IMPACT OF NEW MEDIA 3.1 Broadcasting, the Internet and the Public Interest 150 Robin Foster and SimonTerrington MARK THOMPSON Director-General BBC MarkThompson is Director-General of the BBC, and as such is Chief Executive and Editor-in-Chief of the BBC and chair of its Executive Board. Mark became Director-General in June 2004, and has successfully steered the BBC through its ten-yearly Charter Review process, securing Licence Fee funding for the BBC for the next six years. Mark was a major author behind ‘Building PublicValue’, the BBC’s strategy manifesto for the digital age, and the Creative Futures project, a far-reaching editorial blueprint for BBC programming and services to meet changing audience expectations. During Mark’s time as Director-General the BBC has launched new platform trials in on-demand programming including the on-line iPlayer and podcasting, as well as mobile and high definition television. Before re-joining the BBC, Mark was Chief Executive of UK broadcaster Channel 4, a post he had held since December 2001. His earlier BBC career had spanned 20 years including the significant roles, in chronological order, of Editor of BBC One’s Nine O’Clock News, Editor of BBC One’s current affairs flagship Panorama, Head of Features, Head of Factual Programmes, Controller of BBCTwo, Director of National and Regional Broadcasting and finally Director ofTelevision. Mark was born in London on 31 July 1957 and was educated at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire, England and Merton College, Oxford University. FOREWORD FOREWORD Creativity is the point of the BBC. Our audiences expect it. Our services demand it. And, at our best, we live by it. Nobody knows that better than the contributors to this book.As well as being outstanding practitioners, they are people who have thought deeply about what makes for great broadcasting and who have strong views about its future.Alongside, we have conducted a survey of a wider group of leading producers of content, some of whom have also contributed short essays. All broadcasters depend on the health and vibrancy of the wider creative community (producers, presenters, artists, and writers) and at the BBC we have welcomed the opportunity to invite this group to contribute their views on the future of public service broadcasting, as part of our response to the regulator Ofcom’s second review of public service broadcasting. Our survey found that there are sometimes striking differences between producers’ experiences and views on the future of PSB and the issues confronting it depending on which genres they were providing, for example drama, comedy, or factual. But they also have many things in common.They are driven by the viewers’ demands for challenging and entertaining programming, for a more responsive approach to broadcasting, but one that above all encourages creative risk taking.They are also informed by a continued strong belief in the importance of public service broadcasting values, and the contribution those values make to the strength of the UK creative sector, and its unique characteristics. You would expect Stephen Fry, Will Hutton and David Attenborough to have different answers in the debate on the role of PSB, and they do!Yet they discuss their ideas with a similar approach – embodying the best principles and ideals of the past, but open to the 7 THE CREATIVE PERSPECTIVE creative opportunities of the future and the new digital technologies. This book is a snap shot of a debate that continues on the BBC website. In broadcasting nothing stands still and if you are creative, and have views on how we and other public service broadcasters could serve the public better, let us know. 8 FOREWORD 9 ROBIN FOSTER Robin Foster is an adviser on economic, policy and strategic issues affecting the communications sector. He is currently chief adviser to media strategy consultants Human Capital, and an independent member of the Government’s ConvergenceThinkTank. He ran the Global Communications Consortium research programme at London Business School from January 2006 to March 2008. Until August 2005, Robin was Partner, Strategy and Market Developments and member of the Executive and Policy committees at Ofcom, where he ran the annual strategic planning process and directed the programme of research and analysis for Ofcom’s first review of Public Service Broadcasting. Previous positions include director of strategy at both the IndependentTelevision Commission and the BBC, and head of the telecoms and broadcasting consulting division at consultants NERA. Robin’s publications include his January 2007 report on Future Broadcasting Regulation, commissioned by DCMS. As research fellow at Bournemouth Media School in 2000-2002, Robin led a programme of research into the future of television in the UK (“Future Reflections”). GLENWYN BENSON Glenwyn became Creative Lead of the BBC’s Response to Ofcom’s Public Service Broadcasting Review in January 2008. Prior to that she was Controller, Knowledge, where she had overall executive responsibility for delivering Knowledge programmes, including Learning, and driving the use of the full range of multimedia possibilities. She began her career in broadcasting at LondonWeekendTelevision, working on The London Programme and documentary features. She became Deputy Editor of current affairs programme WeekendWorld before joining the BBC as Editor of OnThe Record.In1992shewas appointed Editor of Panorama. In 1995 She went on to run BBC’s adult education, Science department, and the Specialist Factual department. She won the RTS 2008 judges award. INTRODUCTION INTRODUCTION Overview Ofcom launched its second review of public service broadcasting (PSB) in April 2008 with some big issues on the agenda, not least a vision for the future of PSB and the mechanisms that might best be suited in future to securing PSB alongside the BBC.As part of the BBC’s contribution to the Ofcom Review, we have commissioned a selection of essays, research and analysis which aims to discuss PSB’s future from a broad range of creative and expert perspectives. Our contributors were chosen to include those who work at the heart of the broadcasting industry and who for many represent the public face of PSB. We also include the results of an in-depth survey of leading programme makers – CEOs of independent production companies and broadcaster production leaders, and a future-oriented essay on broadcasting and the internet. Our contributors were entirely free to say what they wanted, with no obligation to stick to a BBC line or policy, nor to respond to policies floated by others in the industry. Our aims were to look again at the concept of public service broadcasting, what it is for and whether it is still important, and then to examine how it might develop in future.The creative community, as well as meeting broadcasters’ concerns to capture key demographics, is passionate about the purpose and quality of content, and its value and contribution to broad public aims.On the way, we take an illuminating tour of the early days of PSB, identify many of the key aspects of PSB that are worth holding on to in future, look at the challenges ahead, and discuss some of the options for securing PSB in a rapidly changing world. Among our three lecturers and among the wider programme- making community we surveyed, there is widespread and profound support for and faith in the purposes and the future of PSB, as defined by Ofcom: understanding the world, supporting UK culture, reflecting 11 THE CREATIVE PERSPECTIVE the diversity and different parts of the UK, and promoting knowledge. David Attenborough reminded us of the unchanging value of these purposes. Looking back to his early days in television, he said “We thought too that we could play a key role in modern democracy, by enabling a stockbroker in Surrey to understand what a fisherman in the north of Scotland might be feeling – and vice versa.We would be able to broaden horizons.” “Among our three lecturers and among the wider programme- making community we surveyed, there is widespread and profound support for and faith in the purposes and the future of PSB, as defined by Ofcom.” A broad definition of PSB, not a narrow one, was unanimously supported. As Stephen Fry said, “No one but the BBC could have made Blackadder, especially after the expense and relative failure of the first series.