Examination of Witnesses (Questions 178
- 179)
TUESDAY 29 JUNE 2004
BSKYB
Chairman: Good Morning, gentleman. It
is very nice indeed to see you, as always. We are going to launch
straight into the questioning. John Thurso.
Q178 John Thurso: Can I begin with
a pretty straightforward question. From your perspective, is there
really any need for a BBC? Should the BBC actually exist?
Mr Freudenstein: A big question
to start with! I think you really need to look at why you want
a BBC and what it is there to achieve; and I think in that we
probably agree with some of the things that witnesses to this
Committee have said before, such as Sir Christopher Bland earlier
in the month said, I think in general terms, "the BBC is
there to provide a quality and range of programmes that will not
always or frequently have been provided by commercial television
and commercial radio". So I think there is a role for the
BBC in terms of providing high quality programming that would
not be provided by the commercial stations. I think there is also
a role for them to lead the way in innovation and risk, if that
is what society thinks is important.
Q179 John Thurso: If one looks at
the BBC and the way it has developed, it has moved into a lot
of areas which might be considered the province of the commercial
operators and clearly the boundary between what it is appropriate
for the BBC to do and how far they go is one that needs to be
debated. In your view where should that boundary be drawn? What
is the preserve of the BBC and adds the value that you have just
described, and where is it that they trespass into the areas you
would really like them to keep out of?
Mr Freudenstein: I think you keep
bringing it back to what does society want to see? What programming
and content does society want to see provided? Is that being provided
by the market? If it is not being provided by the market, then
the BBC should provide it, then you have to have a debate about
how much money they need to do that and then you can have a debate
about how you fund it. The one thing that is clear is that, however
that is decided, you need to set a pretty clear remit for what
you want the BBC to do. An example is what has happened with BBC
3. For the first time there has been a remit and some rules laid
down about what the channel should be, and the emphasis is on
being distinctive from what commercial channels provide, and then
you need someone to make sure they live by the rules.
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