Dowden: Do we need public service TV?

Public service broadcasters such as the BBC and Channel 4 face “profound questions” about their role in the digital age, the Culture Secretary has said, as he begins fresh negotiations over the licence fee. Oliver Dowden will today announce a new panel of experts to assess the future of public service broadcasting. Writing for The Daily Telegraph, he suggests there is a genuine debate over whether “we need them at all”.

PUBLIC SERVICE broadcasters such as the BBC and Channel 4 face “profound questions” about their role in the digital age, the Culture Secretary has said, as he begins fresh negotiations over the licence fee.

Oliver Dowden will today announce a new panel of experts to assess the future of public service broadcasting as he suggests there is a genuine debate over whether “we need them at all”.

Writing for The Daily Telegraph, Mr Dowden says the panel of broadcasting, journalism and technology leaders will not be “tiptoeing around the edges” but rather “drilling right down into the current system and how it operates”.

With the media landscape experiencing an “utter transformation” in recent years, he adds that the rise of Netflix and Amazon Prime has “lobbed a grenade into the system” and poses serious questions about the “role that all broadcasters have to play in the digital age”.

The panel will advise ministers on a strategic review of broadcasters, including ITV, Channel 5, STV in Scotland and S4C in Wales, and whether their current funding and governance arrangements are “fit for purpose”. They are expected to look at whether the broadcasters should continue to receive special privileges and prominence on channel menus by virtue of their status.

The Telegraph understands that the panel will also be asked to consider whether Channel 4, which is publicly owned but is funded through its commercial activities, should be privatised.

Separately, the Government has today launched negotiations to decide how much the TV licence fee will cost between 2022 and 2027.

The negotiations will determine how much public funding the BBC and the welsh-language channel S4C receives, with Mr Dowden hailing the move as the next “step forward in our road map for reform” of the broadcaster.

Mr Dowden has written to the BBC asking how it intends to make savings, including through the salaries of its onair talent; how it intends to support the vulnerable, elderly and lowest paid; and how it intends to “fly the flag for Britain in every corner of the world”.

While praising the BBC’S role during the coronavirus pandemic, Mr Dowden also says there are a “growing number of questions” about whether it is delivering value for money and upholding its reputation for impartiality.

Amid growing allegations that the broadcaster is too narrowly targeted at metropolitan viewers, he argues that “a growing number of viewers f eel harangued or ignored” in news, drama and comedy and it must change to ensure it reflects the views of the “entire nation”. However, signalling a wider reevaluation of public service broadcasting, Mr Dowden writes that the BBC is part of a “much bigger puzzle” that he will now take a “close look at”.

“It’s time to ask really profound questions about the role that all of those broadcasters have to play in the digital age – and indeed whether we need them at all,” he added.

When people around the world think of Britain, they think of the Royal family, and the Premier League. And they think of the BBC. From the moment its first radio transmitter crackled into life a century ago, our oldest broadcaster has been a steadfast national institution, a champion of British values across the globe. But 100 years on, it’s time to ask what we want from the BBC of the future.

The pandemic has illustrated what the BBC does best. It has helped us educate our children, and been a trusted source of information on the virus. And it has provided a national gathering place for millions tuning in to hear government updates or watch the first live Premier League game on the BBC.

But while Covid has brought out the best in the BBC, that hasn’t made it immune to some stark realities. The first is the utter transformation of the media landscape. The rise of Netflix, Amazon Prime and others has lobbed a grenade into the system – upending the way most of us consume our favourite shows.

The second is the growing number of questions the BBC faces over some of its key commitments. Is the Beeb continuing to deliver value for money for licence-fee payers? Is it keeping the British public’s confidence when it comes to its impartiality, and does it truly represent the nation?

By the latter, I mean the entire nation. Someone switching on their TV from their semi in Bradford should feel just as represented by the Beeb as a person watching in their Islington townhouse. Instead, a growing number of viewers feel harangued or ignored when they tune in – and not just by the news output, but by its drama and comedy too.

So, as negotiations over the level of the next licence fee kick off, I have formally written to the BBC asking them for answers to six key questions. Those include: how will it make savings, including around talent pay levels? How will the next licence-fee level affect the vulnerable, the elderly, and those on the lowest incomes? And how will it use its global might to fly the flag for Britain?

However, the BBC is just one piece of a bigger puzzle. The world has changed, and every broadcaster needs to change with it. So I’m taking a close look at the future of our entire public service broadcasting system. That includes ITV and Channels 4 and 5 – and S4C in Wales and STV in Scotland, both of which are important to those nations.

Today I am pulling together a team of broadcasting and tech heavyweights to help us shape the future of public broadcasting. This 10-strong panel won’t just be tiptoeing around the edges. They have been tasked with asking really profound questions about the role these broadcasters have to play in the digital age – and indeed whether we need them at all. It is a crucial task, given how central public service broadcasters are to our entire creative ecosystem.

Together, they employ more than 20,000 staff, and indirectly support the employment of tens of thousands more. They helped drive £3.3 billion in revenue last year, and they beam the best of Britain – our culture, our talent, our castles, churches and more – into homes around the world.

We’ve got to get this right. Public service broadcasting has already lived, adapted and thrived through a hundred years of history. It’s time to start thinking about what it does next.