BBC Home
Explore the BBC
BBC Trust

Reviews, reports and research.

The BBC Trust will regularly commission wide ranging reviews, reports and research. These will be published in this section.

Study into the economic impact of the BBC on the UK

17 July 2008

The BBC Trust commissioned Pricewaterhouse Coopers (PwC) in January 2008 to conduct research into the economic impact of the BBC's publicly funded services on the UK broadcasting and creative sector. The purpose of the report is to provide a base of evidence for the Trust on a number of decisions and policy debates. It is published at a time when OFCOM is conducting its second public service broadcasting (PSB) review and the Scottish Broadcasting Commission is surveying the current state of television production and broadcasting in Scotland.

Whilst the role of the BBC has been debated in a wide body of literature, the economic impact of the BBC has only been assessed in relation to the launch of specific services, such as BBC iPlayer or the Gaelic digital service. This report aims to bridge this gap and provide a broader assessment of the economic impact of BBC's licence fee funded activities on the creative economy.

The report concluded that the overall positive economic impact of the BBC's expenditure on creative activities, including expenditure on overheads and infrastructure, was estimated to be approximately £6.5bn per annum or more than £5bn in the creative sector alone. In addition, PwC have estimated that, when compared to a hypothetical scenario which replaces the BBC with a commercial broadcaster, the current structure delivers an estimated £4.4bn of additional economic impact.