Future of the BBC

The choice of Tim Davie as the new director general of the BBC is an interesting one: he was once involved in Conservative politics and he comes from the commercial rather than the editorial wing of the corporation. He will have a lot on his plate. The BBC might think that it has had a good pandemic, and it is true that people do turn to their national institutions at a time of crisis, but its coverage has been accused of hyperbole and political bias, and even if ratings are up they are nowhere near what they once were.

There is a technological challenge: the licence fee was designed for radio and television in an age of limited choice, but now people have dozens of options over several devices. Lord Hall bequeaths one important innovation. BBC iplayer is probably the wave of the future, eventually financed not by a fee but by a subscription, although many BBC programmes are made out of house and the BBC cannot exercise exclusive rights over them. Hence some of its hits have been made available on Netflix. On top of that is the costly dilemma the BBC faces over free television licences for the over-75s. A proposed change to the eligibility rules was postponed because of the pandemic.

Appointing a more commercially minded director general suggests a step towards greater financial independence from the licence-fee payer. However, one of the biggest long-term problems the BBC faces is that management does not seem to understand who is watching or listening and what they like, a source of particular frustration to the BBC’S older users and those outside London. Most of us want what the BBC was created to provide: high quality programming, and a service that reflects the entire nation, not just Islington.