About the BBC - John Tate https://meleleh.pages.dev/blogs/aboutthebbc/ About the BBC - A collection of blogs from inside the BBC en Copyright 2012 Thu, 28 Jun 2012 09:34:37 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/?v=4.33-en http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss What the BBC spends on television content - a response to today's Ofcom report Ofcom published its 2012 PSB report today and I'm pleased that, once again, it shows audiences continue to rate the BBC very highly for quality - with BBC One and BBC Two by far the highest-rated, and BBC Three and Four comparable with ITV1 and Channel 4.

I'm disappointed though that Ofcom has chosen to lay such emphasis on an apparent downturn in BBC content spend - when the true situation is quite different to the one Ofcom sets out and indeed perfectly explicable. And I apologise in advance should this posting sound like an edition of the number crunching programme More or Less - but I think it's important to lay out the facts.

Ofcom's report suggests that BBC spend on new network TV programming fell by 11% in real terms between 2010 and 2011, from £1.4bn to £1.25bn. However, this figure excludes all of the BBC's programming for audiences in Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the English regions. Even on Ofcom's definition, there are a number of structural reasons for the apparent fall. Unlike 2010, 2011 was a year without major biennial sports events so spend on sport was down - by around £85m. Much of that money has been held over to 2012 to cover the Diamond Jubilee, Euro 2012, the Cultural Olympiad and the Olympics. I therefore expect the increase in 2012 to make up the fall in 2011.

Another reason for the apparent fall is that Ofcom's figures are adjusted by the level of inflation in 2011. This was a year when inflation was at an exceptional level of over 5% (and when the BBC received no inflationary increase in the licence fee). The effect of this is to make spend in previous years effectively higher and the fall from 2010 to 2011 the greater; a difference of around £70m.

Ofcom's report also says that the BBC spends 56% of its 'TV income' on 'first-run originated content'. However, Ofcom's figure leaves out a number of costs which are essential to the making and broadcasting of programmes and channels, including copyright payments to musicians (e.g. for using background music); programme development costs (such as developing new formats or commissioning pilots and scripts); programme commissioning; channel scheduling; repeat fees; and various other items. It also excludes other new TV content such as programmes from overseas and content made for the Red Button service. To make a crude analogy, it is as if one looked at the cost of a music festival only in terms of the amount paid to the musicians.

The total 'TV income' baseline that Ofcom's figure is measured against also contains some costs that the BBC cannot realistically spend on television in any case, such as the BBC orchestras; the costs of generating third-party income; and the cost of collecting the licence fee. It also includes one-offs like restructuring costs which are not recurring spend and as such vary a lot from year to year.

When you recalculate taking these factors into account you get a far fairer reflection of the underlying situation, with the percentage of BBC television income spent on television content standing at around 75%.

There is undoubtedly strong pressure on the BBC to spend on non-content items. And so it should. An example of this is the Government's 2007 'digital objective' or 'sixth purpose' for the BBC to promote digital communications. In practice this has meant building out the digital terrestrial TV network to the whole country in one of the largest broadcast engineering projects ever undertaken in the UK; investing in digital radio; as well as building digital production centres in Salford, Glasgow, Cardiff and London.

To give just one example of the investment needed to make the digital transition: the costs of transmitting the BBC's services have risen from £142m in 2002/3 to £208m today, a rise of nearly 50%. This rise is not unexpected, given the many new ways we have to make our programmes and services available to audiences nowadays. But it inevitably reduces the amount that the BBC can spend directly on content as a percentage of total income.

These transition costs will, however, subside, and a greater percentage of our budget flow back into direct content creation on TV, radio and online. This is not some idle promise - it is the very basis of the BBC's strategy: Delivering Quality First.

John Tate is Group Director, Strategic Operations

]]> John Tate John Tate https://meleleh.pages.dev/blogs/aboutthebbc/2012/06/ofcom-published-its-2011-psb.shtml https://meleleh.pages.dev/blogs/aboutthebbc/2012/06/ofcom-published-its-2011-psb.shtml Delivering Quality First Thu, 28 Jun 2012 09:34:37 +0000 The BBC - it's a bit like an apple Every quarter I review the BBC's overall performance and, for this year's third quarter, an especially strong picture emerged that reminded me of just what an extraordinary organisation the BBC is.

Take the website that you're probably reading this on - the BBC's. It's the only UK site consistently in the nation's top-ten favourites, with 20 million people using it every week. Across our other platforms, 86% of the nation switch on a BBC TV channel every week; 67% tune into a BBC radio station; and BBC iPlayer has 154 million requests per month. That reach adds up to 96% of the UK population, with the average person in the UK spending eighteen-and-a-half hours with the BBC - not in a year or even in a month, but each week.

Underpinning these high ratings is the BBC's ability to make the good popular and the popular good. On this measure, we're experiencing some record results when asking our audiences for their views on quality, through the Appreciation Index (AI). Average AI scores for BBC TV programmes reached their highest ever level of 83 in 2011, a steady increase from 78 in 2007 and 75 in 2005. Frozen Planet just recorded one of our highest ever AI's at 94.

BBC News continues to perform particularly well. It produces 27% of TV news broadcasting but wins 72% of TV news viewing. The reach of the BBC News Channel was 10.4 million compared to Sky News' 6.4 million. Even in 'Sky homes', the BBC News Channel has a reach of 4.1 million compared to Sky News' 3.6 million. However whereas Sky's average revenue per user is £1.46 a day, the BBC's is just 40p.

Around the world BBC Global News (including the World Service) is delivering news to audiences from Somalia to Afghanistan totalling 225 million - the largest audience of any international broadcaster at less than half the cost per user of its nearest competitor. In the most dangerous part of Afghanistan, its particular value to the local people is perhaps best demonstrated by reports of requests in the rural south for the Mullahs in their mosques to adjust the evening prayer times so that they can listen to the BBC programmes.

What contributes to this success? As we can see, audiences score the BBC highly for quality, trust and impartiality. This has been reinforced by this year's figures. At 77%, the UK public's positive general impression of the BBC is at its highest level since 2002. Trust in the BBC overall is at its highest levels since current records began: 67% of the public agree they trust the BBC overall, up from 56% in 2004. Research from Ofcom shows that the BBC is also seen as the most impartial news broadcaster: 68% of the public say the BBC is impartial, compared with 51% for ITV, 50% for Channel 4/S4C, 50% for Five and 44% for Sky News.

Strong levels of trust are reflected in the fact that the nation continues to turn to the BBC when they need the latest information in times of crisis and national significance. 35 million joined the BBC to celebrate the Royal Wedding on 29 April and, during the English riots, records were set as 13.2 million watched the News Channel (more than any other rolling news outlet).

All in all 80% of the public say they are glad that the BBC exists. As the public are faced with more choice than ever, that is a fantastic achievement. All for about the price of an apple a day and, in many ways, just as good for you.

John Tate is the BBC Director of Policy & Strategy

]]> John Tate John Tate https://meleleh.pages.dev/blogs/aboutthebbc/2011/11/the-bbc---its-a-bit-like-an-ap.shtml https://meleleh.pages.dev/blogs/aboutthebbc/2011/11/the-bbc---its-a-bit-like-an-ap.shtml BBC Online Fri, 18 Nov 2011 08:30:28 +0000 Retransmission fees - to pay or not to pay? Last week the BBC announced a plan for how it proposes to deliver its services to audiences with the licence fee frozen until 2017. These plans amount to £670m of savings which are a mixture of cuts to scope and productivity. Although we have tried hard to protect programming it was simply not possible to make these savings without having to make cuts to some of our output.

It is worth noting however that there remains one area outside the BBC's control that could deliver us substantial additional annual savings. This is the area of 'retransmission fees'.

Put simply, the BBC currently pays Sky a fee so that it can be broadcast on their platform, this was something that was agreed many years ago in order to help satellite broadcasters justify the investment they needed to build their platform. The annual cost to the BBC is £10m. The question now is whether or not this money is still flowing in the right direction. A new study due to be published shortly argues that the UK is the only country of all those examined (including the US, Canada, France, Germany and Spain) that operates in this way. When you consider that the majority of viewing time remains firmly within these networks it begins to look like the balance here may be the wrong way round.

BBC Director General Mark Thompson summed the argument up in his 2010 MacTaggart speech by quoting someone else who thinks that those who invest in content should get a better deal saying that "Asking cable companies and other distribution partners to pay a small portion of the profits they make by reselling broadcast channels, the most-watched channels on their systems, will help ensure the health of the over-the-air industry in America."

He went on "The point is a simple one [in the US] it's the free-to-air networks who invest the most in broadcast content, they're also the most popular networks in the US cable and satellite environments, so isn't it reasonable that the distributors should pay the networks a charge in return for the right to carry them? The man who made that case is Rupert Murdoch and in America he's winning the argument - Fox is now receiving distribution fees from the cable companies. So why not introduce retransmission fees in the UK as well?"

To be clear, here in the UK the BBC would not seek to be paid by Sky for the re-transmission of its content - the BBC is already funded by a universal licence fee. But if we did not have to pay Sky £10m a year we would save £50m over the remainder of the licence fee period. And that is £50m that could go back into programme making - it would for example cover all the costs that we are currently planning to take out of local radio and BBC Four combined.

John Tate is Director, Policy & Strategy, BBC.

  • Helping Drive growth in the UK creative economy (PDF), describes how the Corporation helps create the right conditions for growth in the creative sector. The BBC's primary purpose is to inform, educate and entertain but, like other public institutions, it can make a positive contribution to growth. The BBC does this in two ways: by enhancing the productive potential - 'supply-side' - of the creative sector, and by stimulating the demand for services, products and exports. Here are some examples of how this works in practice.

    Training and developing creative talent: Last year the BBC invested over £30m in training the creative sector, and supplied over 3,800 days of training to more than 2,400 non-BBC staff. The talent nurtured benefits the wider industry, with many presenters, writers and performers moving between the BBC and commercial broadcasters and independent producers.

    Investing over £50m in Research & Development activity: Because the BBC is committed to open platforms and technologies, we enable other companies to create their own value on the back of them. Just think how many set top boxes, flat-screen TVs and digital radios have been sold as a result of the BBC's work on Freeview, Freeview HD, FreeSat, NICAM and many other innovations.

    UK content sector: The BBC's £1 billion investment, combined with healthy competition for commissions between in-house and independent suppliers, has helped underpin a vibrant commercial UK production sector. Without this role, the sector could lose over a quarter of its income.

    Supporting digital markets: BBC Online - now the 5th-most popular web destination for UK users - gave many people a reason to go online for the first time. Likewise, BBC iPlayer has helped expand the audience for online audiovisual content to the benefit of other providers. Our work to support RadioPlayer has bought around 300 commercial radio stations together in one place.

    Growing exports and inward investment through BBC Worldwide. Our commercial arm continues to grow, doing business in 200 countries and territories. It works with over 300 indies and turns the best UK content into global brands. Turnover increased 7.8% to £1,158m last year; it now accounts for nearly 10% of UK creative industry exports; and helped attract £59m of inward investment in 2009/10 from overseas broadcasters.

    Showcasing and supporting the Arts. through outstanding projects like A History of the World in 100 Objects, the BBC provides significant benefits to other cultural organisations. In the last week alone, we've launched two more such landmark projects - Handmade in Britain in partnership with the V&A, and the Private Lives of Medieval Kings with the British Library. And through our radio stations and BBC Introducing we help discover great British music talent that often goes on to global success.

    Delivering our sixth public purpose - to bring new communications technology to audiences - helps the economy rebalance towards more digital, high-tech industries.

    Creative clusters. By focussing our expertise geographically such as Natural History in Bristol and Drama in Cardiff, the BBC has created sustainable production centres, helping the UK to have a more balanced economy. Many thousands of people will directly benefit from employment, training, business or partnership opportunities from MediaCityUK in Salford.

    The BBC can only benefit the creative industries in these ways because of its scale, international reach, stable funding and commitment to the highest levels of quality.

    At a time when more and more public institutions are being challenged to make a contribution to growth as well as to fulfil their public functions, the BBC has hopefully shown a lead.

    John Tate is Director, BBC Policy & Strategy and Chairman, BBC Studios & Post-Production

    ]]> John Tate John Tate https://meleleh.pages.dev/blogs/aboutthebbc/2011/09/the-bbc-helping-the-creative-economy-to-grow.shtml https://meleleh.pages.dev/blogs/aboutthebbc/2011/09/the-bbc-helping-the-creative-economy-to-grow.shtml Partnerships Fri, 09 Sep 2011 16:14:03 +0000 Why the BBC must focus on quality content I am giving evidence to the House of Lords Select Committee today about the BBC's strategy review - Putting Quality First. I've spent a lot of time preparing for the session and - as part of that - I've been reminding myself about one of our key considerations in making the BBC more mission-focused: the impact on the rest of the broadcasting
    industry.

    For decades the UK has enjoyed higher levels of domestic media production and content spending per head than almost any other country in the world. UK audiences have grown up expecting and receiving a constant diet of extremely high-quality domestic content, whether two-hour episodes of Inspector Morse or seminal natural history like Life on Earth - all without a subscription and, on the BBC, without advertising.

    While extensive high quality output available to all has been considered normal in the UK, one glance at schedules abroad shows it to be anything but in other parts of the world. In the two longest-developed broadcasting markets, the United States and Europe, very different traditions dominate. Much of European broadcasting has gone down the 'cheap and cheerful' route, with content spend focused increasingly efficiently on what drives audiences to adverts, while in the US a higher level of programme investment is maintained only through highly selective subscriber packages.

    Is it inevitable we will end up going down either the European or US route? There has after all been a great deal of attention focused on the troubles facing public service broadcasting in the UK because of structural change in the industry. And the recession has increased further the pressure on budgets for original UK content.

    A fact often lost in the debate is that billions of pounds of new money are flowing into the sector - it's just that this extra money isn't flowing back into domestic content production as much as it did in the past. This is primarily because commercial funding for TV is increasingly coming from subscription. Pay operators do not invest in original content at anything like the levels that advertising-funded broadcasters do, because their business model is more weighted to sports rights and films.

    The BBC of course has a very different funding model which, as is so often pointed out, insulates our income against the worst of the recession. But more importantly, the security of our funding reinforces why the BBC exists and must focus on its mission to provide quality British programmes that inform, educate and entertain. And in delivering our mission, we not only serve the public and help maintain the standards which are an essential part of British broadcasting, we support the creative industry as a whole.

    And that's the very purpose of Putting Quality First: to identify what more the BBC can do to enhance our commitment to high quality programming - because that's the centre of our mission and, in delivering it, we bring wider benefits to the UK's creative industry.

    That's why we have pledged that in the next licence fee settlement period we will guarantee that at least 90p in every licence fee pound will be spent on the creation and delivery of content to audiences. We know this investment is essential to meet the expectations and demands of licence fee payers. That's why we have set out five editorial priorities so the public and the independent producers know what to expect from the BBC and we've capped our spending on sports rights and acquisitions from abroad. And that's why we aim to reduce spend on overheads to under 9p in every pound by the end of the Charter period in 2016 - costs reduced by a quarter from today's spend of 12p.

    The BBC is committed to putting more money into content and making sure quality stays at the forefront of the BBC's output. And through this commitment to quality content, we will be doing our part to ensure that high standards survive in the future UK broadcasting market - good news or the domestic media industry, for the economy as a whole, and most
    importantly, for our audiences.


    John Tate,
    Director of Policy and Strategy, BBC

    ]]>     John Tate John Tate https://meleleh.pages.dev/blogs/aboutthebbc/2010/04/why-the-bbc-must-focus-on-qual.shtml https://meleleh.pages.dev/blogs/aboutthebbc/2010/04/why-the-bbc-must-focus-on-qual.shtml Putting Quality First Wed, 07 Apr 2010 16:02:15 +0000     The Strategy Review - some questions answered Thank you for all your comments both on Mark Thompson's post, and elsewhere. I'm John Tate, the BBC's Director of Policy and Strategy, and I'd like to take this opportunity to answer the main questions and concerns that seem to be emerging, outlined below. We'll be commenting more over the coming days across the BBC's blog network, but here are some initial thoughts from me.

    Why is the BBC doing this strategy review at all? What's the point?

    Mark Thompson outlined the purpose behind the strategy review in his blog yesterday, where he said:

    "The BBC has one mission: to inform, educate and entertain audiences with programmes and services of high quality, originality and value. That is not for debate. What today is about is how we are going to deliver that mission.

    "My ambition is for us to become more confident and proud of the fact that we exist to be different. Our purpose is not to make money, it is to enrich people's lives by capturing the essence of Britain today and making sure everyone can access excellence in programmes and content, whoever they are."

    The external environment has changed radically over the last two years, with explosive growth in digital, platforms converging, big changes in audience behaviour and a commercial sector facing real strain and new pressures.

    We felt it was the right moment to take a hard look at what the BBC should be doing and where it delivers the most value.

    The strategy we outlined yesterday focuses the BBC on putting quality programming first, with a smaller and more focused BBC that does fewer things better, leaving space for others with clearer limits. And we'll focus on areas that build overall public value, and that are most at risk of being ignored or under-invested in elsewhere.

    We are proposing changes that will put the BBC in a stronger position to deliver the kind of high quality and distinctive programmes we exist to provide, free at the point of use.

    The BBC stated yesterday that the strategy review was "Putting Quality First", and yet a great demonstration of quality, 6 Music is to be cut. How is this justified and not contradictory?

    Many of you are passionate about radio, and proposed changes to 6 Music and the Asian Network have provoked strong reaction.

    I spoke about this issue today on The Media Show and you can listen to my answers here.

    In addition Tim Davie, the BBC's Director of Audio and Music, will be blogging on proposals for BBC Radio networks here tomorrow.

    Discussion has also centred on the future of the BBC's web presence. If Digital is the BBC's 3rd platform alongside TV and radio for future, why are we cutting the site?

    Online is very much part of the BBC's future - the bottom line is that we remain absolutely committed to the web as our third platform alongside TV and Radio. Whereas BBC TV and Radio have natural boundaries, currently these don't really exist on the web. After a period of rapid expansion online, now is the right moment for us to re-focus and re-prioritise.

    Precisely because online is so important, it must meet the same thresholds of quality and effectiveness as our other services. It's about imposing a clear remit on BBC Online, and re-shaping the service with a stronger focus on the five editorial priorities (the best journalism; inspiring knowledge, music and culture; ambitious UK drama and comedy; outstanding children's content; and events that bring communities and the nation together): doing less but doing it better. This will re-balance BBC Online with an emphasis on high quality, distinctive content and services which provide greater, long-term value to the audience

    It's also about ensuring that it can introduce to people the best of what's available inside the BBC AND across the web.

    Keep an eye out on the Internet blog for more detail on this in the coming weeks.

    Political implications have also come up - whether these proposals are to pre-empt the election and a possible Conservative government, and whether this is simply a political move. Are they?

    The strategy we're announcing today is rooted in a really clear vision of what the BBC is here to do, and the value it delivers every day to audiences here and around the world.

    As I said at the start of this post, we are proposing changes that will put the BBC in a stronger position to deliver the kind of high quality and distinctive programmes we exist to provide, free at the point of use, underlining our core mission: to inform, educate and entertain.

    We began work on this review last June and it is the result of many months work.

    As I mentioned earlier, the past 18 months has forced everyone to think very carefully about the balance of the media sector and where we can add the most value.

    You announced yesterday that the BBC would be reallocating £600m - how and where will this money be spent?

    We announced proposals yesterday to reprioritise nearly £600m of existing licence fee funding into programmes and activity that will increase the quality of our programmes in the 5 priority areas we've been discussing here.

    Of this £600m, almost £400m of funding will come from existing service licence and genre budgets, and will be spent in new ways to drive higher quality content in local radio, BBC One, Two and Four, Children's programming, Radio 2, and the revised budget for Online. A further £100m will be raised by reducing the running costs of the BBC, and through continuing efficiencies, while the final £100m will come from service closures and by reducing spend on BBC Online and acquisitions.

    Another question coming up is why the BBC does not further reduce spend on management pay, rather than cut services - why don't you?

    We are committing to reducing the cost of running of BBC and the amount we spend on infrastructure projects so we can spend more on content. First of all, 10 years ago, the BBC spent ¼ of the licence fee on running the BBC. We have halved that to 12p in the pound today, and the strategy review pledges to cut that by a further ¼ to 9p by the end of the current Charter.

    We are already taking tough action on reducing senior management pay - these proposals recommend a combination of both. We've already committed to dropping senior management headcount by 18%, and their pay bill by 25%, and executive pay has been frozen, and bonuses suspended.

    Mad Men, The Wire and other US imports are some of the best programmes on TV, and fall into that high quality drama category highlighted in the review. Why are these going when they add so much value?

    The proposals are not about individual shows but the BBC's future focus - there will always be a place in BBC schedules for high quality programming and distinctive acquired programming.
    .
    There is an expectation that the licence fee should be spent on the best UK originated programming - what the majority of our audiences watch, listen to, and love. There are some distinctive things we will want to acquire, including international documentaries, foreign language films, and uninterrupted family films at special moments of the year such as Christmas Day, as well as selected high quality series. By cutting spend on acquisitions by 20%, we will invest more on original UK programming for our 5 editorial priorities outlined above.

    Lastly, it's worth reminding you that the BBC Strategy Review proposals are now with the Trust, where they will undergo a public consultation. This will run until May 25 2010, after which the Trust will look at all the submissions which they have received, including those from the public and industry, alongside other research and analysis which they will carry out. The Trust will then form a final view on what the future strategic framework for the BBC ought to be, and will aim to provide a provisional view of their conclusions this summer and a final strategy in the autumn.

    Anyone can participate, and full details are available here

    ]]>     John Tate John Tate https://meleleh.pages.dev/blogs/aboutthebbc/2010/03/the-strategy-review-some-quest.shtml https://meleleh.pages.dev/blogs/aboutthebbc/2010/03/the-strategy-review-some-quest.shtml Strategy Review Wed, 03 Mar 2010 18:04:23 +0000