£ BBC Charter Review Public consultation 16 July – 8 October 2015 #yourBBC Contents Department for Culture, Media and Sport BBC Charter Review: public consultation Foreword Last year, as Chair of the Culture, Media now spending more time using media and to play its part within the wider and Sport Select Committee, I heard and communicating than sleeping,1 and Public Service Broadcasting and media evidence from a range of experts about are using mobile tablets and smartphones landscape. the BBC on the challenges it has faced and to stream live and ‘on demand’ video and the issues for its future. This has helped to audio content at the touch of a button. The BBC remains much-loved by establish what this Charter Review needs Yet this has not meant the ‘death’ of audiences, a valuable engine of growth to consider. As Secretary of State, I want television or radio – instead we have seen and an international benchmark for to hear from people all over the UK, so I the range of options increasing – with television, radio, online and journalism. can understand what this country wants new services complementing rather than It has showed this countless times over John Whittingdale from and for the BBC. usurping the old. Just because lots of the last Charter period: coverage of events Secretary of State for Culture, people are using the internet to access that bring us together like the Olympics; Media and Sport Ten years ago, the last time the video on demand, to stream music and television that entertains millions like Government ran a Charter Review, the to find out the latest news, does not Miranda, Sherlock and Bake Off or that media landscape looked very different. change the fact that today most people educates and informs like the BBC’s The BBC is at the very heart of Millions of households still received a still want to watch television when it is many world-leading nature and history Britain. It is one of this nation’s choice of just five television channels. broadcast, still rely on radio and still documentaries; award-winning radio, most treasured institutions – Facebook was yet to reach the UK, want to read newspapers. with half of adults in the UK listening to playing a role in almost all of our YouTube was only just being launched one or more of the BBC’s music stations and the iPhone was unheard of. When the 3 lives. The current Royal Charter, The BBC has adapted to this changing each week; the UK’s most popular Royal Charter came into force in January landscape. It was asked to lead the way website; and trusted news coverage that is the constitutional basis of the 2007 nobody could have predicted quite in the move to digital television, and relied upon at home and abroad, with the BBC, is due to expire at the end how the emerging technologies of the day has pioneered new services such as World Service reaching a global audience of 2016. This paper launches would end up shaping the way we use the iPlayer, which saw 3.5 billion programme of 210 million and continuing to play an the Government’s process of media and live our lives, nor the extent to requests in 2014.2 It has done this while important role in the way that the UK is consultation that will inform which some things would stay the same. continuing to provide programmes and perceived internationally.4 It has done this our decisions about the future services that we have come to rely on to while targeting £700 million of annual The explosion in the use of the internet inform, educate and entertain. We want savings through Delivering Quality First.5 of the BBC. and mobile devices mean that people are the BBC to continue to adapt and thrive, Department for Culture, Media and Sport BBC Charter Review: public consultation 1 Foreword But we also need to ask some hard these mainly involved historical events, at a time when budgets are tight both the way that we use technology, we also questions in Charter Review if we are to there have been editorial failings related in our homes and in public spending. On need to make sure the BBC is representing ensure the future success of the BBC, and to these revelations and in other areas. 6 July I announced that the Government the diverse communities across the indeed UK broadcasting. What should The BBC has also been criticised in this has agreed with the BBC that by 2020 UK given the changing face of Britain. the BBC be trying to achieve in an age period for its financial management it will no longer receive funding from the The BBC has responded to the need to where consumer choice is now far more and transparency. Pay-offs for senior taxpayer for free TV licences for over-75 produce more in, and better represent, extensive than it has been before? What executives and the growth in the number year-olds. We also need to modernise our nations and regions, but some suggest should its scale and scope be in the light of senior managers and size of their the licence fee to cover public service that it is too London-centric. And while of those aims and how far it affects others salaries have drawn criticism that the broadcast catch-up TV and will reduce the BBC has made positive steps in terms in television, radio and online? And what BBC has only recently begun to address. the contribution the BBC makes to fund of diversity and representation, we should are the right structures of governance The Digital Media Initiative (a major broadband roll-out. But I also made clear still be asking what more can be done. and regulation? The BBC is, after all, paid technology project) failed to deliver its that while the Government anticipates for by the public. So it is right that the objectives, or any product at the end, that the licence fee will rise with inflation, I believe the BBC can continue to thrive. public have the opportunity to say how despite costing licence fee payers £100 any decisions on the level of the licence But to do that it will need to evolve. This well they think it has spent the more than million.6 Governance systems have proved fee for the next Charter period will need to paper sets out the issues and some of £30 billion of public money it will have opaque and cumbersome. Lessons must be made in the context of the conclusions the options for how that might happen, received over this Charter period, and be learned in all of these areas if the of Charter Review relating to the purposes beginning the democratic process of how it should be paid for and governed BBC is to address the challenges of the and scope of the BBC, and the BBC consultation with the country. I want this in the future. future. Questions also persist around the delivering efficiency savings in line with to stimulate dialogue and debate over the distinctiveness of the programmes the other public sector bodies. And of course coming months as we map out the future It is important to recognise that there BBC delivers, and whether it uses its broad there are questions around what the for the BBC. have been a range of challenges over the purposes to act in too commercial a way, overall system of funding the BBC should course of the current Charter where the chasing ratings rather than delivering be in the medium and long term that we BBC has fallen short of the high standards distinctive, quality programming that need to address in this Charter Review. we should expect. The revelations about other providers would not. Jimmy Savile and other former BBC There are other challenges for the BBC in John Whittingdale celebrities brought to light appalling The way in which the BBC is funded is meeting the changing needs of audiences. Secretary of State for Culture, behaviour that went unchecked. While another hotly debated issue, particularly Our requirements aren’t just changing in Media and Sport Department for Culture, Media and Sport BBC Charter Review: public consultation 2 Executive summary The constitutional basis of the BBC The BBC is one of the great institutions of Why the BBC? This changed and changing media is the Royal Charter. This is due Britain. But to continue to thrive it must Mission, purpose and values landscape does, however, raise some to expire at the end of 2016. This continue to evolve. Charter Review will questions about how best to define the explore four areas of possible change: The BBC has changed considerably unique role of the BBC. One question that consultation paper therefore seeks over the nearly 100 years since it was is particularly important is how we can to engage the UK in a dialogue − Mission, Purpose and Values – what established. So too has the world in best understand the idea of ‘universality’. about the future of the BBC. the BBC is for, examining the overall which it operates. In the decade since the As more and more options become rationale for the BBC and the case for current Charter was introduced we have available for how audiences watch, read reform of its public purposes; arguably seen more change in the media and listen to content, the question of the − Scale and scope – what the BBC sector than in any previous decade – with extent to which the BBC should focus therefore should do, examining the an explosion in choice for audiences on providing programmes and services services it should deliver and the both in terms of the ways of accessing for all audiences, and on an equal basis, audiences it should be seeking to serve; content and the variety of providers.