Trust Publishes BBC's 'Re-Shaping' Strategy

The BBC Trust has published a proposed strategy for the BBC inviting views from the public and industry on the future direction for the corporation.
The proposals have been drawn up by the BBC Executive following a challenge from the BBC Trust to the Director General to carry out a full scale review of the BBC's strategy.
The Trust issued the challenge in July 2009 to address questions about the scope of the BBC's activities, focusing on how the BBC can most effectively deliver its public service mission and meet audience needs and deliver value for money.
The proposals will now be subject to a twelve week consultation.
BBC Trust Chairman Sir Michael Lyons said: "The public pick up the bill for the BBC and it is right that it constantly evolves to meet their expectations. This strategy review is a key part of that process.
"We welcome the general direction of this report, although we will want to test it and consider how it is delivered. We are clear it heads towards a more disciplined and sharply focused BBC. That will mean some difficult choices. But we will not shrink from those choices where they are in the interests of licence fee payers.
"The end result should be a BBC that is genuinely distinctive, genuinely open and transparent and genuinely public service."
In publishing the Executive's proposals, the Trust has stressed that it supports the Director-General's vision of "a BBC focused on quality content and enduring values that keeps open a public space for all" and that it endorses the central proposals put forward for achieving that vision.
In its response the Trust has also set out the areas that it supports, those it will want to consider further and those where longer term thinking is needed.
The Trust will use the responses from the twelve week consultation and its own analysis to form a final view on what the future strategic framework for the BBC ought to be. It will aim to provide a provisional view of its conclusions in the summer and a final strategy in the autumn.
(BMcN/GK)