Posted on 02/24/2004 1:11:43 AM PST by pau1f0rd
The BBC is failing in its public service remit and should be radically overhauled, a panel of media experts will say today.
A report commissioned by the Conservative Party to consider the corporation's future has concluded that the over-reliance on the BBC to provide public service programmes is unhealthy for democracy.
It attacks the current system of a statutory licence fee and calls instead for rival broadcasters to compete with each other for money to make programmes on subjects such as the arts, education and current affairs.
The 70-page study, which is published today, was produced by the Broadcasting Policy Group, chaired by David Elstein, the former Channel Five boss.
As well as criticising the BBC's funding system, it also calls for major structural changes to the corporation on the grounds that it is ill-serving the country's "creative economy".
The report was "very interesting", the Tories said yesterday. But they stressed that it would not automatically become official party policy.
It coincides with the publication of another paper, written by Barry Cox, the Government's digital television adviser, which also argues that the BBC should not have a monopoly on licence-fee money.
The BBC faces growing criticism of the scale of its ambitions, which have seen it moving aggressively into the internet, magazine publishing and merchandising.
The Elstein report argues that the corporation should be more clearly defined and organised. It recommends that some of its commercial activities should be sold.
Mr Elstein's committee also calls for a shake-up of the governors system, arguing that an absence of accountability is a serious problem for the corporation.
The report does not advocate the immediate abolition of the licence fee on the grounds that this would be impractical.
However, it claims that policy makers should realise that the potential of an alternative subscription system will become increasingly clear when the country converts completely to digital television. When that happens, every household will have the means of paying electronically for the programme content it wants.
The report says that public service broadcasting is currently failing and, at every level, is both diluting and narrowing.
It concludes that "contestable funding", a system which has already proved successful in New Zealand, would be a more equitable, accountable and transparent alternative to the licence fee.
The system, in which producers and broadcasters bid from a central fund for public service funding, could also raise programme standards by introducing competition, says the report.
Precisely. If the UK abandons its socialist system and allowed free market television, the problem would correct itself.
Er...really? There are five terrestrial TV channels, of which only two are run by the BBC, the rest (ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5) being commercial. There is also now a plethora of competing cable, satellite and digital channels, in which the BBC, although present to an extent, is something of a minority player. The BBC hasn't had a monopoly since the introduction of ITV in 1955.
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