Put audience first, urges Lyons

In a keynote address to the IPPR Oxford Media Convention this morning, Sir Michael said much of the debate over the BBC's future funding had wrongly assumed that ‘top slicing' the licence fee was a given solution.

He called for a “fully informed debate” on the issue before far-reaching decisions are made.

Emphasising that the Trust was open to debate on the issue, he said more work was needed to establish the potential impact on the BBC's accountability to its audiences if the fee were to go to a body that would use the money to subsidise public service content from other broadcasters.

The BBC also needs to determine the proper value of the corporation's public service responsibilities, he said.

“Proponents of top-slicing tend to talk about an “enhanced licence fee”: in other words the current licence fee with some new money on top to subsidise non-BBC broadcasters,” said Lyons.

“But how likely is it that any government would sanction a higher licence fee for this purpose? And, just as important, how likely is it that the public would be prepared to pay it? Particularly for services which up till now they have perceived as free?

“And if there is no new money and the new subsidy is to be funded by reducing the BBC's income, how big a risk does that pose to the BBC's ability to deliver the Public Purposes as laid upon it by Parliament?

“The public need to have an absolutely clear answer to this question: how would weakening the BBC's ability to deliver its PSB mission in order to help other broadcasters deliver theirs - how would that play out in terms of the ultimate interests of audiences?”

Given the increasing pressure on advertising revenues at commercial broadcasters', many of whom already offer some PSB programming, Sir Michael also questioned to what extent this was the right moment to put the system under further strain by changing the fundamental nature of the licence fee.

“Are we quite clear what the effects of that would be on the system as a whole?” he asked.

“Broadcasting has a complex ecology and before we sign up to chopping back one part of the forest, let's be clear what the benefits might - or might not - be for the eco-system as a whole,” he concluded.

Asked to what extent the Trust's views aligned with those of the BBC's senior executives, Lyons responded: "There will be slightly different voices in this although you'll find a common commitment to debate and open-mindedness.

"At the end of the day, the Trust wuill set BBC policy in this area, taking the view of Mark Thompson and the executives into account."

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