A Future for Public Service Television: Content and Platforms in a Digital World

News

SUBMISSION: NUJ Calls for Stricter Obligations on the Commercial PSB Channels

The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) voices concerns over the cuts to the BBC’s budget, the government’s consideration to privatise Channel 4, the repercussions of the 25% increase in ITV profits despite 4% drop in viewing, as well as the increasing number of UK companies being acquired by US broadcasters. Calling for a stronger PSB regulator, the NUJ recommends ‘stricter obligations on the commercial PSB channels to reach certain levels of investment in first-run programming, prime-time current affairs and diversity.’ Read the NUJ’s submission in full here.

SUBMISSION: Diversity Requirements Need to be Stated Clearly in the New BBC Charter and Agreement

The submission by the Campaign for Broadcasting Equality focuses on the BBC in order to address issues of diversity and BAME employment in the television industry. As a public service broadcaster that ‘should set the gold standard by which other PSBs and commercial broadcasters are judged’, the submission argues that the BBC has so far failed to boost diversity sufficiently both behind and in front of the camera. The campaign’s key recommendations are that diversity requirements need to be stated clearly in the new BBC Charter and Agreement, and that protected funding should be set aside to drive BAME employment in the BBC through a Diversity Fund. Read the submission in full here.

SUBMISSION: Sports Organisations Should Be Made Aware of the Benefits of PSB Free-to-Air Universal Coverage

According to Paul Smith (De Montfort University) and Tom Evens (Ghent University), sports coverage is essential in achieving PSB’s key ‘public purposes’. In an era of multi-channel digital television and increasingly fragmented audiences, ‘live television coverage of major sporting events remains one of the few forms of programming able to bring the nation together’. Yet, with the escalating costs of sports rights, driven largely by the growth of pay-TV since the 1990s, as well as the cuts to PSB funding (and the BBC in particular), there is a very real danger that sport (and especially live sport) will become an increasingly marginal feature of public service television. The listed events policy remains a vital safeguard for the preservation of major sporting events, and ‘the case for listed events legislation based on the need to preserve/enhance cultural citizenship remains as strong as ever.’ Read the submission in full here.

IN THE NEWS: Is there a future for public service TV? (via Writers’ Guild)

By WGGB Chair Gail Renard 

The future of the BBC is seldom out of the press. Last night at BAFTA, Lord David Puttnam chaired a discussion with Lord Hall, the Director General of the BBC, about the future for public service television in a digital environment. Lord Hall stressed the importance of the BBC, not only to the UK but the world.

Thanks to the recent Panorama show on offshore funds in Panama, the Icelandic Government might fall. After the series of War and Peace, more people are reading the classic novel than ever before. The story about domestic abuse in BBC Radio 4’s The Archers has prompted a sharp rise in calls to charity hotlines. The Archers’ storyline took two years to build to its climax. As Lord Hall said, only public service broadcasters deliver shows that no one else can.

Aside from its cultural importance, the BBC is a huge part of the UK’s creative economy. Lord Hall thinks we should be worried about the decline of TV production in this country. Lord Puttnam added that the BBC is seen as the gold standard internationally so why is it that our Government attacks it?