- 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
Television versus the People
Television versus the People
The James MacTaggart Lecture 1998
- Chapter:
- (p.211) Television versus the People
- Source:
- Television Policy
- Author(s):
Peter Bazalgette
- Publisher:
- Edinburgh University Press
In this lecture, the author, founder of the independent production company Bazal (now Endemol UK) and recipient of the Royal Television Society's Judges award for his outstanding contribution to British television, suggests that television is confronting a revolution in which power is shifting away from the ‘sleek barons of British broadcasting’ in favour of the viewer. However, television is still plagued by regulators who apply ill-informed and outmoded criteria of ‘quality’ to programmes and content. They also fail to achieve healthy competition, which benefits the consumer: the key ambition for any regulatory regime. The author argues that ‘we need an end to the era of over-regulation’ and offers a wide-ranging agenda for change, such as abolishing the existing and ‘absurd’ regulators of television content; removing the public service remit from Channel 3 and Channel 5 and reviewing Channel 4's remit for diversity; phase out the ITV companies' payments for their licence to broadcast, along with their entire capacity for in-house production with the sole exception of local and regional news; privatising BBC Worldwide; and preserving and strengthening BBC's public-service role.
Keywords: television, power, broadcasting, competition, quality, ITV, BBC, public service, over-regulation
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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