The current BBC charter is set to expire at the end of 2016 and the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) is carrying out a fundamental review of the BBC. To assist this review the DCMS has published BBC Charter Review – Public Consultation. The BBC has responded with the first in a series of four publications, British Bold Creative. The second paper sets out their proposals on the future of BBC production and Worldwide. The third, which will be published in early October, will be the BBC’s direct response to the Government’s questions set out in their Green Paper and the fourth paper later in the year, will set out the BBC’s money saving proposals.
The conclusions of my response are: “The BBC is a world class organisation and a unique British institution. It clearly has its problems. Its organisational culture, its ingrained arrogance and its strategic planning is bounded by the rationality of the past. British Bold Creative appears to be a knee jerk response rather than a carefully researched plan that answers the two crucial questions: (1) Where are we now? (2) Where do we want to be? And allocates resources accordingly. Instead of one document we are going to get four. However the BBC for all its faults does not warrant the hatchet job currently being perpetrated by the present Government with a review panel awash with conflicts of interests. To ensure objectivity there needs to be a public enquiry to take the entire matter out of the hand of politicians and the BBC so that the British public gets a BBC that serves their needs”.
Please see full response: BBC Charter Review Consultation Response 6th October 2015