The CMS Select Committee on the Future of the BBC
Executive Summary
- IBT would like to see the BBC maintained as a content provider of large scale and scope, publicly owned, funded by the licence fee, which should rise in line with inflation.
- Knowledge and understanding of international and global issues is an essential element of the communications needs, rights and interests of UK citizens. The BBC’s purpose should be to provide services which support these needs and interests.
- All BBC channels and services need to demonstrate clear public service value.
- Only licence-fee funding can guarantee a BBC of sufficient scale and scope. Funding from the licence fee should be protected for use by core BBC services and not diverted to other purposes.
- UK citizens are currently under-served by the mainstream media with international content. The quantity and range of original non-news international programming on the PSB’s has been steadily diminishing and is now at its lowest level since 1989.