News
BBC targets 1bn global audience
Tony Hall, director-general of the
BBC, has revealed the Corporation’s
ambition to reach a global audience of
one billion, going beyond his original aim of
double its global audience to reach 500 million
people by 2022.
Delivering the Opening
Address of the Edinburgh
International Television
Festival via Zoom,
Hall suggested that the
international reach of
the BBC was “absolutely
crucial” to any vision of
‘Global Britain’.
“Four years ago,
I convinced the then
Government to make
its largest-ever increase
in investment in the
BBC World Service,” he
reported. That funding
- £86 million a year -
allowed us to complete
the biggest expansion of
the World Service since
the Second World War.
We now operate in 42
languages. We’ve opened
new bureaux with more
local journalists on the
ground. We’ve got new
investigative teams holding power to account
around the world.”
“My goal, when I arrived at the BBC, was
to double our global audience to reach 500
million people by 2022 - our centenary year.
With two years to go, we are today reaching
468 million people each week. We have plans
in place to double that ambition - to reach a
global audience of 1 billion people by the end
of the decade. But it needs extra investment
from government and that bid is with them
right now.”
“No one can do more to carry Britain’s
voice and values to the world,” he asserted.
“Independent research shows there’s an
exceptionally high correlation between places
where people are aware of the BBC and places
where people think positively about the UK.
We even help UK trade. This could hardly be
more important as Britain sets out to forge a
new relationship with the world, based on an
ambitious vision of ‘Global Britain’. Success
will mean drawing on all our considerable
international assets. And that means
unleashing the full global potential of the
BBC,” he declared.
Hall suggested
that the
international
reach of the BBC
was “absolutely
crucial” to any
vision of ‘Global
Britain’.
According to Hall, Britain in a post-Brexit
world must play to its greatest strengths - one
of which is the creative industries. “Just as the
NHS underpins Britain’s global excellence in
research and life sciences, so the BBC - and our
unique PSB ecology - underpins the excellence
of our creative industries. This is the sector
that, before the crisis hit, was the fastestgrowing
part of the economy,
worth over £100 billion a year. And
British creativity is one of our most
valuable global exports,” he said,
noting that the BBC has long been
the single biggest investor in - and
platform for - British talent and
content.
He suggested that there was one
statistic that really brings home
what the UK’s PSB system means
for the strength of its creative industries. “In
2018, PSBs delivered over 32,000 hours of
UK-made original content. The big streamers?
221 hours,” he noted.
“Yes, we need to keep reforming, keep
listening and learning about how we can
do better. But let’s not forget that PSBs are
the magic formula for British success in the
global media age. And let’s explore ways to
build on their strength, so they can do even
more for our economy, for our society, for
employment. So the conditions are there for
the BBC to deliver more for audiences, and
to be even closer to them. Let’s go back and
look at what the data is telling us. It shows we
have reached the point where for the first time
the decline in audiences to linear channels
has been compensated by the uptick in our
delivery to audiences online and on demand,”
he suggested.
Hall said that the BBC had made the pivot
to a new world and was in a great position to
continue to thrive in the future and all set to
compete with the very best in the global digital
age.
In conclusion, Hall said there was “no
doubt” in his mind that PSBs could do more
than ever for the UK in the years ahead. “We
have to keep banging the drum for what
only we can deliver. The role we can play
in helping to find the answer to so many of
the biggest issues now facing society. From
division and polarisation, to the rise of fake
news and disinformation, to our creative and
cultural strength, even to helping society safely
navigate a path through the Covid crisis.”
“I was much taken with what Daniel Ek,
the founder of Spotify said to me last year.
In the next thirty years, he said, only those
companies with strong values will survive.
That’s why public service broadcasting is so
much more than an idea of the past. It’s an
idea whose time has well and truly come. More
relevant, and more needed, than ever.”
Sky Arts FTA from Sept 17
Sky Arts, the UK’s only channel
dedicated to arts and culture, is to be
made available to everyone, with Sky
confirming a launch date, as well as
programming and EPG details.
Sky Arts will join DTT platform
Freeview on September 17th on
channel number 11. According to
Sky, the prominent channel position
signals Sky Arts’ renewed ambition to
bring more of the arts to more people
as a free service. Sky Arts will also be
available on Freesat on channel number
147.
As part of the free-to-air launch, Sky
Arts will embark on what it describes
as an ambitious programme of activity
to support and champion the arts at
a vital time for the cultural sector –
putting artists, creatives, and public
participation centre stage on a channel
that everyone across the UK can watch.
The move to become free-to-air will
include a bold new slate of original
programmes and increased and
deepened partnerships with artists and
arts organisations, providing them with
a platform to create and showcase their
work.
While the Sky Arts linear channel
will be made free for everyone, the
extensive Sky Arts On Demand library
of arts content, with more than 2,000
hours of shows, will remain exclusive
to Sky and NOW TV entertainment pass
customers.
4 EUROMEDIA