Satdude
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'BBC may refocus licence fee funding'
Senior executives at the BBC are considering the radical option of restricting licence fee funding to a small core of its output, according to the former deputy chairman of Channel 4.
Barry Cox, who also chairs the analogue switchover body Digital UK and is a close friend of former prime minister Tony Blair, said the issue of what constitutes public service broadcasting after the BBC's current charter expires in 2016 was being closely debated within the corporation.
"There is a big question for the BBC," he told the latest issue of the Royal Television Society's magazine, Television, in a round-table discussion about the future of PSB.
"Indeed the BBC knows that and is preparing for it. There are signs that they are beginning to think they may have to, as it were, withdraw the licence fee-funded programming to a core and do something else with the other stuff.
"If that is true it is very welcome because they're finally addressing the point that public service broadcasting is shrinking and ought to shrink further."
Cox said he had talked to senior BBC executives who had indicated that they had begun to think about how a slimmed-down corporation might look.
"There are senior people at the BBC with whom I have had conversations it would be wrong to report in detail, but which indicate they are thinking in those terms.
"They haven't settled it but they are beginning to ask questions like 'what is the proper role of a licence fee funded BBC?'.
"And by implication, a lot smaller than it currently is. It doesn't mean they can't have lots of other stuff that is funded commercially whether it's pay or advertising or whatever."
Former Ofcom executive board member and managing director of Ingenious Consulting, Kip Meek, who also took part in the Television discussion along with former Ofcom executive board member Robin Foster, asked whether that would mean some BBC channels would stay licence fee funded while others would have to find other means of funding.
Foster replied that the BBC, like other broadcasters, would make less content in an on-demand world, which would mean it would be able to focus its expenditure more tightly.
"If you have a different way of accessing those [programmes] that are valued, it allows all broadcasters to think again about how they approach the volume of material they make, where they focus their expenditure and what it feels like to the end user," Foster added.
"That will prompt some quite big changes in the way both the BBC and others operate."
Foster said that new technology could provide an opportunity for the BBC to use the licence fee "more effectively, to marshal their resources more efficiently".
"While I think it is probably true that there would be public resistance to continuing large increases in the licence fee in future, I think there is a great scope for the BBC to use its funding more effectively," he added.
A BBC spokeswoman said that the corporation was already beginning to slim down, with a 10% reduction in output as part of the current round of cuts being pushed through by the director general, Mark Thompson.
"We have always made it clear that the BBC should be, as director general Mark Thompson has put it, as small as its mission allows," the spokeswoman added.
"The size and shape of the BBC will change over the next few years, partly as a result of on-demand. We are continually asking what is the proper role of a licence funded BBC, a subject which was openly debated in the three years leading to charter review."
Regards Satdude.
Senior executives at the BBC are considering the radical option of restricting licence fee funding to a small core of its output, according to the former deputy chairman of Channel 4.
Barry Cox, who also chairs the analogue switchover body Digital UK and is a close friend of former prime minister Tony Blair, said the issue of what constitutes public service broadcasting after the BBC's current charter expires in 2016 was being closely debated within the corporation.
"There is a big question for the BBC," he told the latest issue of the Royal Television Society's magazine, Television, in a round-table discussion about the future of PSB.
"Indeed the BBC knows that and is preparing for it. There are signs that they are beginning to think they may have to, as it were, withdraw the licence fee-funded programming to a core and do something else with the other stuff.
"If that is true it is very welcome because they're finally addressing the point that public service broadcasting is shrinking and ought to shrink further."
Cox said he had talked to senior BBC executives who had indicated that they had begun to think about how a slimmed-down corporation might look.
"There are senior people at the BBC with whom I have had conversations it would be wrong to report in detail, but which indicate they are thinking in those terms.
"They haven't settled it but they are beginning to ask questions like 'what is the proper role of a licence fee funded BBC?'.
"And by implication, a lot smaller than it currently is. It doesn't mean they can't have lots of other stuff that is funded commercially whether it's pay or advertising or whatever."
Former Ofcom executive board member and managing director of Ingenious Consulting, Kip Meek, who also took part in the Television discussion along with former Ofcom executive board member Robin Foster, asked whether that would mean some BBC channels would stay licence fee funded while others would have to find other means of funding.
Foster replied that the BBC, like other broadcasters, would make less content in an on-demand world, which would mean it would be able to focus its expenditure more tightly.
"If you have a different way of accessing those [programmes] that are valued, it allows all broadcasters to think again about how they approach the volume of material they make, where they focus their expenditure and what it feels like to the end user," Foster added.
"That will prompt some quite big changes in the way both the BBC and others operate."
Foster said that new technology could provide an opportunity for the BBC to use the licence fee "more effectively, to marshal their resources more efficiently".
"While I think it is probably true that there would be public resistance to continuing large increases in the licence fee in future, I think there is a great scope for the BBC to use its funding more effectively," he added.
A BBC spokeswoman said that the corporation was already beginning to slim down, with a 10% reduction in output as part of the current round of cuts being pushed through by the director general, Mark Thompson.
"We have always made it clear that the BBC should be, as director general Mark Thompson has put it, as small as its mission allows," the spokeswoman added.
"The size and shape of the BBC will change over the next few years, partly as a result of on-demand. We are continually asking what is the proper role of a licence funded BBC, a subject which was openly debated in the three years leading to charter review."
Regards Satdude.