The Battle for the BBC

By Robin Tozer, Partner

Across the Atlantic, a battle is raging between liberals and conservatives over a vacant seat on the Supreme Court. At stake it is said is the future direction of the US on hotly contested issues such as abortion. Conservatives could overturn the supposed liberal consensus of the last half-century.  

On this side of the Pond, cultural battle lines are being drawn over who will chair the BBC and media regulator, Ofcom.

In both the US and the UK, it is an article of faith for conservatives that while they are often elected, left-wing liberals control the country's other public institutions. In this mindset, organisations such as Universities, Arts Councils, or the BBC are imposing a left-wing agenda on the nation. A narrow liberal elite is setting the mainstream view on issues like immigration, Brexit and history, often against what is perceived to be actual public opinion. The logic goes that to challenge this liberal consensus, Conservatives should try to gain control of public institutions from the left to offer a plurality of views.

Whether this liberal dominance is fact or not, is a subject for debate. In the UK, for many on the right, the trojan horse of this consensus is the BBC. With the Chairmanship of the BBC up for grabs, as well as its regulator Ofcom, Boris Johnson (egged on by his Chief Adviser, Dominic Cummings) is seemingly pushing controversial candidates towards the two positions. Former Telegraph Editor, Charles Moore has been suggested as BBC Chairman, and former Daily Mail Editor, Paul Dacre as Chair of Ofcom. Both are conservatives with a big C, Brexiteers, and no fans of the BBC. For the left, it's like putting Thanos and Lex Luthor in charge of the planet.

However, this cultural battle is obscuring the real issues facing the BBC. Rows such as whether Rule Britannia should be sung on the Last Night of the Proms are a distraction. 

The big question facing any incoming Chair is less about bias and more about payment. In a world of multiple subscription services and the internet, the licence fee looks increasingly outdated and unsustainable. The Government is to decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee which threatens future revenue. (Charles Moore stopped paying his licence fee years ago in protest.)

The BBC is going to have to embrace change regardless of the Chair. We should be having a serious discussion about the future of the broadcaster. Its size, shape and role in the media landscape. However, the BBC's instinct is to fight change and attack competitors. Whenever anything new arrives, it reacts badly. The night before of the launch of ITV, the BBC had a popular character in The Archers walk into the burning stables to save her horses.  Listeners left in suspect, had to tune in on ITV launch night to find out if Grace Archer has survived the fire (she hadn’t).  Even now, it sometimes moves Strictly Come Dancing to run into the X-Factor, much to the annoyance of ITV.

However, the future will demand the BBC embrace innovation and change its mindset. The BBC is going to need to look at a charging structure, while still being freely available - a combination of a free to air service subsidised by premium channels available to subscribers. 

Success will need greater focus. It is hard for any broadcaster to be all things to all people. The BBC needs to see itself as part of the media mix, not the dominant player fighting off insurgents like Netflix. 

Perhaps leave the talent shows to ITV, and zero in on the drama, documentaries, and natural history in which the BBC has a strong track record. The focus should be on original content that it can sell to broadcasters overseas or streaming services. It could create a paid-for sport offering, especially as the likes of Sky and BT want to reduce costs.  Questions will need to be asked about how many radio stations the BBC needs to operate, the scale of its local TV ambitions, and the size of its online offer. Commercial rivals have long complained about the ubiquity of the BBC. Rather than salami slicing, it is going to have to get more money onto screen, if it is going to keep up with Netflix and Amazon. Not to beat them, but to ensure its shows are of the same ambition and quality. That means fewer channels, fewer radio stations and a focus on particular types of shows. The BBC often sees smaller as worse which is a mistake.

If the BBC competed on fewer fronts, competition could help the BBC. I think the arrival of GB News, a supposed centre right opinion-led, US-style news channel next year is a good thing. Inevitably people start to panic that it will be Fox News, but I doubt the UK could sustain such an overtly partisan channel even if the broadcasting rules were changed. If it is as planned, then GB News will add genuine choice into the news landscape, and I suspect a lot of people will still choose Aunty, especially if it can reverse the trend of newsroom cuts. A change is coming to the BBC. The BBC should focus on plotting a sustainable future for the organisation. Otherwise, the risk is change is imposed upon it.

Across the Atlantic, a battle is raging between liberals and conservatives over a vacant seat on the Supreme Court. At stake it is said is the future direction of the US on hotly contested issues such as abortion. Conservatives could overturn the supposed liberal consensus of the last half-century.  

On this side of the Pond, cultural battle lines are being drawn over who will chair the BBC and media regulator, Ofcom.

In both the US and the UK, it is an article of faith for conservatives that while they are often elected, left-wing liberals control the country's other public institutions. In this mindset, organisations such as Universities, Arts Councils, or the BBC are imposing a left-wing agenda on the nation. A narrow liberal elite is setting the mainstream view on issues like immigration, Brexit and history, often against what is perceived to be actual public opinion. The logic goes that to challenge this liberal consensus, Conservatives should try to gain control of public institutions from the left to offer a plurality of views.

Whether this liberal dominance is fact or not, is a subject for debate. In the UK, for many on the right, the trojan horse of this consensus is the BBC. With the Chairmanship of the BBC up for grabs, as well as its regulator Ofcom, Boris Johnson (egged on by his Chief Adviser, Dominic Cummings) is seemingly pushing controversial candidates towards the two positions. Former Telegraph Editor, Charles Moore has been suggested as BBC Chairman, and former Daily Mail Editor, Paul Dacre as Chair of Ofcom. Both are conservatives with a big C, Brexiteers, and no fans of the BBC. For the left, it's like putting Thanos and Lex Luthor in charge of the planet.

However, this cultural battle is obscuring the real issues facing the BBC. Rows such as whether Rule Britannia should be sung on the Last Night of the Proms are a distraction. 

The big question facing any incoming Chair is less about bias and more about payment. In a world of multiple subscription services and the internet, the licence fee looks increasingly outdated and unsustainable. The Government is to decriminalise non-payment of the licence fee which threatens future revenue. (Charles Moore stopped paying his licence fee years ago in protest.)

The BBC is going to have to embrace change regardless of the Chair. We should be having a serious discussion about the future of the broadcaster. Its size, shape and role in the media landscape. However, the BBC's instinct is to fight change and attack competitors. Whenever anything new arrives, it reacts badly. The night before of the launch of ITV, the BBC had a popular character in The Archers walk into the burning stables to save her horses.  Listeners left in suspect, had to tune in on ITV launch night to find out if Grace Archer has survived the fire (she hadn’t).  Even now, it sometimes moves Strictly Come Dancing to run into the X-Factor, much to the annoyance of ITV.

However, the future will demand the BBC embrace innovation and change its mindset. The BBC is going to need to look at a charging structure, while still being freely available - a combination of a free to air service subsidised by premium channels available to subscribers. 

Success will need greater focus. It is hard for any broadcaster to be all things to all people. The BBC needs to see itself as part of the media mix, not the dominant player fighting off insurgents like Netflix. 

Perhaps leave the talent shows to ITV, and zero in on the drama, documentaries, and natural history in which the BBC has a strong track record. The focus should be on original content that it can sell to broadcasters overseas or streaming services. It could create a paid-for sport offering, especially as the likes of Sky and BT want to reduced cost.  Questions will need to be asked about how many radio stations the BBC needs to operate, the scale of its local TV ambitions, and the size of its online offer. Commercial rivals have long complained about the ubiquity of the BBC. Rather than salami slicing, it is going to have to get more money onto screen, if it is going to keep up with Netflix and Amazon. Not to beat them, but to ensure its shows are of the same ambition and quality. That means fewer channels, fewer radio stations and a focus on particular types of shows. The BBC often sees smaller as worse which is a mistake.

If the BBC competed on fewer fronts, competition could help the BBC. I think the arrival of GB News, a supposed centre right opinion-led, US-style news channel next year is a good thing. Inevitably people start to panic that it will be Fox News, but I doubt the UK could sustain such an overtly partisan channel even if the broadcasting rules were changed. If it is as planned, then GB News will add genuine choice into the news landscape, and I suspect a lot of people will still choose Aunty, especially if it can reverse the trend of newsroom cuts.

A change is coming to the BBC. The BBC should focus on plotting a sustainable future for the organisation. Otherwise, the risk is change is imposed upon it.