- Title Pages
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Introduction
- TV Drama: The Case against Naturalism
- Naturalism and Television
- Taboos in Television
- Signposting Television in the 1980s: The Fourth Television
- Television Drama, Censorship and the Truth
- The Day after Tomorrow: The Future of Electronic Publishing
- The Primacy of Programmes in the Future of Broadcasting
- Reflections on Working in Film and Television
- ‘Opening up the Fourth Front’: Micro Drama and the Rejection of Naturalism
- Power and Pluralism in Broadcasting
- Ethics, Broadcasting and Change: The French Experience
- Freedom in Broadcasting
- Deregulation and Quality Television
- The Future of Television: Market Forces and Social Values
- The Future of the BBC
- Occupying Powers
- A Culture of Dependency: Power, Politics and Broadcasters
- Talent versus Television
- A Glorious Future: Quality Broadcasting in the Digital Age
- Rewarding Creative Talent: The Struggle of the Independents
- Television versus the People
- Public-Interest Broadcasting: A New Approach
- A Time for Change
- The Soul of British Television
- Television's Creative Deficit
- Freedom of Choice: Public-Service Broadcasting and the BBC
- First Do No Harm
- Appendix A Edinburgh International Television Festival, 29 August-2 September 1977: Programme
- Appendix B
- Index
The Future of the BBC
The Future of the BBC
The James MacTaggart Lecture 1992
- Chapter:
- (p.157) The Future of the BBC
- Source:
- Television Policy
- Author(s):
Michael Grade
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
In this lecture, the author, chairman of the BBC Board of Governors after 2004, analyses the finances, management and programming of the BBC following a period of robust clashes with the Thatcher government and in the run-up to the Charter renewal in 1994. He argues for the significance of programme quality and standards at the BBC for the wider broadcasting industry, claiming that ‘it is the BBC which keeps us all honest’. The author identifies a number of key problems confronting the BBC. In-house management at the BBC has adopted a ‘sort of pseudo Leninist style’ which relies on ‘central control’ and promises the spectre of ‘editorial dictatorship’. The author concludes that the BBC Governors cannot be both managers and regulators, and consequently advocates a single new regulatory body — the British Television Commission — for all television services. Moreover, the BBC has become preoccupied with cuts, savings and making money rather than programmes. Finally, there is a the problem of the licence fee which empowers governments against Governors and can encourage the latter towards political compliance.
Keywords: BBC, finances, management, broadcasting, Board of Governors, British Television Commission, licence fee, quality, standards
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- Title Pages
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Introduction
- TV Drama: The Case against Naturalism
- Naturalism and Television
- Taboos in Television
- Signposting Television in the 1980s: The Fourth Television
- Television Drama, Censorship and the Truth
- The Day after Tomorrow: The Future of Electronic Publishing
- The Primacy of Programmes in the Future of Broadcasting
- Reflections on Working in Film and Television
- ‘Opening up the Fourth Front’: Micro Drama and the Rejection of Naturalism
- Power and Pluralism in Broadcasting
- Ethics, Broadcasting and Change: The French Experience
- Freedom in Broadcasting
- Deregulation and Quality Television
- The Future of Television: Market Forces and Social Values
- The Future of the BBC
- Occupying Powers
- A Culture of Dependency: Power, Politics and Broadcasters
- Talent versus Television
- A Glorious Future: Quality Broadcasting in the Digital Age
- Rewarding Creative Talent: The Struggle of the Independents
- Television versus the People
- Public-Interest Broadcasting: A New Approach
- A Time for Change
- The Soul of British Television
- Television's Creative Deficit
- Freedom of Choice: Public-Service Broadcasting and the BBC
- First Do No Harm
- Appendix A Edinburgh International Television Festival, 29 August-2 September 1977: Programme
- Appendix B
- Index