[Previous entry: "(Root) Beer"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Candidates"]

01 February 2004: "Privatisation"

There's very little I could say about the results of the Hutton inquiry that hasn't been said elsewhere by now, so I'm not going to comment on it. However, I do note that the Hutton report's findings have been seized on by proponents of privatising the BBC. That's an idea that doesn't sit well with me, and it's not a matter of "state control vs. free market" ideology.

Consider this: how many BBC programmes can you name off the top of your head which achieved enduring popular following, even cult status, across the globe? There must be quite a few; Dr. Who, Blackadder, Red Dwarf, Yes, (Prime) Minister, Absolutely Fabulous, 'Allo, 'allo, Fawlty Towers, All Creatures Great and Small, French & Saunders, Mr. Bean, Monty Python's Flying Circus, even the Teletubbies and Keeping up Appearances, to name a baker's dozen. Now, how many programmes produced by British commercial broadcasters—most notably ITV and Channel 4—have achieved similar status? The Avengers, Thunderbirds, The Prisoner and Father Ted spring to mind, and we might list Inspector Morse and Space 1999 as well; there are probably more, but they don't present themselves too readily. Especially in the field of comedy, the BBC has a significant lead over the British commercial broadcasters, and though I can't substantiate this in any concrete fashion, I have a gut feeling that the BBC's status as a public-service broadcaster has much to do with this.

With any commercial station, the bottom line in the short term is paramount, and as a result the guys responsible for generating advertising revenue have serious influence in programming choices. And they keep they eye on the ratings. They want to go with tried and tested formulas. It's not a set-up which is conducive to experimentation. ITV didn't touch The Prisoner until after it had been well received in Canada, and Space 1999 was produced with prospective sales to the American market in mind.

Let me put it another way: what do you think your chances would be of successfully pitching Monty Python's Flying Circus to a commercial broadcaster? (Assuming, that is, that the show was an unknown quantity at the time.) How about French & Saunders? They'd tell you to "lose the fat bird." Compare Channel 4's Smack The Pony, on which the three principals are all babes. That's not to impugn the talents of the three women involved—Fiona Allen, Doon MacKichan and Sally Phillips—as Smack The Pony is a genuinely funny show, but I can't help but think that looks play a larger role in the considerations of a commercial broadcaster than of a public-service one. Fair enough, the members of the Comic Strip (the aforementioned Dawn French & Jennifer Saunders, as well as Rick Mayall, Nigel Planer, Adrian Edmondson and Ben Elton) initially did a few projects for Channel 4, but that was back in the early 1980s, when C4 was new to the airwaves and still interested in innovative and diverse programming, which meant it was willing to experiment with stuff ITV wouldn't touch. And, in the end, C4 lost out to the BBC, which soon snapped up the entire Comic Strip line-up for various projects.

That's not to say the BBC isn't influenced by viewer ratings; as a public-service broadcaster, its remit is to provide a service, and filling the roster with programmes nobody's interested in watching is no way to go about that. But in the Corporation's case, the ratings arguably carry more weight in the decision to continue or drop an existing show that they do in the decision to put the show on the air in the first place.

The long and short of it is that the BBC has an impressive record of producing brilliant television* with a global appeal; one which few, if any, commercial broadcasters can match. And while it's hard to prove a causal relationship, I find it difficult to imagine that the BBC's public-service status hasn't played a major role in that. Accordingly, I'm worried that privatising the Beeb will deprive the world of an unparalleled source of entertainment. Okay, admittedly, I don't get stuck with the bill, in the form of a British television license fee or the taxes with which the Foreign and Commonwealth Office funds (used to fund?) the World Service, so I acknowledge I'm speaking from the perspective of a free rider. But I will point out that I'm a citizen of the Netherlands, which has a hybrid national broadcasting system which manages to combine the downsides of public-service and commercial broadcasting (i.e. you have to pay a license fee and you still get advertising, and the bulk of the programmes suck). I can't remember how many people I know who have stated that, given the option, they'd happily pay the British license fee instead of the Dutch one, and forego the Dutch channels in favour of the BBC (which they did anyway, since the Beeb is available on cable). That's a perspective which I suspect few British and Americans are aware exists.

I've said it elsewhere, I think, but I'm a consumerist in the sense that I'm not ideologically committed to whether a particular service should be provided by the private or the public sector; I'll go with whichever option provides the better service at an affordable—not necessarily the lowest—price. But I digress. What it boils down to is that it's not my call whether or not to privatise the Beeb; that is ultimately a decision which falls to the voters of the United Kingdom, the public which the BBC is intended to serve. But I think it would be short-sighted for those people only to consider the financial nuisance of the license fee and the BBC's currently chequered record on news reporting ("currently" for it was not always thus) in making that decision.

* - And radio. Who else could pull off The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy or the landmark 13-hour adaptation of The Lord of the Rings?

au currant
Black Decaf
The Illiterati
Cointelpro Tool
Norman Geras
A Fistful of Euros
Harry's Place
Plastic Gangster
Blogfonte
Tim Newman
€urosavant
Crooked Timber
Gallowglass
Mr. McGillicuddy
eameljenet
Civax
101-280
Colby Cosh
Peaktalk
Mick Hartley
Oliver Kamm

Miscellanea:

Care to contribute
to the coffee fund?