BBC ‘should stop newspaper-style content’
Corporation must not provide same output as the printed news market, says Culture Secretary
THE BBC should stop trying to be a written news publisher and cut newspaper-style content from its website, the Culture Secretary said last night.
John Whittingdale said the corporation should stop providing “the same service” as newspapers and warned that the Government was considering reopening the terms of a deal that would see the licence fee begin to rise by inflation. Appearing on Radio 4’s
Media Show, Mr Whittingdale said that newspapers had “legitimate concerns” about the BBC entering the web news market.
He said: “They have expressed the view that the fact that you can access content which looks like long-form journalism on the BBC website is clearly something they are unhappy about, and raises this question as to whether or not the BBC should be essentially entering the printed news market and that, I think, is a legitimate concern for them to express.
“I think there is a strong case for the BBC to look at online provision and say, ‘Is this simply making available the kind of provision we have traditionally done on broadcast media – following the viewers online and providing them with the same service?’ That seems to me entirely sensible. But if they are going to go beyond that and provide news content that looks like newspapers’ – that’s where I think newspapers are entitled to express concern.”
James Purnell, the BBC’s director of digital and strategy, said that the corporation was reviewing its online output.
He told the programme: “We shouldn’t do the same thing, but we will do some of the same things. It would be odd if we were the only news organisation in the world not to do text online. We don’t think the BBC caused the problems, but we would like to be part of the solution.”
Mr Whittingdale also warned that ministers had still not ruled out cutting the licence fee as part of the ongoing charter review. In July, the corporation agreed to take on the £650 million cost of funding free licence fees for the over-75s, but said that it had received an “assurance” that the licence fee would begin to rise from its current £145.50 in 2017.
At the time, Lord Hall, the directorgeneral, told staff: “Both the Government and the BBC now consider that the financial size of the BBC is set.”
In comments that surprised BBC guests at the debate, Mr Whittingdale, however, said that the future of the licence fee was still an “open question”, adding: “The future level of the licence fee is dependent on charter review.”
Mr Purnell said that if the Culture Secretary sought to reopen the deal, the BBC would drop its quiet acquiescence to the agreement and campaign for a rise in the fee to compensate for the additional costs of providing free licences for the over-75s.
He said: “Our understanding is that we’ve agreed and done the licence fee deal. If there is an intention to have a different settlement that would be a departure. We’d probably say that the costs of that agreement would have to go into the licence fee.”
Mr Whittingdale also said that the BBC’s governing body was certain to be scrapped. He said: “I don’t think anybody expects the BBC Trust in its present form to survive unchanged.”
‘If they are going to provide news content that looks like newspapers’ ... newspapers are entitled to be concerned’