Institutional contexts of The BBC

History and foundation The ‘British Broadcasting Company’ (as it was originally named) was set up on the 18th October 1922. It was set up by a group of wireless communicators. The BBC began its daily broadcasting in Macroni’s studio in London on the 14th November that same year. John Reith was appointed general manager of the company by the end of 1922. In January 1927 the company was established by Royal Charter as the British Broadcasting Corporation.

The Charter The Royal Charter is the constitutional basis for the BBC. The Charter sets out the public purposes of the corporation, and pledges its independence. The BBC was set up by Royal Charter despite concern from Reith as to whether or not the corporation would merely be used as a mouthpiece for the government. The 1926 general strike put the BBC in a position of crisis. However, Reith wanted the public to trust his news as authentic, and was changed to a non-profit organisation.

The Agreement The Agreement with the Secretary of State sits alongside the Charter. It covers details topics in the Charter, but also covers its funding and its regulatory duties. The Agreement, alongside the Charter, establishes the BBC’s independence from the government.

Structure and Governance The most recent Charter was awarded from 1st January 2017. This gave the sole regulatory responsibility for the BBC to OFCOM. “Under the new Royal Charter and Agreement, regulation of the BBC passes from the BBC Trust to Ofcom on 3 April 2017. One of Ofcom’s central responsibilities is to hold the BBC to account for fulfilling its mission and promoting its public purposes.” The new board is led by a non-executive Chairman – Sir David Clementi, alongside executive Director-General and Editor-in-Chief, Tony Hall. The Board; - sets the strategic direction. - establishes the creative remit. - sets the budget - is responsible for commercial activities - and determines the framework for assessing performance.

Revenue The principal means of funding the corporation is TV licences, costing £147 per year since April 2017. The revenue is collected privately by Capita, an outside company. The licence fee is classified as a tax, and its evasion is a criminal offence.

Marketing and Brand Identity In 2010, the BBC’s sole source of funding (license fee) was frozen until 2017, leading to 20% spending cuts. These cuts could have been detrimental to the brand identity. However, in the 18 months that followed, the BBC put it’s focus into a marketing revamp which led the BBC’s focus being it’s core and principles, rather than a more specific focus on TV/Radio. The BBC won the Marketing Week Engage Awards 2012 Brand of the Year title in association with YouGov. The BBC overcame a difficulty faced by many public and –private service providers – limiting expenditure but maintaining quality and brand identity.

Expenditure

Services The BBC has several active Television channels, including BBC One and BBC Two. They also have children's channels, for example CBBC. The BBC has 10 Radio stations serving the UK, with 6 stations in the ‘national regions’ (NI, Wales, Scotland). Other services include BBC News and online services.

Media And Regulation OFCOM oversee both public and private broadcast services. Journalists are under the legal and ethical considerations set by the office of communications, but can breach the guidelines in cases of overwhelming public interest.

Controversy The BBC has often been criticised in terms of its news coverage. For example, it was criticised as being too pro-union during the coverage of the Scottish independence referendum. The BBC has been warned about its biased coverage of Brexit. News-Watch has been committed to monitoring the BBC in terms of impartiality over the last 16 years. It found that in one-one interviews on the referendum there have been 12 supporters of Remain compared to only six who were in favour of leaving the EU.  Out of all the guests involved in 40 editions of Newsnight, there were 25 ‘Remainers’, compared to 14 pro-leave speakers.

References https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC https://www.bbc.co.uk/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/governance/regulatory_framework/charter_agreement.html https://www.ofcom.org.uk/tv-radio-and-on-demand/broadcast-codes/broadcast-code https://www.marketingweek.com/2012/06/27/branding-the-bbc/ https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0033/99519/bbc-performance-consultation.pdf https://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/653836/BBC-biased-Brexit-EU-referendum-Newsnight-Question-Time