Select committee: Communications and Digital Committee
Conclusion 8
1st Report - Licence to change: BBC future funding
Published 18 Jul 2022
Paragraph 83
Communications and Digital Committee BBC future funding All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
The BBC faces major challenges. The decade ahead will be characterised by rising competition and costs, and constrained funding. It will need to adapt to a digital future while serving those who will continue to rely on linear services for at least the next decade. It must deliver programming and news that matter, and balance the growing expectation for personalised content against its enduring unifying mission. It must compete with vastly better funded international streaming giants and respond to growing questions about its value in the face of expanding consumer choice and failure properly to represent all sectors of the UK. And it will need to explain more clearly to audiences the relationship between what it is for and how it should be funded. Achieving this will require a more clearly articulated strategic vision that goes beyond its existing published strategies.
From: Communications and Digital Committee, 1st Report - Licence to change: BBC future funding, paragraph 83, 18 July 2022
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 26 October 2022 (deadline 13 October 2022).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government welcomes the Committee's report and says it "remain[s] committed to conducting a review of the funding model", with further details to be set out "in due course".
- It agrees with the Committee's view that the licence fee's drawbacks are becoming more salient and that a comprehensive review is "a necessity", and says it will take the Committee's proposed core principles into account as it prepares to launch a review.
- On independent market impact studies, it says it "will consider" the recommendation, and the potential for commissioning and publishing them, "as planning for the review progresses".
- On the three funding models the Committee does not recommend (recommendations 9, 10 and 12), it says it "will set out its position" "following the review", and on radio behind a paywall it does "not want to rule out options at this stage".
- On public engagement, it expects the review to "engage widely with stakeholders" and says the Charter Review will follow the requirement to consult the public and Parliament; it does not commit to a separate plan or citizens' assemblies.