Charter Renewed, BBC is told to Adopt
International Herald Tribune – March 3, 2005
Allen Cowell – N.Y. Times
LONDON After months of rancorous debate over its status and standards, the venerable British Broadcasting Corp. won a reprieve Wednesday when the government approved a further 10-year Royal Charter guaranteeing compulsory public financing.
But, for the first time in the 83 years that the BBC has been this country's prime public service broadcaster, the government called for a radical overhaul of its top management. And it urged the institution to desist from "copycat" programming designed to "chase ratings for ratings' sake."
"Overwhelmingly the public like and trust the BBC," Tessa Jowell, the culture minister, told Parliament as she introduced a long-awaited summary of the government's proposals for the corporation's future upon the expiration next year of its Royal Charter, which guarantees independence from government control.
At the same time, she said, "the BBC, like any public institution needs to adapt if it is to serve its audiences and keep pace with change."
In British public life, the BBC - sometimes nicknamed "Auntie" or simply "the Beeb" - plays a central role as newscaster and entertainer, and as custodian of what Jowell called "our national collective memory."
Its programs range from soaps such as "East Enders" to comedies like "The Office" and "Little Britain" along with costume drama, children's television and news and current affairs on radio and television. But some viewers have complained increasingly about the number of repeat programs and shows that imitate successes pioneered by other broadcasters.
The BBC has also been accused by rivals of producing lowbrow programs, despite a formal mission as a public broadcaster described by Jowell as to "educate, inform and entertain."
Moreover, as Britain moves toward the broader choices of digital broadcasting - with some 400 channels available compared to 4 as recently as the 1980s - its commercial rivals have become increasingly irate at the way it is funded.
Under the Royal Charter, the BBC receives almost $6 billion a year from compulsory license fees placed on every household with a television set, a system critics compare to a poll tax that stifles competition.
The challenge has not only been commercial. Last year, an inquiry by a senior judge, Lord Hutton, harshly criticized the organization for a radio report in May 2003, suggesting that Prime Minister Tony Blair had embellished the case for war with Iraq. His findings fueled a chorus of rivals' demands for the license fee to be replaced by free-market subscription and for BBC management to be regulated from outside. Such was the furor that the BBC's director general and chairman were forced to quit.
But Jowell told Parliament on Wednesday that a long government review of the BBC's operations had shown that "perhaps surprisingly, the license fee retains a high degree of public support."
"The challenges facing the BBC are enormous" as Britain switches over to exclusively digital broadcasting by 2012, she said. "It needs certainty about its future" and therefore the government had decided to recommend a new Royal Charter for 10 years when the mandate expires at the end of 2006.
In a Green Paper, designed to promote discussion of government policy, Jowell took aim at the BBC's Board of Governors which acted as both self-regulator and manager of the corporation.
"The governors' role as cheerleader and regulator does not sit easily in a public organization of the size and complexity of the BBC," she said, adding that the board of governors would be replaced by two new bodies: a BBC Trust, representing license-fee payers, and a separate executive board answerable to the trust and responsible for day-to-day management.
John Whittingdale, the opposition Conservative spokesman on broadcasting, said: "The government appears content to tinker at the edges of the existing structure while allowing the BBC to continue for another 10 years with business as usual. The BBC got almost everything they could have wanted."
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