The BBC is given $7.5 billion taxpayer dollars every year.
"The Conservative government in Britain has set its sights on remaking the BBC, the broadcaster supported by a national license fee, after a political campaign in which the Conservatives complained that the BBC’s news coverage has a left-wing bias.
On
Thursday, the government’s secretary of state for culture, media and
sport, John Whittingdale, presented a “green paper” to Parliament, the
opening of a comprehensive study of the BBC’s future, suggesting that
the corporation could become smaller, less costly and less competitive
with British newspapers and private television channels.
The BBC, which is currently financed by an annual payment of 145.50 pounds, or $227.50, from nearly every household that owns a color television or that can watch television in real time, is up for its 10-year charter review next year. Mr. Whittingdale, a known critic of the corporation, said he wanted to examine the nature, funding, reach and governance of the corporation, considered one of the finest, if not necessarily the most efficient, broadcasting networks in the world.
The BBC, which is currently financed by an annual payment of 145.50 pounds, or $227.50, from nearly every household that owns a color television or that can watch television in real time, is up for its 10-year charter review next year. Mr. Whittingdale, a known critic of the corporation, said he wanted to examine the nature, funding, reach and governance of the corporation, considered one of the finest, if not necessarily the most efficient, broadcasting networks in the world.
“With
so much more choice in what to consume and how to consume it, we must
at least question whether the BBC should try to be all things to all
people, to serve everyone over every platform or if it should have a
more precisely targeted mission,” Mr. Whittingdale told Parliament.
The
review would look at how the BBC is financed, the scale of its output
and whether it needs tougher oversight by a new regulatory body,
replacing the much-criticized BBC Trust, he said. It would also include a
period of consultation with the public.
The fight is ideological
and philosophical, as well as political. The BBC was founded more than
90 years ago as a state broadcaster with a mission to “inform, educate
and entertain.” Some believe that the BBC currently has become much more
than a broadcaster — running a news service on the web that rivals
newspapers, for example — and competing too avidly with private
companies to create popular entertainment of the lowest common
denominator, both on radio and television, while paying its top talent
salaries that dwarf those of the most senior government officials.
There
have also been parliamentary hearings into large severance packages the
corporation awarded to senior management in what was meant to be an
effort at cost-cutting.
Those
on the right believe that the BBC is biased toward London and the left.
Many on both the left and the right believe that the BBC is too afraid
to offend anyone and takes “political correctness” to an absurd degree.
In
other words, critics believe that “Auntie,” as the BBC is sometimes
affectionately known, should stick to her knitting — documentaries,
middlebrow programming, “objective” broadcast news, filling niche
segments and gaps in the market that profit-driven companies would never
bother to fill.
Or
as Mr. Whittingdale suggested, “The BBC, as a public institution,
should not have the same imperatives as commercial companies, such as
trying to maximize audience share.” He distinguished between programs
the BBC itself creates and those it competes with other companies to
buy, like “The Voice,” a singing talent show, in order to counter a
similar program on the private network ITV and improve ratings.
Others, of course, believe that competition from the BBC produces better programming and content all around.
But
there is no question that the BBC is a huge operation, employing close
to 19,000 people and with an annual budget of about £4.8 billion ($7.5
billion).
George
Osborne, the chancellor of the Exchequer, noted that the BBC News
website “is a good product, but it is becoming a bit more imperial in
its ambitions,” he said, “crowding out national newspapers.” Most of
Britain’s newspapers are on the right and support the Conservatives and
have complained about the BBC’s move into nonbroadcast news reporting.
As
for financing, with the increase in people watching television programs
after broadcast on devices that are not televisions, like computers and
smartphones or tablets, the government wants to study whether the
current license fee should remain and increase with inflation, or
whether there should be a subscription model, or some hybrid. For
instance, the BBC is proud of its iPlayer, which allows viewers to see
programs already broadcast for a set period of time without cost; some
suggest that the BBC should charge for such broadcasts, as iTunes does.
Another
suggestion in the green paper is for a core BBC that is free and a
premium BBC that is paid. Another is that the license fee simply be
applied to every household as a universal levy.
There
has already been a major controversy over a deal that the BBC should
pay for license fees for anyone older than 75, a bill previously pushed
by the government and estimated at £750 million, or $1.1 billion — a
boon to the government and a real-term cut to BBC funding of between 10
percent to 15 percent.
Tony
Hall, the director general of the BBC, went along with the idea in
return, he said, for assurances that the license fee would remain and
would increase in line with inflation — it has been unchanged since
2010. For those so inclined, the license for a black and white
television costs only £49.
But
Mr. Hall has been criticized for giving up too much to the government
by agreeing to absorb part of the state’s budget, and committing to
spending that the corporation cannot control in an aging population. Mr.
Hall has defended the deal as necessary and said he would ask older
citizens who can afford the license fee to pay it regardless.
As
for the larger changes suggested in the green paper, the BBC said in a
statement that it would fight them, while praising itself as “a creative
and economic powerhouse for Britain.”
The green paper, the BBC said,
“would appear to herald a much diminished, less popular, BBC. That would
be bad for Britain and would not be the BBC that the public has known
and loved for over 90 years.”
As part of its defense, the BBC admitted to having organized a letter to Prime Minister David Cameron
against any changes from some well-known actors and personalities,
including Daniel Craig, Judi Dench, J.K. Rowling, Mark Rylance and David
Attenborough.
The letter called the broadcaster “the envy of the world”
and said, “A diminished BBC would simply mean a diminished Britain.”
The
government has also criticized the BBC’s commercial ventures, including
BBC Worldwide, which sells programs abroad. But Mr. Hall argued that it
made the corporation £226.5 million last year.
The
government has appointed a panel of eight people to work on the renewal
of the BBC’s charter. Some of the group come from commercial
broadcasting, and the former chairman of the BBC Trust, Christopher
Patten, called the panel “a team of assistant gravediggers” appointed to
help Mr. Whittingdale “bury the BBC that we love.”"
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Added: "BBC Trust," "Who we are"
after an open selection process.
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