Ideas Are Nice, Execution Is Everything

Michael Hedges July 14, 2014 Follow on Twitter

The most successful business models rise from inspiration. History teaches well and boundaries are essential for creative solutions. Stealing ideas works, too. It’s all fair game and public broadcasters need not be shrinking violets.

UK public broadcaster BBC is to begin opening nearly all programming to outside independent producers. “We are going to go further than we have ever done before in opening the BBC to more competition,” said general director Tony Hall in a speech at City University of London, quoted by the Guardian (July 10). “A competition revolution,” he said.

Heretofore BBC content has been, largely, “managed competition,” he explained; 25% coming from independent producers specifically, 50% in-house and 25% from bidding between the two. “I want a less regulated system that ensures that both our own BBC producers and those of the independent sector have creative freedom,” said Lord Hall. “I want a level playing-field between BBC producers and independent ones.”

In the speech, Lord Hall, who arrived at the BBC less than two years ago after reviving Royal Opera, took particular note of the tough, pervasive and global competition for television production. “You can feel the market changing. Even the biggest broadcasters in the world are feeling the need for allies. This process is unlikely to be at an end.” In-house producer BBC Productions would be spun-off as a stand-alone subsidiary, noted the Guardian, perhaps like marketing arm BBC Worldwide.

Not only will independent producers be able to compete for programming commissions, the BBC’s in-house producers could be pitching their ideas and skills elsewhere. “With managed competition, BBC Production has only one buyer, BBC Commissioning,” he said, ”which inevitably constrains its opportunities. More importantly, it’s limited in the kinds of commercial deals it can make. It can’t compete globally in the way that big independent studios can. We’re finding it harder to retain talented people, who grew up with the BBC but who now feel they have the freedom to be more creative and competitive elsewhere.”

The plan, called “Compete and Compare,” could extend to radio. “The market is completely different.” And would certainly opportunities abound in online production and “building open platforms other can use.” Global newsgathering wouldn’t be touched. “It would be hard to contract that out without losing control of our voice,” he said. Being a news provider, however, is within the range of possibilities.

Grand plans are never offered in a vacuum. Opening competition for BBC commissions broadly to independent producers could likely drive down costs. Opening BBC Productions to chase outside projects is very likely new revenue. The BBC Trust and UK politicians will soon enter the negotiating phase over the next Royal Charter and, of course, funding.

The household license fee is the BBC’s major revenue source, as it is for many European public broadcasters. BBC UK television and radio channels do not carry advertising, still the major revenue source for other public broadcasters. Funding public broadcasters has become extremely contentious among governments looking to cut public service costs, note the Greek government closing public broadcaster ERT last year. Politicians, too, draw on the funding issue to strip public broadcasters of independence in news and programming, note the Hungarian government’s hold on public broadcaster MTV. In practical terms, the household license fee, while “the best worst solution” to public broadcasting funding, is in the longer term doomed. As a target for critics, it’s low hanging fruit.

“There clearly isn’t solid support for the license fee model and the public appears willing to consider alternatives means of funding the BBC, as long as abolishing the license fee doesn’t mean higher taxes instead,” said Whitehouse Consultancy chairman Chris Whitehouse on a commissioned survey of the UK public, reported the Telegraph (July 6). “While interesting that older respondents appear to be more supportive of the license fee than younger Britons, these figures show the huge job of work still be done by the BBC if it is to have a strong hand in the future in renegotiating the license fee and justifying why the public should continue to pay it.” Whitehouse Consultancy is aligned with the UK Conservative Party.

The BBC is “the model for European public television that deals with the same issues that must be addressed in the rest of the Continent,” said Italian communications Minister Antonello Giacomelli after a meeting with UK Communications Minister Ed Vaizey, quoted by Corriere della Comunicazioni (July 10). “We talked about governance, in particular the relationship between operational control and management, as well as the evolution of public radio and television services on new platforms.”

Italian public broadcaster RAI is undergoing a post-Berlusconi overhaul. The news operation is getting particular attention from new director general Luigi Gubitosi, reported La Repubblica (July 11). Next week (July 23) the RAI Board will review a plan to centralize newsgathering “along the lines of TVE (Spain), ARD (Germany) and the BBC.” All-news channel RAI News 24 will not be dumped, as previously suspected, but “modeled on BBC World.”

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