This change was one of the key suggestions made by Sir David Clementi past year as he detailed the results of an independent review into the way the BBC was governed.
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Culture secretary John Whittingdale will also ask the BBC to trial an additional subscription service to ensure that those watching hit shows outside the 30-day catch up window are made to pay extra.
The White Paper endorses the BBC’s proposals for BBC Studios, allowing the corporation to press ahead with its plans to create the production division as a commercial subsidiary and letting it make programmes for other broadcasters.
He also said that a new charter will require more transparency on talent pay. The BBC will have the ability to appoint the majority of its board, independent of government, and editorial decisions will be explicitly the responsibility of the director-general. We think that is the right thing to do. The remaining board members, however, will appointed by the government.
This White Paper delivers a mandate for the strong, creative BBC the public believe in.
“The charter review is an opportunity for public debate on all aspects of the BBC and we welcome everyone’s views”. However, it needs to change in a number of ways, Whittingdale argued in his report. We will continue to make the case to government.
The Culture Secretary explained to MPs that the Government is “emphatically not saying the BBC should not be popular” – but would introduce a new requirement to provide “distinctive content” rather than just pursue ratings.
A widely used loophole meant people could watch the catch-up TV service without paying the annual £145.50 licence fee.
Speaking in the House of Commons on Thursday, John Whittingdale announced the BBC Trust is not “fit for purpose” and will be abolished. “In many ways our broadcasting – the BBC and also Channel 4, which they’re also trying to eviscerate – is the envy of the world and we should stand up and fight for it”, Kosminsky told the audience.
Before he became culture secretary, Whittingdale criticized the BBC for showing “The Voice”, a reality show he said was indistinguishable from shows on commercial rivals.
The governance of the BBC will rest with a “unitary board” that will be responsible for the delivery of its services.
Lord Waheed Alli, founder of the Great BBC campaign, said it was clear that Mr Whittingdale had “been forced to back down on some of his wilder proposals” but had showed himself to be “ideologically committed to undermining the BBC”.
“These are that any changes must not compromise the BBC’s independence, affect the BBC’s funding from the licence fee or diminish the BBC’s mission to educate, inform and entertain the whole country”.
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He added: “The BBC will also be required to give greater focus to under-served audiences – in particular those from black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds and from the nations and regions, who are now less well served”.
