Radical Change For Digital TV Age

Public service broadcasting needs to be radically overhauled if it is to survive in the new digital age.

A report published in mid January has called for the BBC to place quality before ratings, and stop spending huge resources on sports rights, programmes for 16 to 35-year-olds and popular entertainment, which other channels would deliver anyway.

Instead of crowding out commercial schemes, the BBC management should spend up to 5% of total licence fee income on co-funding public service broadcasting (PSB) programmes on other channels.

Anna Fazackerley, editor of the report and Head of Policy Exchange's Arts and Culture Unit, said: "The UK needs to prepare a new system of public service broadcasting. We now have the ideal opportunity to address it as a whole - without waiting until 2014 which is the timescale the Government is largely operating on.

"The BBC is a highly regarded public institution and recently has done well out of PSB.

"Commercial PSB channels, however, have not fared so happily. We need a number of reforms to alleviate the strains in the system, including the introduction of contestability to BBC resource allocation.

"There should be a particular target of spending 5% of the BBC licence fee income supporting third party programming," she said.

Policy Exchange - an independent, non-partisan educational charity that works with academics and policy makers from across the political spectrum - wants to see a level of contestability aded to BBC resource allocation.

In the next licence fee settlement, likely to run from 2013 to 2018 or 2020, the BBC management should be set a target level of third party output and service funding of 5% of total licence fee income by 2018, the lobby group said.

The BBC also needs to focus its assessment of new and existing services on quality and differentiation rather than reach.

They also want to abolish the BBC Trust and replace it with a BBC Joint Board suggesting that the BBC Trust has not been set up to hold the BBC to sufficient account and has forced it to take a narrow institutional approach to the delivery of PSB in the UK.

They also want to allow ITV1 and Five to opt out of the PSB system after 2012 – two years prior to the end of their licences but after digital switchover but both ITV1 and Five would retain their right to remain on top slots in all electronic programme guides.

Channel 4 should retain its PSB status, be allocated more access privileges and be privatised in 2012 but retain a PSB licence for at least 10 years.

Channel 4 should retain most the proceeds from privatisation so long aChannel 4 should also be granted cross promotional and linked access to BBC new media services such as www.bbc.co.uk, the iPlayer and Project Canvas.

Channel 4 would also be allowed to merge with Five under a more relaxed ownership and competition regime.

Author of the report Mark Oliver said: "The current UK broadcasting system was set up in the 1950s and now struggles to keep up with the extraordinary changes of the digital age.

"We need a dramatic rethink if we are to continue to deliver public service broadcasting in an entirely new age."

(BMcC/GK)