Post by Teddy Bear on Sept 2, 2015 18:50:22 GMT
This article in the Telegraph shows the hegemonic agenda of the BBC and warns of the harm it's doing to the media industry by it's attempt to take over every aspect it can of the private sector. It's purpose is clearly to be THE Ministry of Thought with few other voices or opinions heard.
Though the writer hopes the government will do something about it I seriously have my doubts.
Another article in todays' Telegraph spells out more of how the BBC ambitions to overrun British media is being implemented.
Though the writer hopes the government will do something about it I seriously have my doubts.
The BBC is harming British journalism
Telegraph View: the corporation's incursions into online publishing are damaging and unjustified
By Telegraph View
The election of a Conservative government and the elevation of John Whittingdale to the post of Culture Secretary has been greeted with near hysteria by the BBC and its most ardent champions. Suggestions that the licence fee might eventually be replaced or that those who fail to pay it should no longer be criminalised have been denounced almost as an affront to civilised society.
Some in the Corporation appear to believe that to question the BBC’s right to an ever-expanding income, too much of which is spent on executive salaries and a bloated adminstration, is to to undermine the nation itself. We would argue that it is possible for the Corporation to cut its administrative spending considerably without risking its existence or reducing the quality of its output.
But there is another media institution that really is facing an existential crisis - and one exacerbated by BBC’s casual aggrandisement. At a time of falling revenues, the newspaper industry is forced to compete with the Corporation’s publicly-funded incursion into the digital news arena. A report commissioned by the News Media Association, the publishers’ trade body, has found that the BBC’s stated ambition to expand its online news provision is crowding out commercial providers at all levels.
Local newspapers in particular are being damaged or put out of business. The BBC sees this demise as inevitable and wants to step into the breach. But this is a circular argument: many of these commercial operations would survive if the Corporation scaled back its online news output. The current Charter Review must ensure that it does.
Telegraph View: the corporation's incursions into online publishing are damaging and unjustified
By Telegraph View
The election of a Conservative government and the elevation of John Whittingdale to the post of Culture Secretary has been greeted with near hysteria by the BBC and its most ardent champions. Suggestions that the licence fee might eventually be replaced or that those who fail to pay it should no longer be criminalised have been denounced almost as an affront to civilised society.
Some in the Corporation appear to believe that to question the BBC’s right to an ever-expanding income, too much of which is spent on executive salaries and a bloated adminstration, is to to undermine the nation itself. We would argue that it is possible for the Corporation to cut its administrative spending considerably without risking its existence or reducing the quality of its output.
But there is another media institution that really is facing an existential crisis - and one exacerbated by BBC’s casual aggrandisement. At a time of falling revenues, the newspaper industry is forced to compete with the Corporation’s publicly-funded incursion into the digital news arena. A report commissioned by the News Media Association, the publishers’ trade body, has found that the BBC’s stated ambition to expand its online news provision is crowding out commercial providers at all levels.
Local newspapers in particular are being damaged or put out of business. The BBC sees this demise as inevitable and wants to step into the breach. But this is a circular argument: many of these commercial operations would survive if the Corporation scaled back its online news output. The current Charter Review must ensure that it does.
Another article in todays' Telegraph spells out more of how the BBC ambitions to overrun British media is being implemented.
BBC news must stop 'muscling out' commercial websites, report says
News Media Association says BBC must stop using licence fee to compete with other news providers, and collaborate with them instead
By Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter
BBC news must stop “muscling out” commercial rivals with its “rapidly expanding” licence fee-funded website, according to a report which criticises the corporation for trying to monopolise news provision.
Instead of trying to compete with websites run by national and local newspaper companies, the BBC should collaborate with them to ensure the country’s wide range of news providers continues to thrive, the report says.
It also warns the BBC against “chasing relevance” by trying to emulate youth-orientated websites such as Buzzfeed and Vice, which “risks diminishing its own reputation for world-leading…impartial journalism”.
The report, commissioned by the News Media Association, is published as Lord Hall, the BBC director-general, prepares to set out his own vision of the corporation’s future on Monday as politicians continue to debate its charter review.
Ashley Highfield, vice chairman of the NMA, says BBC must collaborate rather than competing
The NMA, which represents commercial news organisations including Telegraph Media Group, asked the media consultancy Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates Ltd to review the arguments being made by the BBC in its own Future of News report, which was published in January.
The 69-page NMA report, titled UK News Provision at the Crossroads, accuses the BBC of pursuing "local and global ambitions…akin to colonisation" in news provision.
It says that the BBC’s ambition to provide a “hyper local” news service that might tailor online news feeds to the street where people live, will be to the detriment of traditional local newspapers that have moved online to provide the same sort of service.
At a national level, it says, the BBC is spending too much time replicating content that is provided elsewhere, and on an international level it questions whether the BBC’s extensive network of foreign correspondents, funded by the licence fee, should continue to be used to “underpin” commercial BBC services sold abroad. The BBC is under pressure to commercialise the World Service after being given responsibility to fund it through the licence fee, rather than the old model of funding being provided by the Foreign Office.
The report says that the corporation should implement "specific control" around the scope of its website, and commit to partnerships with commercial news providers, including national and local news websites, to preserve the plurality of news provision in the UK.
The NMA and its members, who spend £1.2 billion on news provision each year, “fundamentally disagree” with the BBC’s assertion that its news provision must “continually grow” or that it should build rival services to those already provided by commercial companies.
The report says: “The editorial scope of the BBC’s national online news services is rapidly expanding, drawing it further from its core broadcasting remit into traditionally commercial editorial areas such as ‘soft’ news articles, magazine ‘lifestyle’ content, and celebrity columnists.
“Such moves risk undermining the ability of the commercial sector to generate advertising and sponsorship revenues around softer content which has traditionally formed the basis for reinvestment in harder news areas such as investigative journalism.”
It adds that: “The popularity of the BBC’s news website and apps undoubtedly owes much to the trust that has accrued in the BBC brand over the years. But it is also in part due to the BBC’s ability to cross-promote its online news via its plethora of broadcast outlets, providing it with a level of exposure with UK citizens with which no commercial news brand can hope to compete.
“The danger for the commercial news sector is that a lack of clear boundaries for the BBC’s online activities, an exceptionally broad sense of public purpose, and no clear obligation on the BBC to seek partnerships opportunities by default, combines with the vast resources of the BBC to muscle out innovation and excellence in the commercial sector.”
Ashley Highfield, NMA vice chairman and chief executive of Johnston Press, said: “The UK’s news media landscape will be best served by a BBC which genuinely collaborates with news media publishers rather than competing with them. This would make far better use of the BBC’s stretched resources while allowing space for commercial news media to innovate and thrive.”
A BBC spokesperson said: “The public think news is the most important service the BBC provides – we are more trusted and cover stories in the ways others would not. The suggestion that we are overreaching or expanding is misleading – our share of online news is falling.
“A report just last week by Enders Analysis found that the BBC plays no role in exacerbating the challenges newspapers around the world are facing. It concluded scaling back BBC News will irreparably damage a leading UK source of impartial, quality and trusted news, whose independence is valued by users in the UK and around the world.
“We’re doing more than ever to work with local and regional news and will set out our plans to strengthen this new partnership shortly. Our users click on BBC News links to other websites around 8.6 million times each month.”
News Media Association says BBC must stop using licence fee to compete with other news providers, and collaborate with them instead
By Gordon Rayner, Chief Reporter
BBC news must stop “muscling out” commercial rivals with its “rapidly expanding” licence fee-funded website, according to a report which criticises the corporation for trying to monopolise news provision.
Instead of trying to compete with websites run by national and local newspaper companies, the BBC should collaborate with them to ensure the country’s wide range of news providers continues to thrive, the report says.
It also warns the BBC against “chasing relevance” by trying to emulate youth-orientated websites such as Buzzfeed and Vice, which “risks diminishing its own reputation for world-leading…impartial journalism”.
The report, commissioned by the News Media Association, is published as Lord Hall, the BBC director-general, prepares to set out his own vision of the corporation’s future on Monday as politicians continue to debate its charter review.
Ashley Highfield, vice chairman of the NMA, says BBC must collaborate rather than competing
The NMA, which represents commercial news organisations including Telegraph Media Group, asked the media consultancy Oliver & Ohlbaum Associates Ltd to review the arguments being made by the BBC in its own Future of News report, which was published in January.
The 69-page NMA report, titled UK News Provision at the Crossroads, accuses the BBC of pursuing "local and global ambitions…akin to colonisation" in news provision.
It says that the BBC’s ambition to provide a “hyper local” news service that might tailor online news feeds to the street where people live, will be to the detriment of traditional local newspapers that have moved online to provide the same sort of service.
At a national level, it says, the BBC is spending too much time replicating content that is provided elsewhere, and on an international level it questions whether the BBC’s extensive network of foreign correspondents, funded by the licence fee, should continue to be used to “underpin” commercial BBC services sold abroad. The BBC is under pressure to commercialise the World Service after being given responsibility to fund it through the licence fee, rather than the old model of funding being provided by the Foreign Office.
The report says that the corporation should implement "specific control" around the scope of its website, and commit to partnerships with commercial news providers, including national and local news websites, to preserve the plurality of news provision in the UK.
The NMA and its members, who spend £1.2 billion on news provision each year, “fundamentally disagree” with the BBC’s assertion that its news provision must “continually grow” or that it should build rival services to those already provided by commercial companies.
The report says: “The editorial scope of the BBC’s national online news services is rapidly expanding, drawing it further from its core broadcasting remit into traditionally commercial editorial areas such as ‘soft’ news articles, magazine ‘lifestyle’ content, and celebrity columnists.
“Such moves risk undermining the ability of the commercial sector to generate advertising and sponsorship revenues around softer content which has traditionally formed the basis for reinvestment in harder news areas such as investigative journalism.”
It adds that: “The popularity of the BBC’s news website and apps undoubtedly owes much to the trust that has accrued in the BBC brand over the years. But it is also in part due to the BBC’s ability to cross-promote its online news via its plethora of broadcast outlets, providing it with a level of exposure with UK citizens with which no commercial news brand can hope to compete.
“The danger for the commercial news sector is that a lack of clear boundaries for the BBC’s online activities, an exceptionally broad sense of public purpose, and no clear obligation on the BBC to seek partnerships opportunities by default, combines with the vast resources of the BBC to muscle out innovation and excellence in the commercial sector.”
Ashley Highfield, NMA vice chairman and chief executive of Johnston Press, said: “The UK’s news media landscape will be best served by a BBC which genuinely collaborates with news media publishers rather than competing with them. This would make far better use of the BBC’s stretched resources while allowing space for commercial news media to innovate and thrive.”
A BBC spokesperson said: “The public think news is the most important service the BBC provides – we are more trusted and cover stories in the ways others would not. The suggestion that we are overreaching or expanding is misleading – our share of online news is falling.
“A report just last week by Enders Analysis found that the BBC plays no role in exacerbating the challenges newspapers around the world are facing. It concluded scaling back BBC News will irreparably damage a leading UK source of impartial, quality and trusted news, whose independence is valued by users in the UK and around the world.
“We’re doing more than ever to work with local and regional news and will set out our plans to strengthen this new partnership shortly. Our users click on BBC News links to other websites around 8.6 million times each month.”