Is John Whittingdale the most hostile politician ever to have responsibility for the BBC? That undermined morale within the BBC as well as public trust and confidence.
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He said the BBC needed to be more transparent and accountable. The National Audit Office (NAO) will become the BBC’s financial auditor.
The licence fee, which is now £145.50, will rise in line with inflation for the next five years. Last summer executives agreed a deal with the government to cut budgets by as much as 20% by 2020.
In return, the Government pledged to review the licence fee and how it functioned alongside the iPlayer.
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He has already said that the issue of diversity will be “central” to the proposals but has denied claims he wants to prevent the BBC from screening popular shows at peak viewing times.
The actor shot to fame as Moriarty in the hit BBC adaptation starring Benedict Cumberbatch, and recently played King Louis XI of France in the BBC’s Shakespeare mini-series The Hollow Crown and villainous C in James Bond film Spectre.
Shadow culture secretary Maria Eagle responded by saying: “We know the secretary of state is extremely hostile to the BBC”.
Whittingdale said recent media reports that ministers wanted to micro-manage the scheduling of programmes were unfounded and that the BBC would always be free to determine what it aired. “It is regrettable that the government has ducked the opportunity for substantial reform of the regressive and arcane TV licence fee,” said Jonathan Isaby, chief executive of the TPA.
The new charter keeps in place the license fee, as the “the most appropriate funding model” for now, although there is an acknowledgement that the fee is “likely to become less sustainable” in the future.
New policies will require BBC to publish the salary range of employees making over 450,000 pounds ($650,000).
And Professor Steven Barnett, professor of communications at the University of Westminster, was critical for altogether different reasons.
Lord Lester of Herne Hill, the Liberal Democrat QC, has drafted the legislative proposal to guarantee the BBC’s independence in the management of its own affairs.
Ofcom, the body that already regulates commercial television and radio in the United Kingdom, will be handed responsibility for ensuring that BBC content remains accurate and impartial. Members would be appointed by the government and the BBC.
The Government is set to lay out plans for a “major overhaul” of the BBC later today, which is expected to include abolishing the broadcaster’s governing trust.
The BBC, which is by far the largest in Britain and one of the most influential media corporation around the world, will also be required to focus on producing “distinctive content” rather than competing for ratings with its commercial rivals.
“If the BBC is ever to truly address the widespread perception of in-built Left-wing bias, and to end the practice of senior staff recruiting new employees in their own image, then more emphasis needs to be placed on employing staff whose political opinions are more in line with those of the public, who past year voted in a majority Conservative government”.
However, there were expected to be some “minor tweaks” to the BBC’s defining goal to “inform, educate and entertain”, he added.
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Speaking at the event in Convocation Hall in Westminster, Lord Fowler said: “The Government should do nothing which compromises an independent BBC”. “I do not believe that the appointments proposals for the new unitary board are yet right”, he said.
