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

CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL WORLD
The announcement by the BBC to locate
several departments in Birmingham, including
its centre of excellence for skills, recruitment
and talent development, Diversity Unit and
HR functions is very welcome and, in part,
a response to the energetic campaign run
in the city to secure improved broadcast
representation.
The BBC’s agreement to move its online
channel, BBC Three, to Birmingham by
2018 is more evidence of a willingness to
reflect demands for greater investment
in infrastructure outside of London. We
would also strongly recommend that, given
its statutory remit to reflect the cultural
diversity of the UK, Channel 4 continues to
think seriously about moving at least some
of its operations from SW1 to Birmingham or
another currently under-represented area,
and that it strengthens its nations and regions
office in Glasgow.
We believe that it may be worth revisiting
the BBC’s local television proposal that was
ultimately rejected by the BBC Trust in 2008,
following heavy lobbying by the newspaper
industry, on the grounds that its public value
was not sufficient then to offset market
impact concerns. 386 In a revised form, such
a proposal – creating partnerships between
the BBC and local news organizations, both
commercial and not-for-profit, as has been
raised in the government’s white paper 387
– might help to address the immense local
democratic deficit in English regions. The
existing commercial Local TV model, as we
have already discussed elsewhere, has not
been able to find the necessary investment
for in-depth local news and a creative use
of the BBC’s infrastructure would galvanise
television at a local level.
We are not arguing that these devolutionary
changes should be at the expense of core
PSB services for the UK where demand
remains strong across the nations and
regions. Indeed, some of the highest viewing
figures for network content are in Wales;
that fact does not preclude the need, at
the same time, for more Welsh content. As
John McCormick of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh put it in relation to Scotland, “it’s
important to find a way of articulating the
need for adequate Scottish public service
broadcasting without losing sight of the value
of existing provision from London, from which
we all benefit enormously. And the desirability
of not harming it.” 388 Our point is that public
service television – and this is not restricted
to the BBC alone – will be strengthened if
it is restructured on a more democratic and
accountable basis that recognises both the
demand for UK-wide content as well as a
growing appetite for output that fits the
changing political configuration of the UK in
the 21st century.
386
BBC Trust, ‘BBC Trust rejects local video proposals’, November 21, 2008.
387
BBC white paper, 2016, p. 73.
388
Comments at Inquiry event, Royal Society of Edinburgh, April 16, 2016.
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