Jargon Buster

Here you can find explanations of some of the terms used in Charter Review.

Charter Review: at the end of 2006, the BBC’s Royal Charter expires. Charter Review is the process for reviewing the BBC’s current Royal Charter, Agreement and funding settlement. It is important to all of us who work in the BBC because the Charter is the fundamental basis for the BBC as currently constituted.

The process of Charter Review is therefore underway to establish how the BBC will be constituted and operate after 2006.

PSB: an abbreviation for public service broadcasting.

Green Paper: an outline proposal document used for consultation in the UK.

White Paper: a firm proposal document which aims to become UK Government policy.

Vision Paper: a term used to describe the BBC paper that sets out our vision for the future – Building public value.

Building public value: also known as the BPV, this is the BBC’s contribution to the Charter debate and our vision for the future. It is in the form of a document laying out our ideas and proposals.

DCMS: Department for Culture, Media & Sport, the UK Government department in charge of running the review of our Charter.

Public consultation: the process of questioning, listening and discussion which the DCMS is undertaking to find out what the public wants and needs from the BBC.

The Royal Charter: the document defining the BBC’s purpose and remit, outlining its powers and providing for the licence fee.

The Agreement: the document setting out the agreement between the BBC and the UK Government, recognising the BBC’s editorial independence and setting out its public obligations in detail. This goes with the Royal Charter.

Funding settlement: a detailed agreement on how the BBC is funded.