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CMS2009: BBC 'must cast net wider than broadcasting' for media partnerships, says Thompson

Posted: 19/03/09 By: Judith Townend

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The BBC must redefine its relationships with competitors as the corporation undertakes a 'bigger programme of restructuring and redundancy' than any other UK broadcaster or public service, its director-general Mark Thompson has said.

Stating that the BBC must cut £400 million from its budget within the next three years to avoid going over its statutory borrowing limit, Thompson said the corporation was targeting a five per cent cost reduction for television programme cost, year-on-year, for the next five years, a cumulative saving of 20 per cent.

Overall savings of £1.9 billion will be targeted in the licence fee period, Thompson told delegates at today's MediaGuardian Changing Media Summit 2009.

"Digital is a great democratising, liberating force," he said. Stepping away from a model 'which has historically been based on rivalry and competition', the BBC is moving towards partnerships which help each other, he outlined.

"It focuses much more on collaboration and on the sharing of the benefits which the licence fee confers," he said.

"Our emerging answer to that challenge is the idea of partnership, of redefining the relationship between the BBC and the rest of UK media," said Thompson.

Further to developing partnerships with ITV and Channel 4, Thompson said the BBC has been talking to the Press Association and various newspaper publishers about how to work with the press sector.

The corporation will look at how the BBC's technology and access could help them deliver content, Thompson said.

In a 'converging world,' the BBC must 'cast the partnership net a lot wider than the broadcasting sector', he said.

Focusing on smaller companies would be very important for both the BBC and Channel 4 he added.

Speaking in a later session, the minister of communications, technology and broadcasting, Lord Stephen Carter, said the media industry had 'moved on from model where 'if you concentrated on creativity it would allow you monetise it'.

While debates about mergers and collaborations in the broadcast industry were important for the Digital Britain report, he said, there remain important questions about how to create a funding structure for wireless and fixed broadband provision.

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