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

News

SUBMISSION: The need for Quality PSTV Programmes and Content will Continue Undiminished

The submission by an independent campaign organisation Save Our BBC focuses on safeguarding the BBC’s public service ethos, including its cultural purpose, social responsibility and the importance of its contribution to UK citizenship. While Channel 4 still fulfils its public service remit, the abandonment of ITV’s regional infrastructure meant that some fundamentals of public service have been lost, specifically regional current affairs and specialist programming. Furthermore, proliferation of television channels means that the overall television output is towards popular programming and shrinking of a range and volume of public service genres, with over-reliance on the BBC alone to provide free to air children’s, natural history and religious original output. While there is a considerable amount of public service content on non-public service platforms, the vast majority of it is not indigenous to the UK and does not necessarily reflect or contribute towards UK citizenship. According to Save Our BBC, while the production, consumption and distribution practices may substantially change, ‘the need for quality PSTV programmes and content will continue undiminished’, and the full range of information, education and entertainment ‘must remain available to be accessed by their audiences.’ Read Save Our BBC’s submission in full here.

SUBMISSION: ‘Public Service’ – In a Globalized Digital Landscape

According to Ingrid Volkmer (University of Melbourne), our communicative environment is no longer simply separated along the line of ‘domestic’ and ‘foreign’ polarities. In order to sustain the public service model for the future, Volkmer argues that we need to consider it in the context of ‘an increasingly dense ‘fluid’ globalized digital environment. Multi-level networks such as Google and Facebook, it could be argued, provide ‘public service’ knowledge in ‘completely new areas from ‘web search’, to virtual libraries, to new areas of public service, such as navigation’, creating new geographies and public spheres in which to cater for the needs of citizens. Australian Media and Communication Authority (ACMA)’s media regulation, for example, proposes a new approach which ‘moves away from the centrality of media towards the centrality of the citizen, embedded in chosen networks of communication.’ Read Volkmer’s submission in full here.

IN THE NEWS: Puttnam inquiry: government wants a diminished BBC

Jane Martinson, The Guardian, 2nd May 2016

Film-maker David Puttnam has raised concerns that the government is bowing to pressure from vested interests to significantly diminish the BBC.

Following newspaper reports over the weekend that the government is preparing to stop the corporation scheduling popular shows such as Strictly Come Dancing against direct competition from other broadcasters, the Puttnam inquiry into public service broadcasting expressed in a statement its concerns about the handling of charter renewal by the culture secretary, John Whittingdale.

“We have been continuously assured by the culture secretary that he wants the BBC to ‘thrive in the years to come’, but the drip, drip of these leaks suggest the opposite, that the government wants a significantly diminished corporation,” it said.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport denied the suggestion that it aimed to “determine either the content or scheduling of programmes”.

The reports over the weekend prompted Labour’s shadow culture secretary, Maria Eagle, to accuse Whittingdale of unacceptable interference in the BBC before the publication of a white paper later this month.

“The government needs to resist, and to be seen to resist, any undue pressure from vested interests, whether in the press or in broadcasting,” said a statement from the inquiry. “We urge the government to drop these and any other punitive and ill-considered proposals, and focus instead on drafting the serious and comprehensive framework for the BBC’s future that the corporation needs, and licence fee payers deserve.

“If there is any truth that the government plans to interfere in the scheduling of popular programmes such as Strictly Come Dancing and Silent Witness, this would represent a unique, unnecessary and wholly inappropriate intervention.”

The inquiry welcomed rumoured measures such as the extension of the BBC charter from 10 to 11 years.

In response to the weekend reports, a DCMS spokesman said: “The government will be setting out its plan on the BBC charter in a white paper in May. The secretary of state has made it clear on a number of occasions that the government cannot, and indeed should not, determine either the content or scheduling of programmes.”

IN THE NEWS: Ken Loach and David Puttnam in Writing on the Wall Festival

BY CATHERINE JONES, Liverpool Echo
Liverpool debate on the future of TV is open to all

Ken Loach is taking part in WoWFest 2016 Ken Loach is taking part in WoWFest 2016

Film director Ken Loach and producer Lord (David) Puttnam are in Liverpool this week to talk about the future of TV.

The public event at the Black-E on Wednesday is part of this year’s Writing on the Wall Festival which runs throughout May.

Does Television Represent Us? – chaired by Labour peer Lord Puttnam – is expected to be a lively panel discussion event, and will also include early findings from a new study looking into at how TV has contributed to political debate in Liverpool.

Ken Loach, Phil Redmond, Hansard Society chairman Ruth Fox and Cat Lewis (Nine Lives Media and nations and regions rep for indie producers’ association Pact) will discuss whether TV reflects the lifestyles and opinions of people across the UK, or if it just a mouthpiece for the ‘London bubble’?

Read the article in full here.

SUBMISSION: Securing the Future of Arts Broadcasting

The submission by Caitriona Noonan (Cardiff University) and Amy Genders (University of South Wales) focuses on the issue of serious decline in arts provision on public service television brought on mainly by structural and commercial changes in the television sector. Noonan and Genders argue that the need for intervention in arts television is even more crucial given the genre’s uniquely national character and mission to promote a shared and diverse cultural life. As television remains the key way to engage with arts across the UK, the medium is vital for the provision of the genre so that everyone has access to arts and culture regardless of economic or social background. Noonan and Genders furthermore acknowledge the need for a greater diversity in terms of subject matter in arts, taking more creative risks, and considering production and distribution strategies which would engage more with younger audiences as well as involve communities across the UK, not just the capital. Read the submission in full here.