It’s time to change the BBC

Accusations of bias are nothing new for the BBC, but with the future of the licence fee hanging in the balance, you might expect the broadcaster to demonstrate a little impartiality. Alas, no.

On Wednesday, Newsnight had three guests on to discuss the licence fee. While the group may have ticked the diversity box in terms of gender, diversity of opinion was — as is often the case — lacking. Not one contributor found a bad word to say about the broadcaster it was appearing on, and no one raised the possibility of ditching the licence fee. The premise of the discussion was that the BBC is unfairly under attack and needs defending. It largely ignored the fact that half of Britons are in favour of scrapping the tax altogether.

But can we really be surprised when the BBC, criticised by some as tone deaf, often gets the mood of the nation woefully wrong?

Last Friday, on one of the most momentous occasions in our country’s recent history — our departure from the EU after nearly five decades of membership — the BBC failed to broadcast in full the Prime Minister’s address to the nation. I’m sure they could have found time in the schedule for the full three minutes of it. No matter which side of the Brexit divide you find yourself on, hearing what the Prime Minister had to say on such a night was surely in the public interest.

Not only did the broadcaster underplay the significance of Brexit night, they saw it fitting to bait the Brexit-voting majority by decking out the studio in the colours of the EU flag. Other networks have used the blue and yellow in their Brexit coverage, but perhaps a little more subtlety wouldn’t have gone amiss that evening. Perhaps the BBC suspected no Brexiteers would tune in.

CBBC — the BBC channel for kids — also came under fire at the same time. It chose to reshare an old video clip of left-wing comedian Nish Kumar with the caption: “British things… turns out there’s hardly any.” The video received widespread condemnation, including from BBC presenter Andrew Neil who called it “anti-British drivel of a high order”.

While the question of bias has plagued Aunty for a long time, it has gathered pace in recent years. This may help explain why the BBC is struggling to retain its audience. Last year BBC Radio 4 lost three quarters of a million listeners, and editor Sarah Sands is on the way out after just two-and-a-half years. Meanwhile, rival radio station LBC has grown its audience by 188,000 listeners in the past year alone.

Why should the public pay for a service that treats many of their views with indifference bordering on disdain?

It appears that the mood music is changing. We may now have a government willing to stand up to the corporation. This week, Culture Secretary Baroness Nicky Morgan launched a public consultation into whether non-payment of the TV licence fee should remain a criminal offence. And it seems there may be more changes afoot. She said it’s time to think about how to keep the fee “relevant in this changing media landscape”.

This is welcome rhetoric. With the rise of streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon Prime, and the fact half of adults now get their news from social media, the BBC must adapt or drift into irrelevance.

Changes in technology and audience habits mean that the current approach to financing, owning and regulating the BBC is no longer tenable.

With most of the public in favour of abolishing the licence fee altogether, but only a quarter wanting a privatised service, there is a clear need for radical reform to ensure the BBC isn’t left behind.

My colleague Professor Philip Booth provides the perfect solution. He envisages a subscriber-owned model, based on recognisable and popular institutions like The Co-operative or the National Trust.

In this model, if you don’t want to watch or listen to the BBC any more, you don’t have to renew your licence. The service will be paywalled so if you want to continue to receive BBC services then your licence fee is converted into a subscription, like Netflix or Prime Video. It would also allow the BBC to become a more substantial global player, while not being a stealth tax on those who choose not to use it.

The number of young people watching BBC television programmes dropped to a record low last year, prompting the UK’s media regulator to warn that the public service broadcaster “may not be sustainable”.

If the BBC wants to thrive, not just survive, it must change. Judging by Wednesday’s Newsnight, it’s the BBC that’ll be the last to realise this.