The UK Government has announced plans to reform the BBC, including establishing an 11-year Charter to separate it from the political cycle and provide long-term stability and independence. The BCC's current Royal Charter expires at end-2016. The Government has outlined a new framework for the BBC to allow it to focus on high quality, distinctive content which informs, educates and entertains while also serving all audiences.
The key reforms include a new mission statement for the corporation and a new unitary board with 12-14 members. The BBC will be responsible for appointing at least half of these board members, and Ofcom will become the external independent regulator of the BBC. The current Chair of the BBC Trust will continue as Chair of the BBC through to the end of their current term to ensure a smooth transition.
The licence fee level will be increased in line with inflation for five years from 2017/2018, and be updated to require all those who consume BBC on-demand content (e.g. on BBC iPlayer) to pay the licence fee. The Charter will also allow the BBC to pilot some elements of subscription in addition to their current services.
The BBC's programme-making will be opened to greater competition by removing the in-house guarantee for all television content spend except news and news-related current affairs. A new contestable public service content fund of up to GBP 60 million will also be created to create new opportunities for others to provide public service broadcasting content.
The new BBC Board will be required to investigate issues relating to excessive management layers and overall staffing levels. The BBC will also be required to provide more information to help licence fee payers understand how the broadcaster spends its budget between different types of programming, and details of pay and benefits to talent paid over GBP 450,000. The National Audit Office (NAO) will become the BBC's financial auditor.
The Government will also make sure that the BBC protects licence fee funding for the World Service at its current level of GBP 254 million a year, plus a total of GBP 289 million additional funding until 2020. A draft version of the Charter will be published in the coming months, with the new Charter expected to come into force from 01 January 2017.
In response to the White Paper, BBC Director-General Tony Hall said that it delivered a mandate for the strong, creative BBC the public believe in. He added that it reaffirmed the BBC's mission to inform, educate and entertain all audiences on television, on radio and online. However, he expressed concern about the proposals for the unitary board, adding that they required further consideration. In terms of process, the BBC thinks that the chairman and deputy chairman should be appointed by the Government through an independent public appointments process.
