Culture Secretary John Whittingdale told MPs yesterday he wanted “to see as much transparency as possible” on how the BBC spends licence fee payers’ money.
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As expected, the plan includes measures created to lessen the impact of the BBC on such commercial rivals as ITV and Sky. “We want the BBC to thrive, to make fantastic programmes for audiences and to act as an engine for growth and creativity”, said Mr Whittingdale.
“Commissioning editors should ask consistently of new programming: ‘Is this idea sufficiently innovative and high quality?’ rather than simply ‘How will it do in the ratings?'” And it means we don’t have to sit our little ones in front of adverts running every few minutes on the other channels.
Responding to a question from David Lammy (Tottenham), he said: “Appointments to the board is something that obviously is made clear tomorrow”.
In response to the white paper, the BBC Trust said it was “concerned” that “in some areas the government’s proposals to protect the BBC’s independence do not go far enough”.
“I am still anxious that government are seeking unduly to influence output and editorial of the BBC or be seen to do so” she said.
The DCMS has floated the idea of forcing viewers to prove that they have a paid-up licence fee before being able to access TV shows online. “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.
He said: “The BBC has been given an excellent deal which gives the lie to those luvvies who have been scaremongering about the organisations future”.
And it will close the loophole that allows viewers to watch the BBC on phones and tablets without paying the licence fee.
The government said it will modernise the licence fee to include on-demand content, locking out people who don’t pay the licence fee.
“But there is very little detail about what is actually going to change to ensure the regions are supported, other than making it part of the BBC’s mission statement”.
Ofcom will become the official regulator of the BBC, replacing the internal BBC Trust.
Regulation will be passed to Ofcom.
Britain’s government on Thursday unveiled its plans to have public service broadcaster BBC regulated by an independent entity for the first time in its history.
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. It encompasses all the broadcaster’s output except for news, current affairs and sport.
The whitepaper represents the culmination of 10 months of work looking into how the BBC should be run.
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John Nicolson, the SNP culture spokesman and former BBC journalist, also hit out at a decision to force stars to reveal their salaries only if they earn more than £450,000. “There will be a focus on this in the new charter”. “In the next Charter, we want to transform that cultural impact of the BBC”. He added that the organisation should be at the forefront of representing diversity both and on and off-screen. The BBC will also be required to submit reports to, and appear before, Committees within the Scottish Parliament on the same basis as the UK
Parliament.
