Thursday, October 06, 2011

A BBC focused on quality, efficiency and distinctiveness - Trust launches public consultation on proposals for the BBC of the future

The BBC Trust has today launched a public consultation after reviewing a set of proposals from BBC management for changes to the services the Corporation provides and the way it operates.

The proposals aim to set the course for the BBC to the end of its current Charter in 2016, based on a new programme of efficiencies and a clearer focus on the BBC's editorial priorities. 

Together, this will mean savings of around £670m a year by 2016/17. It will also mean a loss of around 2,000 jobs across the BBC. 

The proposals follow the licence fee settlement agreed with the Government in October 2010, which sees the licence fee frozen to 2017, and the BBC assuming new funding responsibilities, including for the World Service, S4C, BBC Monitoring and local TV and broadband. 

They also follow a review last year of the future strategy for the BBC, which culminated in Trust approval for four new strategic priorities for the corporation – distinctiveness, value for money, serving all audiences and openness and transparency. The proposals have been shaped by these priorities. 

The new funding responsibilities require the BBC to make savings equivalent to at least 16 per cent of current licence fee income. The Director-General set an additional four per cent savings target for reinvestment back into programming areas to boost quality and distinctiveness. The £670m of new savings identified, together with £30m of savings generated by exceeding the targets for the BBC's current efficiency programme, will result in total savings by 2016/17 of 20 per cent. 

To achieve these savings, BBC management ran a nine-month consultation process with staff called 'Delivering Quality First' (DQF). The Trust worked with management to set the direction of this work, and the Executive's detailed proposals were formally presented to the Trust at the end of September.
Lord Patten, Chairman of the BBC Trust, said:
"The BBC is far from perfect, but it is a great institution and, at its best, a great broadcaster. We have a tough and challenging new licence fee settlement, but it should still be possible to run an outstanding broadcaster on £3.5bn a year.

"The Trust's view has been clear from the start of this process - the BBC must look to run itself as efficiently as possible before we consider cutting services. Over half of the savings announced today will come from changes to operations, but there will need to be some changes to services, and we now need to test BBC management's proposals for this. We agree with the direction that the Director-General has taken, but we want to hear what the public think, as it is ultimately their BBC."
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(Source : BBC Press Release)

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