Director-General, BBC
So the partnerships model is likely to be accelerated and extended internationally? In the last few years BBC Worldwide has launched over 40 TV channels, every single one of which is essentially one or other form of partnership. And we do this rather brilliantly in the World Service, which is one of our public service crown jewels. We cannot rely on shortwave radio to get to our audience in Africa, for example, which is why we’ve got over 240 FM re-broadcast partners.
Should the BBC license fee be renamed the Digital License Fee and should you have a monopoly of it? In a funny way we’ve got this rather interesting global position now. The BBC is one of the very few media brands which is known around the world. Now if you move back to the UK, there’s a debate about should the BBC get all the license fee. Obviously there is a fundamental issue here: the roots of the BBC in the UK need to be watered and if somebody chops the roots down the whole plant will die so it is important but it’s a much narrower debate.
One of the problems with European media is much of it has been very, very parochial and inward-looking and monetization models have been largely based on trying to find out what local audiences want and then giving it to them. The danger is that you end up with a model where unfortunately the amount you can monetize from a local audience won’t cover your costs and you end in a spin down. By contrast, we are the only net exporter as a broadcaster. Outside of the US majors, we are also by far the biggest seller of audio viewing content in the world.
So is the license fee the right funding model to support that sort of global franchise? I don’t think it’s the only funding model. The US has got very large companies, and News Corporation is a good example, that have taken a global view of media and built vast businesses. So I don’t think the license fee should be the only model.
But it turns out that the license fee has been quite an effective anchor in terms of building a global position for UK content around the world. There is plenty of room for others to get involved without damaging the license fee. That said, I think it would be wrong if we were to argue that the BBC should be somehow completely outside the debate about the level of public expenditure.
People say that you have a greater survival rate than your predecessors and that you would like to see it through to the London Olympics in 2012. What shape would you like the BBC to be in by then? Well this liner carries on. There’s a day when you arrive on the liner and there’s a day when you leave and I’m not by the way implicitly suggesting that 2012 is the right moment, who knows? And you know what, some things will be done when I leave and some things won’t be done.
My job, in a strange way, is as much about making sure that the store of future ideas, future strategy and future leadership talent is rich in the organization and that the momentum of the organization is there.
Within a few years time we’ll have switched off analogue television, the biggest engineering project we’ve ever undertaken. We will be, I hope, getting millions of people to access internet and television services like iPlayer and YouTube on their main television sets.
People thought that the BBC was not quite going to shrivel, but just gently be edged to the sidelines as the market expanded. The BBC’s ability to reinvent itself has proven to be rather deeper and more imaginative than people thought.
There is a prospect of the BBC getting to its 100th birthday in 2027 as a really big important cultural institution and a big everyday part of people’s lives, and possibly even, who knows, funded by a license fee with most of its services still free at the point of use for households up and down the country. That is not a completely ridiculous idea.
Mark Thompson is Director-General of the BBC. He was appointed Director-General on May 21, 2004, after being Chief Executive of Channel 4 since December 2001. He had previously worked at the BBC for more than 20 years, becoming Director of Television in April 2000, responsible for the management and running of all BBC network television channels.