“Radical reform” to deliver a more focused BBC

The BBC today unveiled what it terms ”a radical programme of reform” which, says the Corporation, means it will continue to deliver the highest quality content to audiences but will also make it available when and how they want it. 

Following approval by the BBC Trust, the six-year plan will deliver a smaller but fitter organisation, says a BBC press release. According to the press release, every part of the BBC will be required to make efficiency savings, with every penny freed up reinvested in high quality, distinctive content and the way audiences consume it.

 The plan, Delivering Creative Future, rests on three fundamental propositions:

1. A focus on quality – to provide fewer but better, more innovative and more distinctive programmes.
2. A digital step change – to offer audiences programmes wherever and whenever they want them – from iPlayer to My BBC Radio, audiences will be able to find, play and share BBC content. To help deliver this ambition, largely separate TV, radio and web news operations will integrate into a multimedia newsroom.
3. A smaller BBC - which the Corporation believes will provide best value to audiences.  

BBC Director-General Mark Thompson told staff today: “Media is transforming. Audiences are transforming. It would be easy to say that the sheer pace of this revolution is too fast for the BBC. That for us to do what other media players are doing – integrating newsrooms, mixing media, exploiting the same content aggressively across different platforms – is just too radical … but I think we can see both here and around the world the price you pay for taking what looks like the safe option. I’ve devoted almost my whole working life to the BBC, much of that not as a suit but as a rank-and-file programme-maker. I love the BBC and what it stands for. I care too much to see it drift steadily into irrelevance.” 

Over the next six years, the BBC will focus particularly on enhancing quality output in Journalism, Drama, Knowledge and Comedy programming.  There will also be more production from across the country for the BBC’s UK network, delivered for example through investments in mediacity:UK at Salford and Pacific Quay in Glasgow.  

Key objectives of the reform plan include: 

• Meeting demanding efficiency targets of 3% per year
• Making 10% less originated programming in television by 2012/13, cutting lower impact programming to focus on fewer, higher quality, programmes
• A radical reform of factual programme-making to ensure a sustainable in-house production base which will maintain this output at the heart of the BBC
• A decision, approved separately by the BBC Trust, to reduce the size of the property portfolio in west London by selling BBC Television Centre by the end the financial year 2012/13.

A range of earlier proposals for new activities amounting to £1.5billion over the next six years have been dropped, including four full new local radio stations, and there have been cuts to the budget for BBC Three (£10million) and its new teen service. 

Overall, the BBC estimates it will make approximately 1,800 redundancies by the end of the six-year period. It expects to close an estimated 2,500 positions between now and 2012/2013, with the areas of News and Factual production most affected. According to the Corporation, the impact on staff will be significantly lessened by fresh investment that will create new jobs and by natural staff turnover. 

Summarising what these plans would mean for the BBC by 2012/13, Mark Thompson told staff that “there will be a smaller BBC, but one which packs a bigger punch because it is more focused on quality and the content that really makes a difference to audiences. And it will be a BBC which is fully prepared for digital”.

(Source: BBC Press Office)