BBC’s ‘digital revolution’ has a £100m funding gap
THE BBC is planning to put more programmes online before they are shown on TV – but admits it needs to find another £100million a year in savings to fund it.
In his first speech since becoming Director- General six months ago, Tony Hall said he wants the corporation to cater for a ‘new audience’ of younger viewers and listeners.
He said his ambition was to double the BBC’s global audience to half a billion by 2022 by increasing the output of global news services, and to turn iPlayer into ‘the best online TV service in the world’.
His digital revolution will also include an iTunes Store-style website and a music streaming service, and plans to make the free iPlayer radio app globally available.
There will be a crackdown on licence-fee evaders, while other BBC services would have their budgets slashed in order to pay for the plans.
Lord Hall made his speech, titled Where Next?, in the wake of a string of catastrophic BBC fiascos including the Jimmy Savile crisis, the failed £100m Digital Media Initiative and the severance pay scandal.
BBC insiders insisted the speech had ‘ something f or everyone’, pointing to increased funding for the arts and promises of more drama on BBC1.
But critics accused Lord Hall of forgetting the BBC’s core and older audiences, many of whom do not access its services online. Tory MP Philip Davies, who sits on the culture media and sports select committee, said Hall’s global ambition, which will be borne by the BBC World Service and £245million from the licence fee next year, amounted to ‘ strutting the world stage, empire-building on a global scale’ rather than focusing on the needs of British viewers.
Meanwhile Tory MP Rob Wilson said: ‘Millions of the BBC’s traditional viewers will want reassurance the BBC isn’t going to neglect its traditional channels while its executives pursue trendy projects. Tel- evision got only a brief and grudging mention in the Director-General’s nearly 5,000 word speech.’
Lord Hall admitted funding would require some ‘hard choices’, and an extra £100million a year – on top of existing budget cuts of 20 per cent – would need to be found.
The current licence fee of £145.50 has been frozen until 2017, so to increase its annual £3.7billion revenue the BBC plans to crack down on those who use a TV but avoid paying it. Lord Hall said: ‘ We’ll make sure everyone who should be paying the licence fee is.’ Other parts of the BBC would have budgets slashed. ‘We’ll examine every penny we’re spending and redirect resources – money, people – towards our new priorities where we can,’ he said.
Finally, Lord Hall promised to cut bureaucracy at the corporation by getting rid of ‘at least half of panBBC boards.’
Critics warned the speech echoed the grandiose plans of previous director generals and said the BBC has a history of failed IT projects.
Lord Hall claimed the next decade would be a ‘bold era of BBC innova- tion’ and said he wanted to ‘harness the energy of the YouTube generation’. He said: ‘We are going to reinvent what we do, bit by bit, step by step, to serve this new audience.’
Defending Lord Hall’s plans to expand the BBC’s global reach, a spokesman said: ‘The BBC plays a major role in enhancing Britain’s standing and reputation overseas.
‘It has led the world as a trusted news provider for 80 years, especially through the World Service; we do not want to cede this position to new competitors like China or Russia.’