Bad news for the BBC

The ground is shifting beneath the BBC’S feet. Its coverage of the election campaign, marred by accusations of bias and startling errors of judgment, provoked the ire of political parties on all sides. Changes to the wider media landscape have exposed it to fierce competition from deep-pocketed commercial rivals, which are able to innovate in ways the BBC appears institutionally incapable of matching. Now the national broadcaster faces another challenge, in the unlikely area of local news.

The BBC has long treated its local news coverage as a burden, a public service obligation that it meets in return for guaranteed prominence for its channels on TV channel menus. Its rival Sky, however, has been lobbying the media regulator, Ofcom, to open up local news to competition in a forthcoming review of public service broadcasting regulations.

Sky is asking Ofcom for regulatory reform in order that it might provide local news services on top of its Sky News channel. It is not clear yet what form this coverage might take, but implicit in its argument is that it is perfectly possible to provide local news on a commercial basis without the need for a compulsory poll tax to pay for it.

The BBC could do without another challenge to the legitimacy of the TV licence. The Government is expected to push ahead with plans to decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee, an income stream that is already under threat as younger audiences switch off from BBC shows in their droves, migrating to the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime. How is the BBC going to adapt to this new world? It currently lacks a compelling answer.