Sir Michael Lyons on the new licence fee settlement
Post categories: BBC Monitoring, BBC Trust, S4C, World Service, charter, licence fee
|13:50 PM, Friday, 22 October 2010
In this week's edition of the BBC's in-house newspaper 'Ariel', the main feature is about the heavy workload the BBC's chief operating officer, Caroline Thomson, now has as a result of the recent cull of executive board members. One of her three main responsibilities, it said, was preparing for the renegotiation of the licence fee which was expected to start in 2011 and take a considerable amount of time.
Well hardly had the paper hit the Corporation's corridors than her load suddenly got considerably lighter. On Wednesday the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced that the licence fee would be frozen for six years. The negotiations were over before they had started.
The deal, which means a 16% cut in the BBC's income, was hammered out in an extraordinary last-minute negotiation, so last-minute that no-one told the Board of S4C, the Welsh language television broadcaster, that the BBC was taking it over. The S4C Chairman is now talking of going to judicial review.
The licence fee-payer is now to pay for the BBC World Service and BBC Monitoring as well as for some local initiatives which are dear to the heart of the Culture Secretary, Jeremy Hunt. In the view of some the BBC's independence has been revealed as a mirage since the Corporation has been treated like a Government department caught up in a spending - or rather a cutting - round.
I went to see the Chairman of the BBC Trust, Sir Michael Lyons, shortly after the Chancellor had made his Commons speech. Some BBC executives were shell-shocked by the announcements but Sir Michael was determined to put a positive face on the settlement, perhaps because, as a former council leader, he was well aware of the scale of the cuts which had just been imposed on local authorities.
Here is an extended version of my Feedback interview:
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Do you think listeners should be consulted or are you happy for the decisions to be made on your behalf?
Roger Bolton is presenter of Feedback
- Listen again to this week's Feedback, produced by Karen Pirie, get in touch with Feedback, find out how to join the listener panel or subscribe to the podcast on the Feedback web page.
- Feedback is now on Twitter. Follow @BBCFeedback.
- Steve Hewlett also interviewed Sir Michael Lyons on this week's Media Show.
- The picture shows Sir Michael Lyons, Chair of the BBC Trust.
Comment number 1.
At 15:04 22nd Oct 2010, Briantist wrote:Perhaps BBC World Service could be paid for by BBC Worldwide's profits.
If this was done, then the Licence Fee payer would not be directly responsible for the cost of the World Service.
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Comment number 2.
At 19:17 22nd Oct 2010, Trev wrote:It seems to me this is the first blog which allows people to discuss the licence fee.
The new arrangements shows how desperate the BBC is to preserve the Licence fee system at all costs. I think it is outrageous that Licence payers are being forced to pay for the World Service with no consultation with those paying for it. In fact I am suprised it is constitutional.
Michael Lyons mentions the stratigic review which has not been finished yet. The problem with this settlement is that it must prejudge that review. Also it is very important that Licence Payers are consulted on that review. In the end it is licence payer who should decide what is important to them.
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Comment number 3.
At 00:16 24th Oct 2010, newlach wrote:Does the word "listeners" include the 180 million people worldwide who listen to the BBC "on the house"!
These changes seem to have been prompted by a bit of last minute head-scratching in Downing Street over a troublesome balance sheet. The Government needed to reduce its liabilities and if the BBC Trust had pushed for a consultation to ascertain listeners' views on particular choices, the financial consequences for the Corporation would probably have been worse: unruly children must be disciplined!
Will the change in funding arrangements for the World Service make it more likely that some World Service bureaux may close? When funded by the FCO are there greater political pressures from within countries not to close World Service operations?
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