BBC's future to be examined in a green paper this summer

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/jun/25/bbcs-future-outlined-green-paper-summer

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The debate over the BBC’s charter review will step up a gear with the publication of a green paper on the corporation’s future this summer.

The government document could be published as early next month and will lay out the issues ministers and the new culture secretary John Whittingdale want to explore during negotiations over the corporation’s charter and licence fee.

According to sources, there are due to be around four or five key themes which the green paper will explore, including governance and, perhaps more controversially, privatisation or part-privatisation of BBC Worldwide.

Details of the paper are still being finalised but there are also suggestions that it will look at the privatisation options for the BBC’s in-house production departments.

Parts of the corporation’s programme-making divisions are due to be spun off into a separate outfit called BBC Studios which will eventually become a commercial subsidiary.

In addition it is understood there have been discussions within government about BBC Worldwide being put on the portfolio of assets it is considering selling.

Six years ago the then Labour government put the corporation’s commercial wing on its asset list but it was granted a reprieve a year later under the coalition.

However it is understood that politicians have been exploring putting it back on the list.

A sale or partial sale of BBC Worldwide is likely to go down badly within the publicly-funded wing of the BBC.

Although it could potentially provide access to more capital, the commercial outfit is a cash engine – returning millions to the rest of the BBC from ventures such as the exploitation of rights, merchandise and programme sales of hit shows such as Top Gear and Doctor Who.

According to last year’s BBC annual report Worldwide returned £174m to the BBC in 2013/14 so privatising it would reduce the corporation’s income.

It is also not clear how the Treasury would benefit as the BBC would probably argue it should receive the proceeds from any full or partial sale and use it to fund programmes.

However the government could argue the money could be returned to the BBC - the ultimate parent of BBC Worldwide - as a one-off compensation payment to the corporation for a freeze or cut in the licence fee.

When Worldwide was last on the block, the BBC said it was “not up for sale” although it continued “to keep an open mind about the appropriate ownership structure”.

Once the green paper has been published, the BBC is expected to respond with its own document putting forward its arguments for its continued existence and ideas for the future.

It is understood that it has been exploring an idea which appears in political economist and writer Will Hutton’s book How Good We Can Be about creating a public benefit company to steward the public interest aspect of any commercial activities, which could be particularly relevant for BBC Studios to ensure it is not sold off. That idea has also been floated by Professor Colin Mayer, of the Said Business School, Oxford University.

Other issues the corporation still faces include decriminalisation of non-payment of the licence fee and the threat of having to pay for all or some of the free licence fees for over-75s.

The charter negotiations are likely to dominate the media landscape for some time with a white paper expected to be published by spring.

Whittingdale understands the process having been a former chair of the Commons culture select committee and shadow culture secretary and seasoned BBC-watchers argue that by bringing the green paper out so quickly he has taken the initiative in the first round of the review process.

However the BBC has been preparing for the battle and is expected to show the government and viewers which services or areas of programming, such as original UK children’s shows, will be lost if there are cuts.

There has been some concern within the BBC that there could be something about the corporation in the chancellor’s budget on 8 July and that the charter renewal process and licence fee settlement could become caught up in a government spending review, as the licence fee deal was in 2010.

A BBC spokesman said: “We will respond to the green paper when there is a green paper.”

A spokesman for the department of culture, media and sport said: “All matters concerning the BBC will be considered as part of charter review.”

The BBC’s charter runs out at the end of next year, while the licence fee settlement is due to expire in 2017.