Editorial: Hearts and minds must be won in the run-up to the renegotiation of a charter that will determine the next decade of public service broadcasting
‘On the licence fee itself, Mr Davie pointed to reform rather than abandonment, promising the BBC’s biggest-ever public consultation on the best way forward.’‘On the licence fee itself, Mr Davie pointed to reform rather than abandonment, promising the BBC’s biggest-ever public consultation on the best way forward.
The breadth of the challenge facing the corporation was underscored by a trio of core objectives designed to sprinkle reassurance in all political directions: the pursuit of truth with no agenda; an emphasis on British storytelling; and a mission to bring people together. All three may be admirable, but the latter two were somewhat undermined bywith the showrunner of Doctor Who, for decades a standout example of British storytelling that brings people together.
This sort of fatalism is widespread within the corporation. Added to external grumbles, which have been cynically stoked by successive Tory governments, they create a mood music that does not help the case that the BBC is going to have to build in negotiations for the renewal of the charter.
On the licence fee itself, Mr Davie pointed to reform rather than abandonment, promising the BBC’s biggest-ever public consultation on the best way forward. He will doubtless be hoping that the public noteson competitors such as Channel 4. Such pressures are not unknown to the corporation itself. While licence fee funding is entering a period of stability, BBC Studios, the commercial arm, is having to make its own painful economies.
Among the jewels in the crown of BBC Studios is the natural history unit , which makes David Attenborough’s agenda-setting nature programmes. At 97, Mr Attenborough remains one of the corporation’s most charismatic champions. The NHU,had changed world opinion – “Nobody else can hold a candle to it” – and originated in a tradition of publicly funded broadcasting. Mr Davie can only hope that the world is listening.
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