Public Service Broadcasting Must Survive In The Digital Age

Public service broadcasting mustn't be allowed to wither and die as multi-channel consumer choice takes off. That's the message from the latest National Consumer Council report - a message reinforced by new research into consumer attitudes to TV and radio services.

NCC's report1 examines the issue of public service broadcasting from the consumer point of view and in the context of today's rapidly changing and converging broadcast technologies.

It calls on the Government to ensure that amid the explosion of multi-channel, subscription-based consumer choice, a diverse range of high quality programming remains available to everyone through free-to-air TV and radio. According to NCC, this is unlikely to be delivered by the market, unless broadcasters are given public service obligations.

Launching the report NCC Director Anna Bradley said:

"The current debate about whether the BBC should levy a digital surcharge on top of the existing licence fee is a red herring. It focuses only on the BBC, a major but by no means the only, player in the ever-expanding broadcasting field. It distracts everyone from the wider issues that are important to consumers as the new broadcasting age dawns - accessible and affordable services offering real diversity and choice.

"What we need is an open debate on how public policy on the whole of broadcasting - and not just the BBC - should develop. "It's a debate too important to be left to broadcasters alone. There must be input from consumers - the viewers and listeners for whom TV and radio are an integral part of family and cultural life. The lack of consumer input so far demonstrates how urgently consumers need an independent communications consumer council to represent their interests and deal with complaints - something we have long called for.

"We urge the Government to carry out a review of the whole of public service broadcasting and consider the widest number of options for its future. With the Government already taking the welcome step of re-examining broadcasting legislation in advance of the Broadcasting Bill, now would be an appropriate time for such a review."

NCC's report points out that the structure of public service broadcasting has developed haphazardly from the time when the BBC was the one and only broadcaster in this country. Now it's time to go back to first principlesand ask how public service broadcasting should be defined, delivered, funded and regulated.

NCC argues that universal access to free-to-air TV and radio services - the cornerstone of public service broadcasting - remains essential for several reasons. Not only should it ensure that everyone has access to quality TV and radio, regardless of income, but it also plays an important part in sustaining cultural and social cohesion in the UK.

According to the report, so embedded has TV and radio become in our lives2 that it provides the shared frame of reference for how we see ourselves and the rest of the world. It is the social glue that bonds us through shared experience and perceptions.

Focus group research3 carried out last month for NCC underlines just how important and valued public service broadcasting is among the public. They sense that free-to-air TV has - and should have - obligations to provide a varied schedule.

In particular, the BBC has a special place in the public's heart. They see the BBC as trustworthy and the guardian of impartial and authoritative broadcasting - indeed THE public service broadcaster. On the other hand, there is a level of confusion about which broadcasters currently have public service obligations.

And there are signs that the public is disenchanted by the cost of the licence fee. In a separate MORI poll of 2,000 adults4 questioned last month for NCC on attitudes to the licence fee, only 3 in 10 said the licence fee was reasonable. Twice as many - 6 in 10 - said the licence fee was unreasonable. That disenchantment is much more intense at lower income levels than among the more affluent5.

These findings support NCC's view that the licence fee is regressive and not necessarily the best way forward for funding the BBC's public service role in the future. It is unfair on - and unloved by - the less well-off. What's more, the existence of the licence fee misleads the public about which broadcasters currently have public service broadcasting obligations (ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and S4C as well as the BBC)6.

NCC believes that as a major provider of public service broadcasting, the BBC needs to be more accountable than it is now - most of the time it isregulated by its own Governors. As the Council has argued before, the BBC - together with other broadcasters - should be regulated by a single communications regulatory body covering all the rapidly converging communications industries - TV, radio, IT and telecoms.

NCC's report puts forward suggestions for how public service broadcasting might be funded in the future - for instance, through taxation or a dedicated 'public service' fund. Such a fund might be open to other broadcasters to make public service programmes, as well the BBC, and would make the funding of public service broadcasting more open and accountablethan it is now.

1. Tuning in to Consumers: re-inventing public service broadcasting in the digital era, 16316 from the National Consumer Council Tel 0207 730 3469.
2. One-third of all children now have a TV in their bedroom. Five times as many of us (71%) name TV rather than newspapers (14%) as our first source of world news. (Source: ITC 1998 Television The Public's View) Seven in every ten of us say we watch TV because it is a pleasant way to spend an evening. (Source: ITC 1998 Television Across the Years)
3. MORI conducted a focus group discussion for NCC on Tues 23 November 1999 with respondents between the ages of 29 and 57, representing social classes BC1C2D. All watched TV and listened to radio 'sometimes' or 'regularly'. Half the respondents had satellite or cable TV at home. Details of the group discussions are in NCC's public services broadcasting summary included in the launch press pack and available from NCC press office.
4. On behalf of NCC, MORI carried out face-to-face interviews with 2003 adults over the age of 15 in their own homes between 19 and 22 November 1999. They were asked about the reasonableness of the licence fee and their opinions of the quality and choice offered by TV (terrestrial and digital/cable/satellite) and radio (BBC and commercial). Findings from the survey are in NCC's public services broadcasting summary included in the launch press pack and available from NCC press office.
5. Responses from those with household income above 30,000 a year gave the licence fee a 'net reasonable' score of 7%; those with household income between 17,500 and 30,000 a year gave the licence fee a negative 'net reasonable' score of -24%. The score falls even further negative (down to -50%) among those with household income below 17,500 a year. (Net reasonable score is the difference between the % of people in each category who think the licence fee is reasonable and those who think it's unreasonable. A positive score means that more rate the licence fee as reasonable as rate it unreasonable. The bigger the negative % score the greater the proportion of people think the licence fee is unreasonable.)
6. Full details of the current obligations on broadcasters to provide public services are described in Chapter 3 of Tuning in to Consumers.

About the NCC The National Consumer Council was set up by the Government in 1975 to represent the interests of UK consumers of goods and services of all kinds, both in the public and private sectors. It is an independent body which campaigns, conducts research and supports other consumer organisations. It has a particular responsibility to represent disadvantaged consumers.