BBC Governors face axe under Royal Charter proposals

Months of industry speculation and public consultation ended today as the Government published a Green Paper which renews the BBC's Royal Charter until 2016 and signalled the abolition of the 77-year institution of the Corporation's Board of Governors.
The Green Paper also confirmed that the licence fee arrangements will remain until 2016, although a review of alternative funding methods, including subscription, will be held before then.
Criticised heavily in the wake of the Hutton Report, the Governors are to be replaced by two new bodies, the 'BBC Trust' and an 'Executive Board'.
The Trust will have responsibility for the licence fee, oversee the Corporation in a "transparent and accountable" manner and ensure the BBC fulfils its public service obligations. The formally constituted Executive Board will be responsible for day-to-day management, programming and delivery of the corporation's services.
Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell said that the Green Paper would help ensure a "strong, independent BBC for the future", and would create a "responsive, more accountable BBC that would deliver quality services in the modern, multi-channel digital world".
Ms Jowell said: "The Governors' dual role as cheerleader and regulator does not sit easily in a public organisation of the size and complexity of the BBC. It lacks clarity. It lacks transparency. And it lacks accountability.
"The BBC Trust and Executive Board will provide much-needed daylight between two quite separate roles - running the BBC and making sure it is run well. Licence fee payers need to know who is speaking up for them. They need to know exactly who is in charge, and they deserve to know how important decisions are made."
BBC Chairman Michael Grade welcomed the retention of the licence fee, but said he thought it "regrettable" that the BBC's recently introduced governance reforms had "not had time to prove themselves". He recognised, however, that the corporation's internal changes had been "essentially more behavioural than structural" and that "the consensus in the public debate has been to buttress them with a new structure".
Mr Grade also said that he was happy that the governance issue "had now been settled ahead of the new Charter, providing the BBC with necessary certainty and stability".
It is understood that the Board of Governors have measured the proposals for a BBC Trust against the "five core principles" outlined in the Green Paper: independence; rigorous stewardship of public money; accountability to licence fee payers; clarity of roles; and practicality, and have concluded that the Trust "broadly meets those principles". The Board has expressed a commitment to an "effective and efficient" transition.
Endorsed by Mr Grade as his choice to chair the new Executive Board, Director-General Mark Thompson welcomed continued licence fee funding. He said: "The BBC faces exciting and daunting new challenges over the next decade…but the assurance that original, British content from the BBC will be a guaranteed fixture of any future landscape is good news for the industry and our audiences."
Echoing Mr Grade's backing of the new governance proposals, he added: "It is important that as the Executive Board of a public service broadcaster, funded by the licence fee, we should be properly supervised and held accountable for our decisions.
"My executive colleagues and I will fully play our part to implement the new arrangements and make them work in the interests of licence payers."
Beyond the replacement of the Governors, the Green Paper sets out a "special purpose" for the BBC in helping "build a digital Britain" and a role for Ofcom in external competition regulation of the BBC.
Recognising that commercial broadcasters had criticised the BBC's dominance of the broadcast industry, Ms Jowell said: "We want to keep the BBC strong, while ensuring that it does not become overmighty in its dealings with the wider market.
She said that the Corporation's interests needed to be "constrained" in the commercial sector and it must not be tempted to use "the unique clout the licence fee gives it to step on the toes of other broadcasters". Adding: "It should not play copycat. Or chase ratings for ratings sake. Or put legitimate businesses at peril."
The Green Paper highlighted the need for a significant degree of production outside London and the BBC's duty to "boost quality and generate business throughout the broadcasting industry".
It is suggested that this could be achieved through either a "window of creative competition" between BBC in-house production and external producers, or an increase in the current 25% independent production quota.
(GB)