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

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CHAPTER TWO PRINCIPLES OF PUBLIC SERVICE FOR THE 21ST CENTURY 28
Basic principles At the core of previous normative frameworks for public service broadcasting are four interrelated concepts: independence, universality, citizenship and quality. 53 We believe that these norms have not yet evolved to meet the challenges posed by digital platforms, increasing cultural diversity as well as the stubborn inequalities of modern Britain. This report believes that the purposes of what we might, for the purposes of this chapter, call public service media (PSM), as opposed to public service broadcasting (PSB), are not diminished but expanded in the digital era. We explore these principles in relation to PSM as a whole but we are particularly mindful of the crucial role in delivering public service played by the BBC and Channel 4 both now and in the future. Independence Independence is, of course, enshrined in the BBC’s current royal charter which says that the BBC “shall be independent in all matters concerning the content of its output, the times and manner in which this is supplied, and in the management of its affairs.” 54 Strikingly, the charter does not concern itself with the structural conditions that create or impede this independence and we believe that, from this point on, any governing document should concern itself with these conditions. The Broadcasting Research Unit (BRU), reflecting on these issues some 30 years ago, insisted on the need for “distance from all vested interests, and in particular from those of the government of the day.” 55 We argue in Chapter 4 that, particularly in relation to the BBC, this independence has been undermined and needs new structural foundations. Universality Universality has three important and distinctive meanings: a) The first is technical and geographical universality: in other words universal access to services, ideally free at the point of use. As the BRU put it, public service broadcasting “should be available to the whole population”. 56 b) The second meaning concerns social and cultural universality: the provision of services and programming, as academics Georgina Born and Tony Prosser have argued, the provision of services that enhance “social unity through the creation of a ‘common culture’”, as well as those “that cater for and reflect the interests of the full social and cultural diversity of Britain and its minorities.” 57 Similarly for the BRU: “Broadcasters should recognise their special relationship to the sense of national identity” while “[m]inorities, especially disadvantaged minorities, should receive particular provision”. 58 Crucial to this sense of universality, and at the heart of PSB since its inception, is the relationship between commonality and plurality: between the creation of a national culture through mass modes of address and the need to recognise and reflect minorities – from the four nations and all the regions of 53 This chapter draws heavily on Georgina Born’s paper, ‘Rethinking the Principles of Public Service Media’, delivered at the Inquiry’s event on the same topic, British Academy, March 3, 2016. 54 BBC charter, October 2006, 6 (1). 55 Broadcasting Research Unit, The Public Service Idea in British Broadcasting: Main Principles, London: BRU, 1986, p. 9. 56 BRU, 1986, p. 1. 57 Georgina Born and Tony Prosser, ‘Culture and Consumerism: Citizenship, Public Service Broadcasting and the BBC”s Fair Trading Obligations’, Modern Law Review, 64(5), 2001, p. 676. 58 BRU, 1986, p. 7, p. 5. 29
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 and 10: CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL
Page 11 and 12: PSB channels 71.9% All other channe
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 27: CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL
Page 39 and 40: The multichannel revolution Perhaps
Page 51 and 52: The BBC For most people, the BBC is
Page 67 and 68: Channel 4 If the BBC is the most im
Page 71 and 72: Only 8% of Channel 4’s total spen
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ITV and Channel 5 The focus of atte
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CONTENT AND PLATFORMS IN A DIGITAL
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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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