Listening to a discussion this morning about the BBC, it was easy to understand why this organisation is in such a mess.
The new Director General has been making nebulous statements about increased quality, reduced costs and heaven knows what else; his remarks tick all the right boxes, as required, without actually meaning anything specific, which is what he and his senior management would doubtless see as in their best interests. After all, if there are no properly measurable targets, there is nothing to be held to account for.
Once upon a time, the BBC fulfilled a role of huge national and international significance but it is now a pale shadow of its former self. Funded by the Government through the imposition of a tax dressed up as the 'Licence Fee' it has become a nonsense. Many of its programmes are merely advertising vehicles for whoever has released a new film, song, CD or DVD, book, play etc., etc. It is populated by a bunch of has-beens - as I write this, the television in front of me has a gaggle of newsreading women from the 1970s presenting yet another consumer programme. What their qualifications for doing this are and why they got the job must be 2 of life's great mysteries; given the BBCs penchant for being politically correct in all things, one has to assume that their presence on my screen has a lot to do with their a) being women and b) being over retirement age, neither of which seems to be an appropriate qualification.
When I was a child, there was one television channel, BBC1 which broadcast for no more than 10 or 12 hours a day; there were 3 main radio programmes titled the 'Light Programme', the 'Third Programme' and the 'Home Service', which were supplemented by the then great 'World Service. That was it. Today we have umpteen television channels - BBCs 1, 2, 3 and 4, CBBC, CBebbies, BBC News, and BBC Parliament, several of which broadcast around the clock; there are radio programmes 1,2,3 and 4, plus 1 Extra, 4 Extra, 5 Live, 5 Live Sport Extra, 6, Asian Network, and the World Service, plus a host of local radio stations on top of tall this, there's the BBCs website and online programming. Why all of this should be necessary in a world littered with commercial offerings in both radio and television is another mystery.
Mr Entwhistle, the new DG whose name seems to be drawn from the cast list of 'Last of the Summer Wine' has so many obvious targets for cost cutting and rationalization that he should have no trouble whatsoever in putting the BBC back on to the right path. We are often told these days that something is 'not fit for purpose' or that is has to be 'fit for the 21st century'; these and other meaningless phrases can and should be seized upon by Mr Entwhistle. For the BBC to be fit for a 21st century purpose, it should rid itself of all of the commercial and pseudo-commercial content which can be left safely to commercial broadcasters. It should stop the game of trying to compete with commercial broadcasters with its ridiculous and pointless morning chat shows and it should stop trying to provide individual services for just about every minor interest group in the country.
My recipe for the BBC is a simple but radical one. Get rid of the television channels, CBBC and CBeebies; these channels already have an amount of airtime on BBC2 in the mornings and some minor additional programming here should more than suffice as replacement. Merge BBC News and BBC Parliament into one online channel. Close Radio 1 which is nothing more than an advertising platform for music companies and leave this to comemrcial enterprises. Combine Radios 2 and 3 and get rid of Radio 6. The Asian Network should either be closed or added to the mix of Radios 2 and 3 - there is no place for separate community style radio stations in a national broadcaster. All local radio stations should be handed over to commercial broadcasters.
If Mr Entwhistle and his Board really want to make a difference and bring the BBC up to date, these are the types of changes he will have to make. Does he have the will ? Does his Board have the gumption ? If they go down this road they will have an almighty fight on their hands but, in the end, the BBC would emerge as a far stronger player producing genuine quality programmes. The alternative is a continuation of the decline in quality which has been seen in recent years and an eventual sale of the whole lot to Sky or some other commercial enterprise, which will then close most of it down.
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