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Jowell: BBC "should not be over-powering presence" as culture and kids' TV expands

Among the things the digital age has brought us is a questioning of the role of the BBC. As commercial broadcasters have fought for a place in the environment, the BBC's role has been constantly monitored and questioned.

But, a year after the corporation announced it intended to invest in new digital TV and radio channels, the Government has now almost universally accepted them. Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell last week told an audience of industry players that the BBC's plans for five new digital radio networks and three new television services could go ahead.

BBC4, the televisual equivalent of Radio 4, has been approved, as have its plans for two children's channels - one for pre-school kids and one for six to 13-year-olds. Five digital radio services, including a black music station and a speech-based channel, have also been given the go-ahead.

But the case for BBC3, a revised version of BBC Choice aimed at 16 to 34-year-olds, had not been fully made, Jowell said.

"It wasn't clear that its proposals were truly distinctive in an already crowded market," she told the audience at the Royal Television Society's Cambridge convention last week.

Commercial TV operators
welcomed the block on BBC3, which duplicates commercial services such as Sky One and E4. But BBCdirector general Greg Dyke said: "We believe our proposals do meet the BBC's core public service criteria of
distinctiveness and quality."

Taking advantage?

The corporation has been invited to put forward fresh
proposals for BBC3, but the question remains on how far should the BBC be allowed to compete with commercial broadcasters in the digital arena? Are its services really providing distinctiveness in a tough and already over-crowded market?

Laying out her case for the approval of the BBC's proposals, Jowell upheld the role of public service broadcasting in the digital age and said the tension between the market and PSB is one that works well.

Comparing the budgets of major broadcasters around the world to the BBC's annual £2.5bn, she called the BBC a sardine rather than the "shark of the lobbyists' imagination", and set out its future role thus: "The BBC is not over-mighty. It should have an important, but not over-powering presence in the digital future - a presence not only shaped by the competition, but which also helps shape the competition as the two interact."

Rather than fighting ratings battles, the BBC's test "should be as much audience reach as audience share and compulsive competition with commercial services should never be the scheduling principle".

Jowell laid down tough operating conditions for the BBC
channels. Their performance against their public service remit is to be reviewed in 2004.

These include requirements that the pre-school channel
carries 90% European output and the pre-teen channel 75%. Seventy per cent of BBC4's output must be produced in Europe and all services must be backed up with online and interactive activities.

The channels are not allowed to dilute the level of programming on its core channels, BBC1 and BBC2. Peak-time schedules must be balanced and programming must not go head-to-head with the competition.

Commercial broadcasters were universal in welcoming the launch of the new services, provided they keep within the guidelines set out by Jowell.

A spokesperson for the children's channel Nickelodeon said: "We're reassured that Tessa Jowell has put conditions on the BBC's children's services which, if properly applied and reviewed, should limit the impact on commercial investment and innovation."

Increased competition

Most industry figures believe the launches will increase
competition in the still-fledgling digital market. With the potential benefits for ITV Digital in mind, a statement from ITV said: "We welcome the launch of new BBC services which will help drive digital take-up and extend viewer choice," while outgoing chief executive at Channel 4, Michael Jackson, echoed this sentiment, saying C4 had offered conditional support for the services throughout the consultation period "provided they fulfil their public service
obligations".

However, while broadcasters largely welcomed the decision, media agencies were unhappy about the BBC's increased encroachment into commercial territory.

Carat broadcast director Mark Jarvis said: "The BBC is using
its charter and licence fee to provide TV products that
are already catered for by commercial broadcasters."  

He believes the children's channels, in particular, are catered for elsewhere and he claims the introduction of BBC services will dilute an audience which is struggling to expand.

TV buying director at OMD UK Neil Johnson agreed that unfairness remains in the introduction of further licence fee-funded services.

The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising also sounded a note of caution over the broad approval of the BBC's plans.

Chairman of the IPA's Media Policy Group Jim Marshall said the main concern centred on the nature of the channels and the potential they offer for the further dumbing down of BBC1, both of which would have adverse consequences for advertisers.

The establishment of BBC4, in particular, raises questions: "It's hard not to think of BBC4 as a potential ghetto for BBC arts and political programming in a deliberate policy to dumb down BBC1 ... in a world of
four EastEnders per week, it is difficult not to interpret
the BBC's digital plans as the corporation indulging in
yet another blatant example of commercially motivated, licence-payer subsidized broadcast imperialism."