Broadcasters, publishers, Governments and representatives from the arts and culture industries have slammed proposals to modernise the framework under which the BBC operates.
Ofcom and the BBC want to ditch quotas for arts, children’s, comedy, music and religious programmes. The regulator is also willing to relax conditions obliging the BBC to broadcast certain types of news content. Ofcom’s proposed new BBC Operating Licence would also see changes to how the BBC is held to account, giving the BBC more autonomy in decision making.
One rival broadcaster said the proposals were “irrational”, while another has joined calls for greater public scrutiny.
The plans were first put out to public consultation in the summer, as the BBC announced a raft of cuts and changes to its services. The consultation ended with the BBC being allowed to submit its own response three weeks after the deadline.
Concern over BBC News Channel plans
The now published responses reveal concern over the removal of conditions attached to the BBC News channel’s output. It’s feared this move will aid plans to combine the UK BBC News channel and BBC World News into a single channel from April 2023.
The Welsh Government branded the News channel move as an “example where self-autonomy could result in a negative impact on audience needs”.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) told Ofcom it should “hold an enquiry into what must be viewed as [a] material change”, calling for a public consultation.
Meanwhile, The Voice of the Listener and Viewer (VLV) said it strongly opposed the complete removal of quotas for factual genres. It also objected to the removal of the obligation for the BBC News Channel to carry more regional/local news than other equivalent channels.
It added that reform of the BBC Operating Licence presented an opportunity to reform the way the BBC consults with licence fee payers. The VLV noted “the BBC conducts virtually no engagement with licence fee payers.”
Strong words from ITV and Global
ITV joined in the criticism of Ofcom’s plans saying “Ofcom appears to be proposing to delegate the task of demonstrating distinctiveness almost entirely to the BBC without making clear how this should be done or what the relevant criteria should cover.”
It added: “It is hard to see how a full and independent assessment of the distinctiveness of the BBC can credibly be carried out by the BBC. In delegating the task of defining what distinctiveness means for the BBC to the BBC itself, Ofcom is proposing a system an order of magnitude weaker than that envisaged by Government when it put in place what it believed was a strengthened regime.”
ITV also called for greater public scrutiny of proposed changes to BBC services.
Global, operator of stations including Heart and LBC, blasted plans to water down BBC Radio’s news obligations. It commented: “It is irrational for Ofcom to propose a regulatory regime that it itself acknowledges enables the BBC to deliver outcomes that would harm the interests of citizens. The best way to ensure that the BBC does not provide news “less frequently than now” would be to retain the existing requirements for hourly news, which is our strongly recommended course of action.”
“Furthermore, the consultation does not recognise the current content regulation rules
already in place for the commercial radio sector, which already mandate hourly and/or
regular local news. Thus, the current proposals would see the BBC – despite its unique funding position – subject to a more relaxed regulatory regime regarding news provision than the commercial sector.”
BFI, National World and Local TV Network also have their say
The British Film Institute (BFI) voiced concerns over the reduction in the BBC’s investment in first-run programmes, something that would be made possible through the removal of explicit quotas for the first run UK originals and children’s content.
National World, publisher of titles including The Scotsman and Yorkshire Post urged Ofcom to restrict the BBC’s online content. It wants the regulator to limit the number of human interest, entertainment stories and long reads published by the BBC.
The Local TV Network, which supports the 34 Ofcom-licenced local TV services, said the BBC should be “encouraged to cooperate with others who deliver local news and information”. Local TV channels originally received licence fee funding for their first three years in return for the supply of local content.
Lord McNally said it was a “mistake” for Ofcom to have put the plans out for consultation at a time “when neither Parliament nor Government have been fully functioning.”
What next?
Ofcom is still considering its response.
In the absence of a new Operating Licence, the BBC still has to follow the current process of seeking permission to make changes. As a result, plans to change BBC Radio 5 Live’s news and current affairs quota, BBC Radio 2’s live music quota and BBC regional programmes quotas have had to go out to public consultation. Under the proposed new operating licence, many of these changes may not face public scrutiny.
The BBC says it wants to reallocate resources, recognising changes in the way viewers and listeners access BBC services.