The BBC has been involved in several scandals in recent years. Is it time to privatise it?

There are many reasons fore and against privatising the BBC as the organisation has been involved in many scandals throughout the existence of the BBC but if the BBC is unable to provide a public service, then shouldn’t it be privatised? “The BBC’s six public purposes are set out by the royal charter and agreement.”- (bbc.co.uk/insidethebbc, 2012). In order for the BBC to be considered a public interest it must include at least one of the six public purposes. These being promoting education and learning, encouraging cultures, representing the nation, keep up with current affairs around world whilst promoting U.K. affairs to the world, preserving citizenship and delivering the benefit of emerging the communication technology. If the BBC do not include one of these six public purposes. Then they have more right to become privatised. In this essay I will try to understand if the BBC does serve the public interest.

One of the first instances of scandal that BBC faced was in 1950 and this scandal involved “The BBC’s television budget, only one-half was allocated to the Home Service” – (Curran et al 2003). This meant that public’s interest was not put first because the public were paying for their Television license and the money the BBC was accumulating was not being used properly. As only one-half of the budget was being used for television content. The BBC has been put under scrutiny a vast amount of times since it has begun. In the 1950’s the organisation was challenged for its conservatism towards the war, even though the BBC is meant to be a non- political organisation and should stay in the middle when it came to its views regarding politics. Perhaps the reason for this is due to the way the organisation was controlled. “Staffed by narrow minded, middle – classed professional bureaucrats, who had little sympathy for the working – class interests.” - (Curran et al 2003). What Curran et al is trying to explain is how the BBC is run by people who don’t convey or care about the interests of the public, even though the majority of the country is middle – classed. This means that BBC fails to broaden their output and understand the needs and interests of their audience. Due to the middle – class dominance, which affects the views and opinions of the BBC as whole.
However the BBC has served the publics interest since the evolution of television, without the BBC the majority of the country would have not received television at all. “By 1956, 98 per cent of the country was able to receive television” – (Curran et al 2003). According to Curran and Seaton the BBC organised redistribution, allowing people from remote parts of the country to receive television compared to the majority of television owners coming from the south east. This shows that the BBC does have the public interest in priority as they helped television reach almost every home in the country. This sort of distribution of television would have not been made possible with out the BBC “national service was an investment which could not have been made by the commercial companies” – (Curran et al 2003) if at this time the BBC changed from being for the public interest to privatised. The act of redistribution of television in the 1956 would have not been made possible because that sort of investment could have not been made by commercial company.
Moreover, the BBC in the 1980’s was faced more scrutiny for their “public service”. Thatcher at time had been challenging the BBC throughout her time as Prime Minister. In 1985 she had put together a committee whereby she asked them to whether the license fee should be taken away. “She asked one question and one question only – is there an alternative to the license fee?” - (Anthony Smith, 1991). The reason why Thatcher had come to this reaction towards the BBC was because the way she believed the BBC had acted towards her government. “The Prime Minister, umbraged by what she took to be the BBC’s habitual unfairness towards her government” – (Anthony Smith, 1991). This quote is Smith proves that BBC yet again fails to deliver a fair and balanced broadcast of public service. This is another example of the BBC not necessarily being “on the fence” when it considered politics and therefore not serving a public service in the best interest of the public. As the BBC are initiating their political preferences and broadcasting these views to the public.
In addition, the pressure of privatising for the BBC appears to be non stop through out the years. The BBC also has to endure the induced influence of the market. “BBC, so long as it survives, is capable of denying, as the Americans say, anything up to half of the total audience” – (Anthony Smith, 1991). What I believe Smith is trying to say here is that although the BBC are pressurised quite frequently to back down and privatise, they still take half the audience from its commercial competitors. This shows that within the market the BBC still stands strong and dominating. Whilst the commercial companies stay together and do not achieve as much as the BBC.
Furthermore, does the country even need a public service from the BBC today and if so shouldn’t we therefore privatise it? “the idea regulated provision implicit in the public service idea, has become obsolete, to this added compounding factor that the technology now multiplies channels” – (John Gray, 1993). What I believe that Gray is trying to say is that technology is enabling the U.K. to become more of “global village” and therefore we would have no need for the BBC’s nationwide public service. Is there any need for nation wide representative of the public service from the BBC, when technology is so far advanced? When we have hundred of channels providing a wide range of different views not only from a nationwide view but culturally. We are able to access global views and interests all thanks to satellite television with hundreds of news channels and radios stations, to express views from all over the world. “The process of globalisation is undermining the nation-state” – (John Gray, 1993) meaning that BBC producing a nation- wide public service isn’t needed due to globalisation.
On the other hand there are positives to the BBC and how they provide a public service. The idea of public service can be criticised but the BBC undoubtedly has managed to deliver a public service. “BBC in its monopoly position has exercised its public service function and opened broadcasting to ranges of popular experience” – (John Gray, 1993). What Gray is trying to say is that the BBC has managed to provide a form of public interest to the nation. The BBC’s monopoly position has helped enabled the capability to produce a public interest this could have not been accomplished by any commercial company on their own, realistically commercial companies would have found it much more difficult and not necessarily deliver as well as the BBC has managed over the years. Lastly, even at this point in modern day Britain the idea of privatising the BBC is still an on going debate. Since 1950’s the BBC has promised to provide a non- biased public service to the people but on several accounts for example the pre – war period as the BBC broadcasted their left wing views when in fact the BBC is non political and once again in the 80’s during Thatcher’s run the BBC had been “unfair” towards her government. It’s clear they have not kept to their promise to provide a non – political view point for the public interest. On the other hand the BBC is the only company that could provide a public service due to their market position. In my opinion if the BBC was privatised and became a commercial company then the BBC would have no choice but broaden the views they broadcast, otherwise they would see a vast drop in their number of viewers, in a negative view point their company would shrink but they will still have success because the content they provide to audiences is good quality. People would tune in for that reason alone and therefore the BBC will be able to serve the needs for their own niche of audience.

Bibliography
Curran and Seaton (2003), “Power Without Responsibility”
Anthony Smith (1991), “And Now For The BBC”
John Gray (1993), “The BBC charter review series” bbc.co.uk/insidethebbc (2012) “Public purposes”

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