Summary
No one has come up with a better or pithier definition of public service broadcasting than John, later Lord Reith. The purpose of the BBC is to "inform, educate and entertain." For Reith, the son of a minister, the creation of the BBC was a public service; an unambiguous moral good and ever since Reithian has become an adjective that symbolises a kind of broadcasting that promoted virtue to the nation and one that should not be sullied by commerce. To "inform, educate and entertain" are still part of the BBC's mission today, but for how much longer? And how should we define what public service broadcasting is in a global, digital world? This week the government will publish a green paper setting out the details of a fundamental review of the BBC, examining its future size, funding and purpose. The BBC is funded by what is effectively a universal tax so making sure everyone gets something out of it has always been an issue. Advocates of public service broadcasting often talk about defending cultural quality, making programmes that no one else would about issues that would otherwise be ignored. But some of the best, most talked about programmes in recent times have been on internet, subscription only services. And there are plenty of other organisations such a museums, galleries and charities offering their own public service content free of charge. As the lines between the internet and broadcasting blur what role should the state have in regulating what we chose to watch and how we pay for it? This is not simply a debate about the future of the BBC, but about the moral and ethical tensions between what benefits the individual and what benefits society as a whole.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | You're listening to a programme from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:03.6 | Good evening. It's a crucial week for the organisation that produces this programme. |
| 0:08.0 | Tomorrow the government is to publish a green paper, questioning the BBC's role, reach and revenue. |
| 0:13.9 | An independent panel has just been appointed to carry out a fundamental review of the corporation. |
| 0:18.7 | And only this morning an absolute roll call of stars wrote an open letter to David Cameron, |
| 0:23.5 | defending what they call this very precious institution, which, if only by implication, they regard us now under threat. |
| 0:30.7 | The founder of the BBC, Lord Reith, whose private life was as ambiguous as his public life was at a mantine, |
| 0:36.7 | defined its purpose in moral terms, |
| 0:38.6 | to inform, educate and entertain very much in that order. |
| 0:42.1 | But ever since it lost its monopoly of broadcasting, |
| 0:45.4 | it's had an existential dilemma. |
| 0:47.7 | It's paid for by a poll tax, |
| 0:49.5 | so there's a powerful case that everybody and every taste must be catered for, |
| 0:53.6 | yet it can only really be justified |
| 0:55.1 | if it does good things in the public interest that are not available elsewhere in the media |
| 0:59.3 | marketplace. The explosion of new channels, the burgeoning of the internet and the convergence |
| 1:04.6 | of televisions and computers have brought these issues into sharper focus. And in an age where |
| 1:09.7 | we seem to let regulated free markets meet our needs in every other sector, what's the moral case now for a public service broadcaster? The question's now being asked so urgently, who's it for, what should it do, who should pay for it and how, are moral as well as political. And behind them are even weightier arguments about taste, culture, |
| 1:29.4 | private benefit and the public good. |
| 1:31.7 | With the BBC, our moral maze tonight. |
| 1:34.6 | Our panel, Anne McElvoy, senior editor on The Economist, |
| 1:37.9 | the political analyst Jill Kirby, Matthew Taylor, |
... |
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