Tony Hall sets out our plans for the BBC's programmes and services
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BBC Director General Tony Hall speaks at the Future of the BBC Event on Monday 7 September at the Science Museum in London.
This morning, Monday 7 September 2015, BBC Director General Tony Hall presented his vision for the future of the BBC at an event at the Science Museum in London.
He said:
"When I was asked to return to the BBC I knew that I would be here for the great Charter Review on which we have now embarked and I welcomed that prospect.
That is because I saw that while the Review would present great challenges, it would also give us great opportunities. Opportunities to hear the views of others, to learn, to reflect on new ways we can serve our audiences - and to change as technology changes.
Therefore, opportunities to reshape what we do as the needs and expectations of our audiences change and grow. And opportunities for this generation of the BBC to leave its mark on the information age.
And as we conduct this open, thoughtful exchange about the future of the BBC, we should set out our starting point.
We live in one of the most creative and advanced information societies in the world. And the BBC has been vital to that success.
In that British way, with a healthy helping of accident and a fair bit of design, we hit on something that worked. An organisation that could ensure extraordinary universal public provision while fostering one of the most impressive and diverse media markets anywhere in the world.
And the licence fee has been critical to that. Because the BBC was funded by the licence fee, it had creative freedom. Because it was funded by the licence fee, it could be universal. Because it was funded by the audience, we needed to nurture a relationship of trust and consent.
Creative freedom. Universal reach. Trust and consent. These are the watchwords of the BBC."
The audience was made up of luminaries from the broadcast world including Sir David Attenborough (pictured above).
At the end of his speech - which you can read in full on the Media Centre website - or watch in the video at the top of the page, Professor Brian Cox took to the podium, you can hear what he had to say in the video below.
Professor Brian Cox introduces an element of the BBC's proposed 'Ideas Service'
- Read the report The Future of the BBC 2015
- Also see the press release on the Media Centre - An open, more distinctive BBC
- And read Tony Hall's speech in full
