The constitutional basis of the BBC is the Royal Charter, which is due to expire at the end of 2016. This consultation paper therefore seeks to engage the UK in a dialogue about the future of the BBC.
The BBC is one of the great institutions of Britain, but to continue to thrive it must continue to evolve. The Charter Review will explore four areas of possible change:
Mission, Purpose and Values – what the BBC is for, examining the overall rationale for the BBC and the case for reform of its public purposes;
Scale and scope – what the BBC therefore should do, examining the services it should deliver and the audiences it should be seeking to serve;
Funding – how the BBC should be paid for, examining not just future potential funding models but related issues such as how best to enforce payment; and
Governance – how the BBC should be overseen, examining options for reform of the current Trust model alongside other governance issues.
The BBC has changed considerably over the nearly 100 years since it was established. So too has the world in which it operates. In the decade since the current Charter was introduced we have arguably seen more change in the media sector than in any previous decade – with an explosion in choice for audiences both in terms of the ways of accessing content and the variety of providers. As these changes have occurred, some of the original arguments for the BBC have become less relevant. But the rationale for a publicly-funded BBC that “informs, educates and entertains” as part of a wider public service broadcasting ecology remains strong even in the current media age. The Government is therefore committed both to the future of the BBC and to its underlying Reithian mission.
This changed and changing media landscape does, however, raise some questions about how best to define the unique role of the BBC. One question that is particularly important is how we can best understand the idea of ‘universality’. As more and more options become available for how audiences watch, read and listen to content, the question of the extent to which the BBC should focus on providing programmes and services for all audiences, and on an equal basis, across every platform, or whether it should instead focus more on particular or underserved audiences with its output, becomes relevant. A second question relates to whether the BBC should instead have a more targeted or prioritised set of purposes to reflect its increasingly varied and competitive environment
