MINUTES OF THE BBC TRUST MEETING Held on Thursday 21 October 2010 in the BBC Trust boardroom, Great Portland Street, London Present: Michael Lyons Chairman Chitra Bharucha Vice-Chairman Richard Ayre Trust member Diane Coyle Trust member Anthony Fry Trust member Alison Hastings Trust member for England Patricia Hodgson Trust member Rotha Johnston Trust member for Northern Ireland Janet Lewis-Jones Trust member for Wales David Liddiment Trust member Mehmuda Mian Trust member Jeremy Peat Trust member for Scotland In attendance from the Trust Nicholas Kroll Director, BBC Trust Unit: Phil Harrold Head of Secretariat and Governance Items 153 – 159, Kate Atkins Senior Adviser, Secretariat and Governance 160.5 – 167 Alex Towers Head of Finance, Economics and Strategy Items 153 – 159, Mark Wakefield Head of Performance 160.5 - 167 Items 153 – 159, Mark Devane Head of Communications 160.5 - 167 Items 153 – 159, Fran O’Brien Head of Editorial Standards 160.5 - 167 Items 153 – 159, Steve Pollock Head of Audiences and Marketing 160.5 - 167 Items 153 – 157, Jon Cowdock Head of Strategy 160.5 - 163 Items 153 – 155, Alison Bexfield Chief Financial and Compliance Adviser 161 Items 158 & 159 Alison Gold Chief Adviser, Performance Items 164 & 165 Gareth Barr Senior Strategy and Policy Adviser From the Executive: Items 160 – 164 Mark Thompson Director-General Items 160.5 - 164 Mark Byford Deputy Director-General Items 160 – 164 Caroline Thomson Chief Operating Officer Items 160.5 - 164 Zarin Patel Chief Financial Officer Items 160.5 - 164 Jessica Cecil Head of the Director-General’s Office Item 163 John Smith Chief Executive, Worldwide Item 163 David Moody Director of Strategy, Worldwide Item 163 Anna Mallett Controller, Business Strategy Item 163 Roly Keating Director, Archives Item 164 Tim Davie Director, Audio & Music Item 164 Will Jackson Head of Strategy, Audio & Music Item 164 Alix Pryde Controller, Distribution AGENDA 153 Chitra Bharucha and Janet Lewis-Jones 154 Minutes and matters arising 155 Committees and Audience Councils 156 Director’s report 157 Strategy review: draft conclusions 158 Television service reviews 159 Red Button service review 160 Director-General’s monthly report 161 Executive finance report 162 BBC One HD 163 UKTV update 164 Digital radio strategy 165 Items for approval 166 Items for noting 167 Business handling and communications 153 CHITRA BHARUCHA AND JANET LEWIS-JONES 153.1 The Chairman opened the meeting by thanking, on behalf of the Trust, Chitra Bharucha for her service as Vice-Chairman and Janet Lewis-Jones for her service as National Trust member for Wales. Dr Bharucha also served as Acting Chairman from November 2006 to May 2007. The terms of Dr Bharucha and Ms Lewis-Jones would end on 31 October 2010. 154 MINUTES AND MATTERS ARISING 154.1 The Trust approved the minutes of its meeting held on 23 September and its conference held on 29 and 30 September as accurate records of proceedings. The Trust approved the publication of the minutes with no redactions. 154.2 The Trust noted the matters arising from previous meetings. 155 COMMITTEES AND AUDIENCE COUNCILS 155.1 The Trust noted the reports from each of the committees and Audience Councils. The chairmen of each committee and council updated members on the major outcomes of their respective meetings. 155.2 The Chairman of the Editorial Standards Committee noted the publication of the new BBC Editorial Guidelines on 12 October 2010 following approval by the BBC Trust. 155.3 The Chairman of the Strategic Approvals Committee reported that Ofcom had announced that it would not open an investigation into YouView (formerly know as Project Canvas) under the Competition Act following complaints made by Virgin Media and IP Vision. 155.4 The Vice-Chairman provided an update on a recent conference held with the Audience Councils. During the conference members of the Trust’s advisory bodies, the Audience Councils for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, had discussed issues around portrayal and citizenship. 156 DIRECTOR’S REPORT 156.1 The Director, BBC Trust presented his report, which provided an overview of activity undertaken by the Trust and previewed the key issues to be considered by the Trust at the meeting. 156.2 Trust members discussed the BBC funding settlement under which the licence fee would remain at £145.50 until the end of March 2017. As part of the settlement the BBC would be required to provide funding for some additional broadcasting activities, including the BBC World Service, BBC Monitoring and a contribution towards a new partnership arrangement with S4C. They agreed that the Trust’s final conclusions on the BBC strategy review should guide the BBC’s approach in the light of the funding settlement. 156.3 The Director, BBC Trust noted that the new member for Wales, Elan Closs Stephens, would join the Trust on 1 November 2010 and that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport was seeking applications to the post of Chairman, to succeed Sir Michael Lyons whose term would end next year. 156.4 Trust member Jeremy Peat provided an update on pensions issues, in his capacity as Chairman of the BBC Pension Trust Fund. 157 STRATEGY REVIEW: DRAFT CONCLUSIONS 157.1 The Trust’s Head of Finance, Economics and Strategy presented draft conclusions on the BBC strategy review, together with the findings of the Trust’s public consultation and audience research that had informed those conclusions. The Trust had published its interim conclusions on the strategy review in July. 157.2 Members welcomed the structure and approach of the final conclusions document and endorsed the focus on: o increasing the distinctiveness and quality of the BBC’s output o improving the value for money provided to licence fee payers o setting new standards of openness and transparency o doing more to serve all audiences 157.3 Members agreed that these objectives should govern the financial decisions which would have to be made following the new funding settlement and that, as part of those discussions, it would be necessary to look again at the scale and scope of BBC activities. Members agreed that the required savings were unlikely to be made by productive efficiencies alone and believed that some prioritising of services and activities would probably be necessary. 157.4 Members also agreed that the BBC should seek to address concerns about the impact of its activity on the market by setting clear boundaries and providing clarity and transparency about those boundaries. They also discussed the importance of journalism to the BBC’s mission. 157.5 The Trust agreed to have further discussions on the BBC strategy review at its next meeting with a view to publishing its final conclusions before the end of 2010. 158 TELEVISION SERVICE REVIEWS 158.1 Trust member Diane Coyle presented the draft final report from the Trust’s service reviews of BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four for approval, on recommendation of the Trust’s Audience and Performance Committee. The Trust had published its interim findings on the reviews in July. 158.2 The review had concluded that BBC One and BBC Two were performing well in many respects and that, in general, audiences recognised that both channels provided a high quality offering across all genres, and made strong contributions to delivering each of the BBC’s public purposes. However, the Trust had found some areas where both channels could improve, in particular to provide the distinctive offering that audiences expected from the BBC. Much of BBC Four’s programming was seen as high quality and distinctive by its audience. BBC Four’s challenge was to increase its impact, particularly in its core areas of specialism, and secure greater reputational dividend for the BBC, while also retaining its distinctive nature. The Trust would revise BBC Four’s remit to clarify its expectations of the channel. 158.3 The Trust discussed the report and approved it for publication. It delegated responsibility for approving minor changes, prior to publication, to Diane Coyle. The Chairman of the Trust’s Audiences and Performance Committee commended the Trust Unit staff who had supported the review. 159 RED BUTTON SERVICE REVIEW 159.1 Trust member Diane Coyle presented the draft final report from the Trust’s service review of BBC Red Button for approval, on recommendation of the Trust’s Audience and Performance Committee. 159.2 The review had concluded that BBC Red Button was a very widely used service, providing access to interactive television content for a large and diverse group of users. It had a substantial cost however, particularly as a result of its high distribution costs, and appreciation of the service was moderate rather than high in line with comparable services. Trust members concluded that Red Button should continue to focus on the things it did well and which its audience used the most: the provision of news and information content through digital text, and additional coverage of major live events. Red Button might be able to play a useful part in the development of IPTV, though it was too early to know exactly what this contribution would be. The Trust would monitor the development of the BBC’s IPTV activities over the next few years and Red Button’s role in this context would be re-assessed at the time of the next Trust review of BBC Online, due in 2012 159.3 The Trust discussed the report and approved it for publication, subject to minor drafting changes. It delegated responsibility for approving minor changes, prior to publication, to Diane Coyle. The Chairman of the Trust’s Audiences and Performance Committee commended the Trust Unit staff who had supported the review. 160 DIRECTOR-GENERAL’S MONTHLY REPORT The Director-General and Chief Operating Officer attended the first part of the Director-General’s monthly report 160.1 The Chairman introduced the discussion as an opportunity for the Trust to ask the Director- General about his decision to co-sign a letter to the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills calling for a referral to Ofcom of any proposed acquisition of full control of BSkyB by News Corporation.