Memorandum submitted by Stephen Games
The value of the BBC, for me, is that it is
a public body and should be experienced by its viewers and listeners
and internet users as such—that is, as a refuge from the
commercial imperatives that characterise other broadcasters. While
the BBC pays lip service to this imperative in its tradition of
not taking paid advertisements, its output is now saturated with
advertisements for its own "product", and any benefit
that might have accrued from its notional insulation from having
to earn income by selling airtime and web space has been entirely
lost. What one experiences when viewing or listening to BBC output
is a wholly commercialised broadcasting culture.
In addition, it has discovered so many ruses
and loopholes that allow it to commercialise its product and its
presenters as to render its special status now meaningless. I
refer to the activities of its various trading arms, to beeb.com,
to its merchandising, to the sale of its programmes to other satellite
channels that do carry advertising, and to its ownership and part
ownerships of other vehicles. (The acquisition of Lonely Planet
is one good example.) I refer also to the way in which presenters
who have made their names as BBC faces or voices are allowed to
exploit their BBC identities by appearing elsewhere, in the media
and otherwise. The effect can only be, again, to make the BBC's
special status meaningless.
In addition, I am concerned that the BBC's entire
thrust is now no longer that of a British broadcaster but a global
broadcaster, and that the type and level of activity that such
a role has brought to it now force it to generate revenues far
in excess of what it derives from the licence fee.
For all these reasons, I can no longer see any
point in the BBC retaining its special status. It now has too
much dominance and too much protection, and it is abusing both
(as several recent causes celebres have amply demonstrated). Since
history cannot be reversed, I think it should be cut free and
allowed to find its own way commercially. Even if there remains
a case for the preserving the licence fee, the BBC no longer deserves
to monopolise it. It does nothing that other broadcasters do not
do equally well; in too many areas it stands for no special virtues;
and it should therefore no longer enjoy any special favour.
October 2008
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