Last week, the Culture Secretary Maria Miller, announced her intention to undertake an assessment of UK media plurality, informed by a measurement framework to be developed with industry. This is an important subject that the BBC, as the UK’s leading provider of independent and impartial news, is keen to engage with and, in doing so, clear-up some misunderstandings.
Successive Governments have had two core purposes in this area: to keep the BBC as an independent provider of impartial news locally, nationally and internationally. And to ensure that in news provision, no single voice or proprietor can unduly influence public debate or the political process. Overall, the UK has one of the healthiest, most competitive news markets in the world. For the British public, this means access to an ever wider range of opinions and perspectives.
Size matters but not as much as values
Yes, the BBC is a large part of the UK news market. In fact, we over-perform, producing 25% * of TV news minutes broadcast while accounting for 73% of consumption. But size is not the main reason why people choose to consume BBC news. It’s because, as the polling consistently shows, they rate the BBC significantly higher than other UK news providers for trust, accuracy and impartiality.
Licence fee payers regard news as central to what the BBC does. This includes the provision of free-to-use, impartial news online. Despite, or perhaps because of, the increase in the use of pay-walls by commercial providers, 82% of the public want the BBC to continue to provide universal access to news on its website. Only 3% of the public disagree. The future of news is digital, so this finding is important.
Impartiality is a core value of BBC journalism. It is also hard-wired into our governance and regulatory system. The BBC is forbidden, under its Royal Charter, from expressing corporate views in its output. The BBC Trust commissions and publishes independent reports into the impartiality of BBC journalism that are designed to challenge and improve performance. Of course those reports include some criticisms, although the most recent review of the BBC’s news output by Stuart Prebble, a former CEO of ITV, concluded that, overall, the BBC ‘continues to reflect an impressive range of opinion’. It is hard to think of another UK news provider that subjects its editorial standards to the same level of scrutiny and analysis.
The BBC has a pro-plurality impact
Thanks to the security of funding that the licence fee provides, the BBC can invest in areas of journalism that are notoriously expensive, and which tend to be most at risk in purely commercial organisations: for example, newsgathering, undercover reporting and regional/local news. So, for example, keeping open foreign bureaux, employing expert correspondents in every part of the world, gives a reach and a texture to our coverage that is unmatched. And across the UK, the most popular news bulletin is the BBC’s early evening regional news.
Crucially, the BBC’s success is not stopping other companies investing, nor is it preventing people from finding and using other sources of news. Two of the top three newspaper websites in the world are British. Only a small proportion of people - around 10% - get all their news from the BBC. Most people check in on a number of news sources. They find different sources offer them different things – whether the impartial reporting of TV news or the editorials and opinion more often found in newspapers and online. Ofcom has found that on average audiences use 4.8 sources of news. This is likely to increase as more consumption moves online where audiences tend to use more not fewer sources of news. Moreover, the BBC accounts for a smaller share of broadcast revenues than at any time in his history – and that share is continuing to decline.
Counted but not capped
We agree, and always have done, that the consumption of the BBC ought to be measured in any analysis of news plurality – that’s common sense. But the inclusion of the BBC in the measurement of plurality is distinct from the question of whether the BBC should be subject to any new plurality regulation or controls.
It would be perverse if the BBC’s success in fulfilling its public service mission, by reaching large parts of the population with independent and accurate news, were to result in action to constrain its news services. Yes, the BBC should be counted in any review but its news output should not be capped - particularly since there is already a well-established process for regular review of the BBC’s overall size, shape and regulation through Charter Review.
The BBC is a core part of the UK news ecology but it is fundamentally different to the other parts. This is due to the BBC’s public interest remit, impartiality requirements, and extensive governance and regulation. The views of Ofcom and Lord Leveson on the position of the BBC are worth recalling.
Ofcom, in its advice to the Secretary of State on media plurality, noted that the periodic review of the BBC’s Royal Charter and Agreement:
“is a rigorous and detailed inquiry into the purpose and function of the BBC and requires Parliamentary approval. This is unique and ensures that the BBC’s aims are aligned with the public interest.”
Lord Justice Leveson concluded that:
“governance controls in place to ensure internal plurality within the BBC, and the effect of the impartiality requirements meant that its size gives rise to no plurality concerns”.
James Heath is Director of Policy, BBC.
* This figure has been updated since the blog post was originally published on Monday 5 August on account of a typographical error. (Tuesday 6 August 2013)
