Back in July the Department Of Culture Media And Sport (DCMS) produced a consultation document asking for public thoughts on the future of the BBC.
Our full submission has now been published by the Government:
The background to this is the current BBC Royal Charter is due to expire in 2016.
In the ever-changing media world the DCMS is keen to review each aspect of the BBC to ensure the needs of nation are being met.
As the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, John Whittingdale puts it in his foreword: “Ten years ago, the last time the Government ran a Charter Review, the media landscape looked very different. Millions of households still received a choice of just five television channels. Facebook was yet to reach the UK, YouTube was only just being launched and the iPhone was unheard of. When the Royal Charter came into force in January 2007 nobody could have predicted quite how the emerging technologies of the day would end up shaping the way we use the media and live our lives, nor the extent to which some things would stay the same.”
It is in that context that the review is happening and the questions that it poses are these:
Q1 How can the BBC’s public purposes be improved so there is more clarity about what the BBC should achieve?
Q2 Which elements of universality are most important for the BBC?
Q3 Should Charter Review formally establish a set of values for the BBC? What the BBC does: scale and scope
Q4 Is the expansion of the BBC’s services justified in the context of increased choice for audiences? Is the BBC crowding out commercial competition and, if so, is this justified?
Q5 Where does the evidence suggest the BBC has a positive or negative wider impact on the market?
Q6 What role should the BBC have in influencing future technological landscape including in future radio switchover?
Q7 How well is the BBC serving its national and international audiences?
Q8 Does the BBC have the right genre mix across its services?
Q9 Is the BBC’s content sufficiently high quality and distinctive from that of other broadcasters? What reforms could improve it?
Q10 How should the system of content production be improved through reform of quotas or more radical options?
Much of our response focussed on question nine, which we believe should be a key focus for the Corporation.
Amongst our key beliefs are the following:
1) Sport should be enshrined as a core objective of the BBC
2) We support the BBC in showing major national events
3) The BBC should always be seen as a high quality provider of sporting content
But:
4) But we also believe that sport coverage must inspire and help socially
5) Sport should be as available as possible to as wide a cross section of people as possible – both to participate and watch
6) In view of point five, we have contended that is disappointing that the BBC does not broadcast a full range of sports
7) To enable this the BBC could make far greater use of the “Red Button” service it already utilises
8) The UKMA believes that the fact that BBC Three is moving to an online only channel by 2016 gives added flexibility which must be made use of.
Furthermore:
We are a realistic organisation and we accept that there must be realistic expectations as to what can and can’t be broadcast.
We also accept that this must be done without the need for further investment on behalf of the BBC and most importantly this is NOT narrow thinking that only involves the UK Minifootball Association.
But specifically with regards to Minifootball we believe we are part of a product that sees 2m people regularly playing the game and our teams are now involved at European level.
Sport is at the heart of the cultural life of the United Kingdom. Sport helps to define our local, regional and national identity. The great diversity of our islands is reflected in the diversity of our sports and how our national broadcaster reflects upon these sports also impacts upon how people view their own country and community.
That is why any decision regarding the future of the BBC and the BBC Charter must ensure the role of sport is at heart of the BBC for the next decade.