The BBC AND THE future ofPublic Service Broadcasting

"A strong BBC rooted in partnership to maximise value to audiences across the UK"
BBC submission to Ofcom on Public Service Broadcasting
The BBC today submitted its response to the Ofcom consultation on the future of public service broadcasting (PSB).

The BBC's submission argues that securing the reach, impact and quality of PSB in the digital age is the central challenge ahead for broadcasters. It therefore questions whether the case for intervening to support plurality in programming is as strong now as in the past. The BBC says that measures to support PSB, given the high levels of uncertainty reported by Ofcom and the rest of the industry, should continue to be flexible and make use of existing institutions and assets. Given the wide range of plausible future scenarios, this is not the time to design a radical new system requiring new infrastructure, funding and processes. Rather the focus should be on improving further the quality, range and impact of PSB content across media and on preparing for the digital future.

As part of the submission process, the BBC Trust challenged the Director-General to explore new ways of helping bring the benefits of the BBC’s scale and public investment to the whole sector.

In response, the Director-General is sharing some initial ideas on a range of practical partnerships with PSBs and other parties that could make a significant contribution to the industry and benefit audiences. These ideas will be developed over the summer and submitted to the Trust for approval later this year.

These ideas include: sharing the BBC’s knowledge and expertise in digital production technology with the industry to help exploit new creative opportunities and make significant efficiency savings; sharing BBC research and innovation; helping to secure the future of digital radio; and working with other PSBs, ISPs and the wider industry to set a simple, open standard to deliver internet television to TV sets (IPTV).

Sir Michael Lyons, BBC Chairman said: ‘‘Technology is changing, and so is UK society. Yet we know from all our research that the public continues to value the benefits of PSB. This presents a real challenge to public service broadcasters. The debate about the future of public service broadcasting must be as much about seizing opportunities as it is about managing risks. So the Trust has challenged the Director-General and his team to explore new ways of helping bring the benefits of the BBC’s scale and public investment to the whole sector. Audiences must be the beneficiaries of this review."

Mark Thompson, Director-General of the BBC, said: "Through partnerships, we believe that there is a great opportunity to leverage the BBC’s advantages in support of the whole industry. It is time to develop a collaborative plan that builds a stronger UK broadcasting industry, able to invest in UK programming and fit to take on global competition. Partnerships could make an important difference to the sustainability of commercially funded PSBs and to the broadcasting sector across the UK."

Summary of the BBC’s submission
The BBC Trust and Executive have submitted a single response to Ofcom’s consultation, reflecting their shared thinking on the challenges ahead and the issues raised by Ofcom.

To inform the submission, the BBC undertook extensive research into public and industry opinion on PSB. This research shows that audiences believe PSB’s role to be as powerful today as ever and supports Ofcom’s view of the BBC as the "cornerstone" of PSB provision.

The BBC’s submission is in two parts.

1. The Challenge of Sustainability: this section explores the challenges ahead for PSBs and includes the Director-General’s ideas for unlocking the power of partnership across the sector, in response to the Chairman’s challenge. The BBC Executive will develop these ideas over the summer and will present a detailed set of proposals to the BBC Trust in the autumn:

• Sharing the BBC’s knowledge and expertise in digital production. The BBC is investing here both to exploit the great creative opportunities of digital media and because this is the only way in which the BBC can fully meet its own stretching productivity and efficient targets. If the BBC shared its knowledge and expertise with producers, broadcasters, publishers and manufacturers of broadcast and production equipment, much of this opportunity could be unlocked across the industry. Other broadcasters – and in particular other PSBs – could migrate more easily onto the new digital platforms and if other PSBs could achieve savings comparable to the BBC’s, then their linear content budgets could go further. As a result, their ability to continue to support PSB could be significantly improved.
• Exploring ways of making some of the BBC’s regional and local news materials available to other news outlets for repurposing and rebroadcast in ways which support the economics of regional news provision beyond the BBC.
• Sharing the scientific know-how from our research and development arm with the industry – the BBC has already made a central contribution to collaborative initiatives such as Freeview, Freesat, HD and DIRAC video compression technology. In new media, there is scope to increase the BBC's wider contribution to the industry, working more extensively with developers and others on open-source standards and approaches.
• Working with museums, galleries and other creative partners, the BBC could explore the possibility of sharing content, navigation systems and other resources so that audiences can find the best UK public service content online
• Exploring global opportunities with other PSBs and the independent sector by using the international scale and leverage of BBC Worldwide.

Alongside these ideas, which could have an immediate economic impact for other broadcasters, the BBC is developing three further propositions that over the longer term could extend the public value delivered by traditional PSBs to a fully digital world:

• DAB is maintaining steady growth in the UK; however, funding challenges remain for the rest of the industry – the BBC could support a set of measures to develop DAB on behalf of the whole industry, including extending the coverage of the BBC’s national multiplex beyond 90% of the UK population and initiating a stronger marketing effort co-ordinated across the industry
• While broadband access and connectivity grows, by 2012 some 20% of the population will still be unconnected – by working in cooperation with Government, PSBs and ISPs and other partners, the BBC could play an important content-led role in helping to encourage those who are not connected to get online
• There is an opportunity for the BBC and other PSBs to work with ISPs and the wider industry to set a simple, open standard to deliver internet television to TV sets – IPTV could play an important part in delivering the ultimate goal of universal broadband access with all of the wider consumer and citizen benefits that would bring

2. Response to Ofcom’s consultation questions: Ofcom raises a number of issues in its consultation and sets out some options for the future. In the second part of the BBC’s submission, the BBC responds to these issues and options, exploring how they may align with the vision set out above.

The BBC agrees with Ofcom that it is important to prepare now for the changes that will be needed to maintain and strengthen PSB in future. The first priority is to look for ways of ensuring that PSB captures the digital opportunity, facing up to the challenges of globalisation, digital technology and fragmentation.

A range of proposals and initiatives are suggested, including:

• The PSB purposes should be extended to cover new media and modified to incorporate ‘trust’ as a key aim – in response to recent audience feedback and to reflect a new role in the broadband world
• Broadcasters, regulators and the communications sector should work together to ensure that all users have a reasonable quality of access to public service content over the internet.

To secure a continuing diversity of institutions, the BBC proposes a future scenario in which:

• Channel 3 licensees, including ITV, continue to be PSBs, with the value of regulatory assets fully utilised to support a more limited range of obligations, such as original UK production and national and regional news
• Five continues its PSB role, with obligations adjusted to reflect the value of its privileges and with an enhanced role for younger children's programming
• Channel 4 remains a publicly owned PSB with a secure future complementary to the BBC – with a different approach, tone, organisational and funding structure. Direct public funding of Channel 4 would compromise its ability to take risks, blunt its commercial incentives, and thereby detract from the current institutional diversity in PSB from which so much else flows
• Ofcom identifies some important issues around children’s programming and in the Nations and Regions. The BBC reiterates its own strong support in both areas and suggests some ways to secure provision beyond the BBC.