BBC charter fixed end date leaves it open to ‘political football’ – Tim Davie
Outgoing director-general Tim Davie has said the charter renewal fixed end date leaves the BBC vulnerable to “being treated as a political football”.
The charter, which is renewed every 10 years and expires in December 2027, sets out the BBC’s public purpose and is the constitutional basis for the corporation.
Mr Davie’s comments come ahead of the corporation’s response to the Government’s consultation on its future, which will be published on Thursday.
Writing for the Times, Mr Davie laid out three changes he hopes to see, including an end to the charter’s fixed end date.
He said: “Only the BBC has a charter that expires every decade, leaving it open to being treated as a political football.
“We are not perfect and must be held to account, but the BBC’s future should never become a political battleground.”
The BBC is funded predominantly through the licence fee paid by TV-watching households in the UK, and Mr Davie also made the case for an updated funding model that is “fit for the future”.
He also called for new growth-focused regulatory framework that will allow the broadcaster to “move at the pace of today’s media world”.
Mr Davie continued: “The BBC is ready to keep innovating to do more: to tackle disinformation, support local news and strengthen grassroots democracy; to safeguard British storytelling and grow our creative sector; to carry Britain’s voice and influence to the world. But it won’t be possible without a charter that delivers radical reform.
“A charter that maintains the status quo will not be enough; it would abandon the BBC to managed decline.”
Mr Davie resigned as director-general in November and will leave his post in April following allegations that the BBC selectively edited a speech by Donald Trump on the day of the US Capitol attack for a Panorama documentary.
Rhodri Talfan Davies has been confirmed as the corporation’s interim director-general and will take on the role from April 3.
Support our Nation today
For the price of a cup of coffee a month you can help us create an independent, not-for-profit, national news service for the people of Wales, by the people of Wales.
A political football as opposed to an ideologically right wing political mouthpiece. Other than some occasionally interesting entertainment, its news and current affairs programming has been uniformly one Nation, Right Wing, anti immigration, and pro-genocide propaganda. It has given more airtime to Reform and Nigel Farage than the rest of the political establishment put together. ALL under Tim Davie’s watch. It has also historically defended and covered up for some pretty awful people (EG Saville) Personally I think the BBC’s Charter should end completely. Let it survive on adverts like all other networks. It has done nothing in recent years… Read more »
It definitely shifted right under the sinister direction of Johnson’s secretive and malign muscular unionism unit, but that hasn’t stopped the right hating it.
But the answer isn’t to privatise it. We don’t need another billionaire controlled media outlet. We need better public service broadcasting.
I agree that BBC needs changes and is far from impartial in its news and political coverage, but I just hope it doesn’t ever have adverts as we need some channels without mind numbing adverts every 10 minutes!
Politics at the BBC awful because of two people at the top. This one and Gibb.
Until there is a clear out of these and the likes of Mason and Kuenssberg it remains a reform mouthpiece.