BBC's public purposes

Today the BBC's primary purpose is, as it has always been, to enrich the lives of everyone in the UK with a range programmes that inform, educate and entertain. As such, the BBC is able to contribute to the quality of life in society as a whole.

In order to do this successfully, it must also offer value for people as individuals and as citizens. It needs to touch people’s lives in ways that contribute to their individual enjoyment, self-fulfilment and to their ability to participate in our society. In other words it must create public value.

Outside the UK, we are the UK's voice in the world.

In Building public value the BBC set out its aims to create public value in five main ways:

Democratic value: the BBC supports civic life and national debate by providing trusted, impartial and in-depth news and information that help people make sense of the world – on terrestrial and digital television, local and network radio, and online – and encourages them to engage with it
Cultural and creative value: the BBC enriches the UK’s cultural life by bringing the UK’s best creative talents and audiences together to break new ground and provide a diverse range of memorable, uplifting and enjoyable programmes – from comedy to religion, from drama to music, from entertainment to the arts
Educational value: by offering a wide range of accessible programmes and services that feed curiosity and enable people to learn throughout their lives – across all ages and needs, using every medium, to help build a society strong in knowledge and skills
Social and community value: by enabling the UK’s many communities to see what they hold in common and how they differ, providing programmes and services that connect communities, bring people together and encourage participation to help build social cohesion and tolerance through greater understanding
Global value: the BBC supports the UK’s global role by being the world’s most trusted provider of international news and information, and by showcasing the best of British culture to a global audience – including BBC World Service, BBC World and BBC Prime, and by developing long-term global co-production and broadcast partners

In the BBC's vision document, Building public value, we set out that around the world we will:

in a world of instability and mistrust, build the BBC's reputation as the world's most trusted broadcaster of news and information through our international radio, television and global online servicesuse multimedia platforms, especially the internet, to generate a true global conversationwork to establish a firmer financial foundation for our international television news channel, BBC World, for the long termextend existing strategic joint ventures, such as Discovery Communications, to help showcase British talent and culture around the world
use our global presence to bring a richer international dimension to domestic programmes, helping connect people in a multicultural UK to their international roots

The BBC believes that the need for creating and building public value in broadcasting has never been greater and as the broadcast environment evolves – across television, radio and new and emerging media platforms – and as society changes, the BBC will continue to have a vital role to play.

These public purposes form the basis of renewing the BBC for a digital world as set out in our Building public value document.

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