I don’t work for the BBC but… when the media landscape changes, it has always led the way

Dominic Young, media consultant and chief executive of media payment platform Axate

I don’t work for the BBC but…

The most interesting proposal in the BBC’s position on charter renewal starts on page 48: “We are proposing that iPlayer could be opened to other PSBs”.

It might not seem like much but the reality is that the BBC has no long-term future as a broadcaster. Nobody does. The broadcast era is already over. The idea that everyone watches or listens to the same thing at the same time seems quaint, almost anachronistic to anyone who has grown up in the streaming era.

So the challenge about its future role is about a lot more than funding, and if we want there to be any future at all for public service – broadcasting? Media? – whatever we want to call it, then the BBC needs to step up to another of its historic roles.

The BBC has always helped create markets, not just opportunities for itself. The adoption of radios and televisions which the BBC spearheaded in the 20th Century unlocked the opportunity for commercial radio and TV to enter the market and thrive.

Generations of production and technical talent, trained by the BBC, went on to create those commercial broadcasters and the independent production sector which has become such a powerhouse for the UK. At the dawn of the internet, the BBC was given the role of helping drive adoption and explaining the relevance to those for whom it was very new. It helped create a generation of coders when it developed the low-cost BBC Micro.

The BBC pioneered Freeview and Freesat, with its commercial peers, later YouView, as broadcasting transitioned to new technology.

The BBC has never been just a broadcaster – even less so now as broadcasting recedes into the mists of history and a plethora of new platforms and creators crowd onto people’s devices and compete with traditional media for their attention.

Which means that a future model for the BBC solves nothing unless it also serves the interests of the other beleaguered denizens of the old broadcasting sector and more widely the British media sector as a whole, newspapers and all. That’s hard, because their revenue streams are collapsing and there is no obvious path to securing alternative sustenance.

If we value what we used to call “public service” output, and what we might now think of as accountable, high quality and high value content, we need to create incentives for commercial players to continue to invest in it. Access to transmitters and a guaranteed button on everyone’s TV set isn’t worth anything any more.

Access to iPlayer is a great first step. Available to everyone, but not open to all content providers – only those who reach a certain standard. And a great convenience for audiences – being able to switch from one “channel” to another without the faff of quitting one all, launching another, clicking and hunting around.

But the BBC could go further: as well as giving access to iPlayer, it could also create a shared login which not only gives users access to a large range of content and brands, but also a way to pay for it with similarly low friction. BBC ID+ if you like.

Subscription, though – as the BBC makes clear in its response – is a terrible proposition, from the point of view of the audience as well as the broadcasters, if it’s the only way to pay. Every new subscription adds recurring cost, and unlocks more choice of content, but it doesn’t expand the number of hours anyone has available to watch or listen. It just makes every one of those hours more and more expensive. But with advertising relentlessly declining, some sort of consumer payment will be needed by everyone, not just the Beeb.

So, to re-frame what the BBC seems to be suggesting, they propose to create a single, safe, space (iPlayer) in which every Brit can get access to a cornucopia of content provided by a range of accountable, high standard, providers.

If they marry that to a universal, frictionless and commitment-free way to pay for the content people choose to spend time with, they’ll have created a scalable and competitive market which, for every provider who qualifies, offers significant commercial advantages and opportunities. A basis for continuing and updating the concept of public service and – as the internet grows ever-more polluted and toxic, a safe media space for everyone.

• The government has launched a consultation asking the public for views on how the BBC should evolve, alongside a green paper setting out its proposals for reform around funding, independence, governance and culture. The consultation asks 32 questions about these issues as well as the best ways in which the corporation can continue to entertainment and educate in a rapidly changing media landscape. It will close on 10 March.