What Are the Challenges Facing the BBC?

Upon launching its mid-term review of the BBC, during the year of the BBC’s centenary, the government indicated that the current Royal Charter might be the last that would guarantee funding via a TV licence fee. At the same time, the BBC’s budget was frozen for two years. The BBC had already been handed the responsibility by the government for funding free TV licences for the over-75s. In effect, these decisions represented a significant reduction in BBC funding coupled with uncertainty over the model for future funding. This chapter considers these decisions and the rationale taken for them in the government’s White Paper on the future of public service broadcasting. It examines specifically public opinion about the TV licence fee and about other potential funding models. It also considers the new media marketplace realities confronted by the BBC (and other public service broadcasters) not just caused by the massive increase in TV channels, but more recently with the shift from linear to non-linear viewing driven by streaming services. The government will need to be much clearer about the kind of BBC it expects and then test the public’s views. Should it simply provide the content commercial broadcasters eschew, or should it continue with a wider brief to promote excellence and quality across diverse genres?