Category: BBC
Date: 19.04.2005
Printable version
The Board of Governors publishes the BBC's Statements of Programme Policy for 2005/06 today.
The Statements - one for each of the BBC's 26 services across all platforms outline how, in the year ahead, the BBC will fulfil its public purpose to inform, educate and entertain.
BBC Chairman Michael Grade said: "The BBC must be judged on the delivery of its promises.
"These Statements and the objectives set by the Governors demonstrate focus and continued commitment to deliver to the British public a range of services that they value for their quality and originality in return for their licence fee.
"Over the next year the Board will begin to introduce a system of service licences.
"Taken with the Statements of Programme Policy, these new service licences for each BBC service will further improve transparency and accountability to licence fee payers.
"The Governors will monitor the BBC's performance and - informed by our dialogue with the public we will publish our assessment in next year's Annual Report and Accounts."
Over recent months the BBC's Director-General, Mark Thompson, has outlined his vision for the BBC's creative future and promised that this strategy will ensure future investment is prioritised on content that marks the BBC as distinctive and delivers maximum public value.
Mark Thompson said: "This year marks the beginning. We will increase our overall programme spend by £61m and, of this, £21m will be invested in BBC Television.
"This money will be spent on enriching the summer schedule, increasing the amount of drama and comedy and on BBC ONE beginning to reduce the number of repeats in peak time in the months ahead.
"Over the coming year we will offer a range of television, radio, and new media services, each underpinning the BBC's unique public service remit and delivering public value."
These commitments and the priorities highlighted in the Statements reflect the BBC's focus on meeting the expectations of licence fee payers and delivering the change promised in Building Public Value.
Examples include:
BBC ONE's promise of more current affairs in peak time and a greater range of drama;
a commitment from Radio 3 to a number of high-profile classical music events, including broadcasting the complete works of Beethoven, Webern and Bach;
and BBC Nations & Regions is launching five local television news pilots in the West Midlands as a first step towards a network of around 60 local television services around the UK to provide 10 minute bulletins of local news and information through the day, every day.
As digital take-up grows, the BBC will continue its commitment to delivering public value through new technologies.
bbc.co.uk includes a commitment to trial a full interactive Media Player, allowing audiences to watch BBC programmes on demand, and a Statement is included for Digital Curriculum, the new online service which will launch in January 2006 to provide high quality interactive learning resources at home, school or in the community.
Alongside the Statements the Board of Governors has published five objectives for the BBC to meet in this financial year.
They underpin the drive for distinction:
developing a five year strategy for programmes and services focused on maximising public value;
driving the market for free-to-air digital television, digital radio and new media while continuing to serve the needs of the analogue-only audience;
implementing the findings of the Value For Money review;
meeting audience expectations for the highest standards of accuracy, fairness and impartiality;
and delivering greater transparency and accountability to licence payers.
Notes to Editors
Under the Communications Act 2003, each public service broadcaster must produce an annual Statement identifying its commitments for delivering its public service remit in the year ahead. This is the fourth set of BBC Statements.
The terms under which the BBC is required to produce Statements for its public services are covered in the Revised Agreement with the Secretary of State approved by Parliament in December 2003. It is the sole responsibility of the Board of Governors to monitor the BBC's performance against the Statements and report their conclusions.
The regulatory programming quotas placed on the BBC which are monitored by Ofcom are in addition to SOPPs commitments (listed in full on pages 60 and 61 of the document). These are measured by Ofcom on a calendar year basis and compliance reported by the external regulator.
The BBC Governors will report on performance against the Statements of Programme Policy 2004/2005, published in April last year, in the BBC Annual Report & Accounts to be published in July 2005.
The BBC's accounting year runs from 1 April to 31 March.
Board of Governors 2005/2006 Objectives
