BBC

What is the BBC?

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is an independent, publicly-funded television and radio broadcasting organisation, with extensive interests in programme production, news gathering and commercial publishing.

Until 1955 the BBC was the only TV broadcaster in the UK, and it was the only legal radio broadcaster until 1973 (although it competed with many "pirate" radio stations during the 1960s).

Since its launch, the BBC has been funded by licence fees - originally for both TV and radio, but since 1971, only for TV. The licence fee is £135.50 per year for a colour television and £45.50 for black and white (rising to £139.50 and £47.00 respectively from April 1st), and all TV set owners are obliged to pay it. The level of the licence fee is set by the Government.

This method of funding means that the BBC's activities are not influenced by the interests of shareholders or of advertisers.

As an autonomous corporation under Royal Charter, the BBC is headed by a Board of Governors, of 12 members, led by the Chairman. Its operational management is the responsibility of an Executive Committee of divisional directors, headed by the Director General. Having this organisational form, the BBC is also intended to be free from political influence - although throughout its history, the Corporation has found itself frequently at odds with the Government of the day.

The BBC is subject to Public Service Broadcasting requirements under its Charter, which is reviewed every ten years. Its Board of Governors exercise many of the regulatory functions that OFCOM performs in respect of other broadcasters.

Background

The BBC began life as the British Broadcasting Company in 1922, as an initiative of a consortium of companies including Marconi, GEC, British Thomson Houston, Metropolitan Vickers, Western Electric and the Radio Communication Company, intended to encourage public take-up of radio technology. By 1925, most of the UK was covered by BBC radio transmissions.

At this time, the BBC was dominated by the vision of its general manager, John Reith, who saw the Company as a model for an independent broadcaster with a mission to educate, inform and entertain the whole nation, free from political interference and commercial pressures.

In its earliest days, the newspaper industry successfully ensured that the BBC could not compete with its monopoly of news services. The Company was forbidden from broadcasting news until 7pm each day. When newspapers ceased to be published during the General Strike of 1926, the public turned to their radios for news. John Reith successfully convinced the Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin to reject calls from Winston Churchill and others to take the BBC into state control during the strike.

In 1927, the BBC changed its name to the British Broadcasting Corporation, on receipt of its Royal Charter.

In 1936, the BBC began to broadcast television pictures, with services and technology improving dramatically between 1936 and 1939. Television was closed down for the duration of the Second World War, but the public soon became highly dependent on the BBC's radio services. By the end of the war, nearly half the population was listening to the Nine O'Clock News each evening, and the BBC was broadcasting in 40 languages. Josef Goebbels himself admitted that the BBC had won the "intellectual invasion" of Europe.

However, radio's dominance was eclipsed in June 1953, with the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. 22 million people watched the coronation, and it was a critical event in generating public enthusiasm for the technology. Nonetheless, the weakness of the BBC's output was exposed in 1955, with the launch of ITV, which saw the BBC's share of TV viewers sink to just 27 per cent in 1957.

Other key events in the history of the BBC are the launch of BBC 2 in 1964, BBC Radio 1 and colour television in 1967, CEEFAX in 1974, the launch of commercial radio in 1973, and the consolidation of the BBC's now diverse commercial activities as BBC Enterprises Ltd (now BBC Worldwide) in 1979.

The 1980s was a time of critical changes for the BBC, with the launch of Channel 4 in 1982, the proliferation of commercial radio stations and the development of multi-channel satellite TV. A 1985 demand by the Governors that changes be made to the documentary "Real Lives" about Northern Irish paramilitaries, at the request of the Home Secretary Leon Brittan, was the culmination of a long series of run-ins with the Thatcher government, and led to a strike by news staff, who feared that political impartiality had been compromised. The decade also saw the introduction of an internal market, again at under pressure from the Government, which was further developed in sweeping organisational changes under director general John Birt in the 1990s. The changes saw programme commissioners obliged to choose between in-house producers and facilities and external companies. The BBC also sold its transmitter network in the early 1990s.

The Charter review of 1996 saw the BBC undertake a programme of "Extending Choice", by offering programming that commercial broadcasters would not produce.

The early 21st Century saw the BBC moving into digital services, rolling out a range of new television and radio services.

Controversies

The BBC and many of its supporters argue that the Corporation is the most widely-respected broadcaster in the world. However, recent events and trends - combined with the BBC's position at the heart of the British media - have made it a particularly controversial subject.

Throughout its history, the BBC has clashed with the Government of the day over its news reporting. During the Suez Crisis of 1956, the Eden Government considered taking control of the BBC because of perceived bias. The BBC has long been accused by those on the right of having an institutional bias towards Labour, but 2003 and 2004 saw it clash with the Blair Government in one of the most bitter and damaging rows of recent times, over the war in Iraq, the death of MoD scientist Dr David Kelly, and the BBC's alleged anti-war agenda.

The refusal of the BBC to give an apology, demanded by the Prime Minister, Alistair Campbell and other Ministers, for a report claiming that the dossier on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction had been "sexed up" (the source for which had been Dr Kelly, who later killed himself), lead to the establishment of the Hutton Inquiry to investigate the matter. The Hutton report, published in January 2004, virtually exonerated the Government of any wrongdoing and laid much of the blame on the BBC's editorial processes - causing Director General Greg Dyke and Chairman Gavyn Davies, both former Labour donors, to resign.

Many feared in the immediate aftermath of this crisis that the BBC's news coverage would be emasculated. While this concern has not yet come to fruition, Charter Review is due to take place in 2006, under the superintendence of the DCMS with concern about the stress this may place on the Corporation's editorial policies.
It is not, however, only the BBC's news services that have generated controversy. The BBC's response to modern trends in broadcasting have been widely debated.

The wisdom and fairness of the BBC pumping large sums of money into developing digital TV and radio services, and a substantial presence on the Internet, is frequently questioned. Accessing many of the services launched since the 1990s requires a subscription of the purchase of special equipment. It is claimed that this is exclusive, and an unreasonable use of licence payers' money, if many licence payers are unable to use the services.

At the same time, the BBC has frequently been accused of "dumbing down" its programming, in order to compete with commercial broadcasters for ratings. Critics of the BBC frequently allege that programming quality is in decline, and accuse of the Corporation of seeking only to entertain at the expense of education. Where the BBC does remain a bastion of "high culture", it is alleged that the Corporation ghettoises such programming, on channels such as BBC Four and late at night.

The BBC's defenders argue that a digital presence is essential to the long-term future of the Corporation and the need to retain audience share in order to justify the licence fee. They point to the insignificance of Public Service Broadcasters elsewhere in the world, such as the CBC in Canada, as demonstrating the necessity of the BBC remaining relevant to the widest possible section of the public.

Many debates about the BBC boil down to the licence fee. Everyone who owns a TV set is liable, with criminal penalties for non-payment, whatever use they make of BBC services. Opponents condemn this as a regressive tax, which is deeply prejudicial to competition in broadcasting and simply unfair on other broadcasters. The BBC strongly defends the licence fee - even broadcasting adverts in its defence - arguing that it is only its reliance on funding that comes neither from private sponsors nor from the Government that enables it to produce the sort of programming that it does.

Statistics

In 2002-2003, the BBC received £2,659 million in licence fees, collected by Capita and AMV

Its other sources of funding that year were £147 million from commercial activities, £201 million in grants from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for the World Service, and £16.1 million from subscriptions and £6.6 million from other World Service sources. The BBC also receives funds from property and interest

The BBC produces eight licence-fee funded TV channels: BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC Four, CBeebies, CBBC, BBC News 24 and BBC Parliament

The BBC broadcasts ten licence-fee funded national radio stations: Radio One, Radio Two, Radio Three, Radio Four, Radio Five Live, 1Xtra, Five Live Sports Extra, 6 Music Live, BBC Seven and BBC Asian Network. It also broadcasts a network of local and regional services

Statistics 1 and 2: (Source: BBC Annual Report, 2003); Statistics 3 and 4: (Source: BBCi, 2004)

Quotes

"Nation Shall Speak Truth Unto Nation."

BBC Motto

"The Corporation shall at all times refrain from sending any broadcast matter expressing the opinion of the Corporation on current affairs or public policy."

BBC Licence and Agreement, 1996

"The licence fee is an enormous privilege and an enormous responsibility…It is right and proper that we should have to justify our continued access to it, and that access should only come if we are seen to be living up to the obligations it brings."

Caroline Thomson, BBC Director of Public Policy, 2003