Among the many issues addressed in BBC Director General Tim Davie’s speech to the Royal Television Society today, one that was studiously avoided was the Corporation’s intention to run advertisements. While Davie categorically stated in the subsequent Q&A session that BBC television would not be awash with the Kellogg’s logo any time soon, he has not ruled out advertising across other media.
Next week, the BBC licence fee will rise by more than £10 to £169.50. The Corporation will argue that this is great value for money, less than £4 a week to fund its varied output, ranging from TV news to radio comedies, orchestras, documentaries and dramas. But the media landscape has changed so utterly in the past two decades that justifying a funding system first set down 100 years ago is almost impossible.
The Department of Media Culture and Sport this week unveiled its mid-term review of the BBC Charter and to call it a “damp squib” would be dangerously overselling it. There is nothing – absolutely zilch – in these proposals that will do anything to ensure that people who complain about bias at the BBC will get satisfaction. Instead, the review will reinforce a cosy internal mechanism which is all about protecting the BBC’s reputation; after this, the Corporation can confidently proceed according