New BBC Charter puts emphasis on quality and accountability

A "unique solution for a unique organisation", with measures to put the licence fee payer at the heart of everything the BBC does, was set out by Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell as she published a white paper on the future of the corporation yesterday.
The white paper, ‘A public service for all: the BBC in the digital age’, confirms that the BBC will be overseen by a new Trust that is separate from its management and will actively work to ensure the interests of the public are paramount at all times.
Central to this will be ensuring that the cycle of Charter reviews can't dictate the BBC's approach to its services.
In addition, the white paper sets out in further detail how the BBC will be expected to reach a more consensual relationship with the media industry, providing transparency, certainty and clarity where its activities could have an impact on the wider market.
Ms Jowell said: "The BBC white paper sets out a unique solution, for a unique organisation, in a unique set of circumstances – a genuine public service for all in the digital age.
"The Trust will be the voice, eyes and ears of licence fee payers. Every move it makes should be informed by their views and interests.
"Central to this will be ensuring that the BBC delivers consistent quality and value for money to the licence fee payer, regardless of what stage in the Charter period it is.
"And it will simultaneously have to form a more consensual relationship with the wider industry, providing certainty, clarity and transparency about its business wherever possible.
"Furthermore I want to see the BBC continue to take fun seriously, ensuring that quality entertainment is engrained into its services wherever possible, while not chasing ratings but providing something new, innovative and distinctively BBC.
"If it succeeds in meeting the aims set out in the white paper – and I am sure it will - the BBC will thrive and prosper over the next 10 years and beyond."
The white paper confirms that the licence fee will continue for the 10-year lifetime of the next Charter. It also confirms that there will be reviews in the future into the scope for other methods of funding the BBC beyond 2016 and the possibility of distributing public funding more widely to other broadcasters.
BBC Chairman Michael Grade welcomed the White Paper and draft Charter and Agreement saying they marked a significant milestone in the process of BBC Charter review and signalled radical reform of the 80 year old institution.
He acknowledged that the Government's White Paper required the BBC to make radical changes to the way it operates to satisfy licence fee payers and the wider media industry.
He said: "The new governance model lays on the Trust a duty to represent the interests of the licence fee payers both as paymasters of the BBC and as consumers with an interest in wider choice.
"An overhaul of the BBC's governance to a modern structure that serves the licence fee paying public is long overdue. Promises of delivery and sincere words of assurance are no longer enough: the BBC has to demonstrate sustained commitment.
"The BBC must operate only in the public interest, ensuring value for money and high quality output. But in doing so, the BBC accepts it has a responsibility to take account of its potential impact on the wider market and to demonstrate through transparent decision-making processes how it delivers public value to the United Kingdom.
"The new BBC Trust – separated from BBC management – will be equipped to make this a reality.”
The BBC Director-General, Mark Thompson, said the new governance arrangements would provide a robust framework for the BBC to operate within, and greater clarity of expectations allowing the Corporation to concentrate on its core purpose of providing programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain.
(GB)