BBC's independence key for public service: Thompson The BBC's independence is there not so that it can stand still, but so that it is better able to serve the public and, where necessary, better able to adapt and change.
To justify its independence, the BBC must keep its side of the bargain. These remarks were made by BBC DG Mark Thompson in his speech Beyond 2012 – The Future for the BBC, given at the Voice of the Listener and Viewer Conference in London. Thompson notes that with the great privileges which the Charter and licence-fee confer, there are equally great responsibilities. A responsibility to respond promptly and constructively to fair criticism. A responsibility, wherever possible, to support rather than to hinder the rest of the public broadcasting system and the wider media and creative industries. Above all, a responsibility to listen to the public. "One of the core missions of the BBC Trust is to ensure that the BBC does all of these things, not only in the run-up to charter reviews and licence-fee settlements, but all the time. "And I believe that in the first three years of this Charter, you can see that working in action. In the fact that proposals for new BBC services are automatically subject to independent market impact assessment, and in some cases are being turned down. In our response to the public demand for greater openness – I believe that we have moved further down the road of disclosure than any other major public body. "In our recent decisions about executive pay and our commitment to contain overall talent costs and reduce top talent costs – again a topic of public interest which the Trust insisted that I and the BBC should take seriously. In the whole partnership agenda. In our renewed focus on broadcasting and production in the Nations and Regions of the UK. "But that only tells one part of the story. Although all of these topics and others, like editorial standards, are important and should be addressed in a timely and effective way, by far the biggest responsibility of the BBC is a positive one. To deliver to the British public the best programmes and services that we can. To turn the fine words of the theory of public service broadcasting into journalism, drama, documentary, children's programmes that live on in the memory and that open doors that otherwise would be shut. "Darwin, the Poetry Season, and next year the Year of Science and The History of the World in 100 Objects, with Neil MacGregor and the British Museum. This is our side of the bargain." Thompson, however, also notes that the BBC has a duty to challenge itself, both to do better and to meet changing audience needs, and new developments in the wider media landscape. "It's only three years since our last strategic review – one that saw the development of the iPlayer, HD, mobile services as well as a concentration of investment on critical areas like drama and specialist factual programmes. "But in those three years, the world beyond the gates of Broadcasting House has changed almost beyond recognition. Digital take-up and the public's use of digital services has exceeded almost everyone's expectations. But the effect of that – and of the downturn – on many incumbent media businesses has been devastating. "Inevitably, that has meant a steady increase in the number of those who worry about the BBC's scope and market impact. Convergence has become an everyday reality and, as I noted earlier, businesses who once regarded themselves as being in a quite different market from the BBC – newspapers, for instance – now believe themselves to be direct competitors." Thompson cautions that The BBC should not respond to, let alone be cowed by, vindictive or groundless press attacks. But nor should it fall into the trap of dismissing every criticism as self-serving and without merit. The UK pubcaster's job is to discriminate between the two and to take the second seriously. "The world has changed and the BBC must consider how it should change to meet it. Five years ago, we said that "the BBC should be as small as its mission allows" and in absolute terms it is smaller. Thousands of jobs have gone and whole former divisions – Technology, Play Out, OBs – have been sold. The high-water mark of new channel launches and of content investment was passed some years ago. Instead the focus is on offering convenient new ways of giving the public access to existing content, rather than representing expansions into fresh content areas. iPlayer sits in this camp. "But we have to accept that to many in commercial media we seem relatively bigger and stronger than ever. This fact, along with a real desire to continue to meet changing audience demands, meant that back in June, the BBC Trust and I decided that this autumn was the right time to look ahead to the post-switchover world of 2012 and beyond and to develop a clear strategy for what kind of BBC could best serve the public, and best support the media sector." The review, Thompson explains, is being both radical and open-minded and it's throwing up difficult choices. "At a time when so many other broadcasters are struggling with programme budgets, the licence fee's importance as an engine of creative investment in British talent is more important than ever. Expect a commitment post-switchover to spend a higher proportion of the licence-fee on original British content than we are able to today. "The archive will be a key focus: not just the goal of liberating the BBC's extraordinary existing archive but the question of what and how you should commission in a world in which content is no longer ephemeral, but persists and can give pleasure and value forever. "Partnership will be a central theme too – partnership with other broadcasters, sharing technology and infrastructure to help them continue to support PSB in their own way, but also partnership with many other public bodies, working for instance to liberate their archives and make them available to the public. "But importantly we'll lay out new boundaries for the BBC. Once our boundaries were obvious. They were set by medium and spectrum scarcity: the BBC offered two TV channels and a fixed number of radio stations," Thompson said. Source: http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k9/nov/nov235.php ------------------------- www.dxquiz.wordpress.com The INTERNET now has a personality. YOURS! See your Yahoo! Homepage. http://in.yahoo.com/ ---[Start Commercial]--------------------- Order your WRTH 2009: http://www.hard-core-dx.com/redirect2.php?id=wrth2009 ---[End Commercial]----------------------- ________________________________________ Hard-Core-DX mailing list Hard-Core-DX@hard-core-dx.com http://montreal.kotalampi.com/mailman/listinfo/hard-core-dx http://www.hard-core-dx.com/ _______________________________________________ THE INFORMATION IN THIS ARTICLE IS FREE. It may be copied, distributed and/or modified under the conditions set down in the Design Science License published by Michael Stutz at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/dsl.html
