A FUTURE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL WORLD

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A FUTURE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION Above all, however, it seeks to highlight the conditions that may allow for the production and circulation of high quality, creative and relevant public service content in these complex circumstances rather than to dwell only on the specific apparatuses through which this content is likely to be consumed. In doing this, we draw inspiration from a previous investigation into the future of broadcasting that also sought to examine the purposes of broadcasting. In 1962, the report of the Pilkington committee recommended the adoption of colour television licences and the creation of a further television channel to be run by the BBC. The report, however, was far more than a mere list of policy prescriptions and technological missives, but a searing indictment of the direction of travel of British television under the influence of a growing commercial mindset and an increasing number of programmes imported from the USA. It advocated measures designed to revitalise the idea of public service broadcasting and to foster a more creative and robust public culture. The Pilkington report was perhaps best known for its hard-hitting critique of the “emotional tawdriness and mental timidity” of a new “candy-floss world” 13 that was epitomised by commercial television. Television’s power to influence and persuade, it argued, was being abused in the search for cheap thrills and high ratings, a situation from which the BBC too was not immune. This “lack of variety and originality, an adherence to what was ‘safe’” was directly related to TV’s “unwillingness to try challenging, demanding and, still less, uncomfortable subject matter.” 14 Critics attacked the report as elitist and moralising when, in fact, it made a very strong case for an expansion, and not a narrowing, of content. In words that resonate today given contemporary debates about whether public service broadcasters should restrict themselves to areas left vacant by their competitors, Pilkington argued that: No one can say he is giving the public what it wants, unless the public knows the whole range of possibilities which television can offer and, from this range, chooses what it wants to see. For a choice is only free if the field of choice is not unnecessarily restricted. The subject matter of television is to be found in the whole scope and variety of human awareness and experience. 15 Public service television, if it is to show the full diversity of its audience base, needs to make available the broadest range of content while, at the same time, it cannot afford to turn away from the responsibility to engage minority interests. Television, the report argued, “must pay particular attention to those parts of the range of worthwhile experience which lie beyond the most common; to those parts which some have explored here and there but few everywhere.” 16 Many of these comments remain relevant to today’s highly contested debates on the future of television and we agree with Professor Julian Petley’s notion that “the caricature of the Report as an elitist, moralistic, killjoy charter has been far too useful to the enemies of public service broadcasting…to have been allowed to fade into the obscurity which it deserves.” 17 Pilkington contributed to a hugely important debate about the contribution that television could make to public life and private interests. 13 Sir Harry Pilkington, Report of the Committee on Broadcasting 1960, London: HMSO, 1962, p. 34. 14 Ibid., p. 16. 15 Ibid., p. 17. 16 Ibid., pp. 19-20. 17 Julian Petley, submission to the Inquiry. 10
PSB channels 71.9% All other channels 28.1% Public service channels (including portfolio channels) continue to dominate the majority of our viewing Source: Ofcom 11
Page 1 and 2: A FUTURE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVIS
Page 3 and 4: Contents Foreword by David Puttnam
Page 5 and 6: To instruct democracy, if possible
Page 7 and 8: Welcome Television is leading a cha
Page 9: CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL
Page 13 and 14: CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL
Page 15 and 16: Why television matters Television i
Page 19 and 20: 1982 1990s 2012 The BBC-ITV duopoly
Page 23 and 24: Time for action Today’s policymak
Page 29 and 30: Basic principles At the core of pre
Page 39 and 40: The multichannel revolution Perhaps
Page 51 and 52: The BBC For most people, the BBC is
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CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL
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Channel 4 If the BBC is the most im
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Only 8% of Channel 4’s total spen
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ITV and Channel 5 The focus of atte
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The changing face of ITV 1993-2002
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New sources of public service conte
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Television and diversity We have ea
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THE PEOPLE SHOULD BE TELEVISED If t
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Nations and Regions Public service
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Content diversity One of the key wa
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Sports content now accounts for som
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Talent development and training In
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Conclusion Television is changing.
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Recommendations General The UK’s
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Appointing the BBC board Sir David
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APPLICATION OF THE NOLAN PRINCIPLES
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BAFTA members’ survey delivered i
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Public service broadcasting, public
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Inquiry events Do we still need pub
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Acknowledgements Inquiry Report Con
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A FUTURE FOR PUBLIC SERVICE TELEVISION CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL WORLD

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