“As part of the Charter renewal process, the government is considering options to ensure the BBC is sustainably funded for decades to come, commands the public’s trust - being independent and accountable to the public it serves, represents all communities across the UK and drives growth, opportunity and good jobs.”
Here’s the statement for the PSM Forum, pre-welcoming the Green Paper:
Here’s my summary of today’s announcement.
I’m planning to record and share podcasts that look at the process and the potential outcomes of the Charter Renewal process, please do message me if you want to take part.
I’ve identified some questions that might help frame the Better Media response to the BBC Charter Renewal Green Paper. These questions form a set of engagement questions designed to support informed contributions from focus on accountability, public purpose, and the wider media ecosystem, and to inform a collated consultation submission:
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From your perspective, where does the BBC currently succeed or fall short in being meaningfully accountable to the public it serves, and why does this matter in practice?
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Do the Green Paper’s proposals on public engagement appear capable of strengthening trust and legitimacy, or do they risk becoming largely symbolic? What would make engagement genuinely consequential?
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How should public engagement be structured so that it reflects a broad cross-section of society, rather than privileging organised or well-resourced interests?
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In what ways should public engagement influence strategic decisions, such as service changes or local and regional provision, without undermining editorial independence?
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What role should the BBC Board play in evidencing how public views have informed decisions, and what level of external assurance (for example from Ofcom) would be appropriate?
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How effective do you consider existing routes for public voice, such as BBC First and complaints processes, and what practical changes would improve clarity, fairness, and confidence for audiences?
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Does the Green Paper adequately recognise the impact of BBC decisions on the wider media ecosystem, including local, civic, and independent providers? What accountability mechanisms are missing in this respect?
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How could accountability and engagement frameworks better support place-based civic capacity and plurality, rather than reinforcing centralised or institutional models of provision?
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What safeguards are necessary to ensure that enhanced accountability and engagement do not lead to political influence, regulatory overreach, or erosion of editorial independence?
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Looking across the Green Paper as a whole, do the proposed reforms form a coherent package that advances public purpose, or are there tensions or gaps that DCMS should address?
These questions are intended to elicit short but considered responses. Contributors are encouraged to draw on professional experience, evidence, and concrete examples where possible, and to flag both opportunities and risks they believe DCMS should take into account.
I’ve set up a Google form to gather survey responses to inform the Green Paper submission by Better Media. I would appreciate feedback on how it works and if it makes sense:
Better Media and Decentered Media are collecting views about BBC Charter Renewal. Here are our Frequently Asked Questions.
Complete the survey here:
https://forms.gle/URnPgckbYbFPkPFQ8
What is the BBC Charter Renewal, and why does it matter?
The BBC Charter Renewal process sets the framework for how the BBC is governed, funded, regulated, and held to account for the next Charter period. Its implications extend beyond the BBC, shaping how public interest media is defined and supported across the UK media system.
Why are Decentered Media and Better Media engaging with this process?
We are engaging because Charter Renewal raises fundamental questions about public trust, accountability, plurality, and how media serves civic life. Decisions made now will influence whether the future media environment is centralised and institutional, or more open, distributed, and responsive to public purpose.
What are the main concerns with the current Charter Renewal approach?
A central concern is that the discussion remains largely framed around the BBC as a single institution delivering “services,” rather than around the public purposes media should serve and the range of actors that could contribute to those outcomes. This risks reinforcing centralised models at a time when trust, engagement, and legitimacy require more distributed and networked approaches.
What does “public purpose” mean in this context?
Public purpose refers to the social and civic outcomes media should support, such as informed citizenship, cultural expression, social cohesion, accountability, and resilience against misinformation. Focusing on purpose shifts the conversation from who provides a service to whether the intended public outcomes are being achieved.
Why is a decentralised and civic approach important?
Media ecosystems are no longer defined by scarcity or single providers. Civic, community, independent, and local media already play important roles in building trust, reflecting lived experience, and supporting place-based identity. A decentralised approach recognises this reality and reduces over-reliance on any single institution.
Does this mean reducing or weakening the BBC?
No. The issue is not about weakening the BBC, but about ensuring it operates as part of a healthy, plural media ecology. A strong BBC can coexist with, and benefit from, a wider network of civic and independent media if policy frameworks support openness, collaboration, and clear public-purpose outcomes.
What are the risks of not rethinking the model?
If Charter Renewal focuses narrowly on institutional reform, there is a risk of reinforcing centralisation, limiting innovation, and failing to address declining trust. There is also a risk that global, unregulated media platforms will continue to shape public discourse without sufficient counterbalance from trusted, accountable, place-based media.
How does this relate to global media and misinformation?
Unregulated global media platforms and deliberate misinformation pose clear risks to democratic culture and social cohesion. Addressing this requires more than regulation alone. It requires trusted, locally grounded, and publicly accountable media networks that can operate at different scales and respond quickly to community needs.
What are Decentered Media and Better Media calling for?
We are calling for Charter Renewal to explicitly recognise public-purpose media as a distributed system, not just an institutional service. This includes clearer accountability, meaningful public engagement, openness to multiple providers, and policy frameworks that support civic capacity, plurality, and resilience.
How will contributions to this work be used?
Views gathered through engagement and surveys will be used, in anonymised form, to inform discussion and to shape Better Media’s consultation response. The aim is to ensure that policy submissions are grounded in evidence, experience, and a shared understanding of how media systems function in practice.
Here is a summary of the principles I’ve applied to the BBC Charter Renewal Consultation submission:
BBC Charter Review Green Paper
Briefing Note for Better Media Colleagues
Purpose: This briefing summarises the key positions advanced in our draft responses to the DCMS BBC Charter Review consultation. The overarching principle is that the BBC must be re-anchored as a foundational civic institution serving UK citizens first, rather than operating as a market competitor or international creative industries player.
Core Position: The BBC’s legitimacy rests on public purpose. Its primary role is to sustain informed citizenship, democratic participation, shared cultural reference points and social cohesion across the UK. Success should be measured by civic contribution, not global market reach or brand expansion.
Technology and Structure: Digital technologies are inherently decentralising. However, the BBC has tended to use them to reinforce centralised, homogenised systems. We propose a federated and mutualised structure with greater national and regional autonomy. Lowest-level tiers of engagement, including local journalism and place-based services, should be treated as foundational.
The BBC should operate with a distributionist mindset. It should act as a civic anchor, leaving structural space for independent, commercial and community providers to grow.
Governance and Independence: Editorial independence matters but must not become self-defining or insulated from democratic accountability. Parliamentary scrutiny is legitimate. The ballot box remains the primary route of democratic legitimacy in the UK.
The BBC should have a clear duty to define and review what “due” editorial independence means in practice. Independence must be operationally transparent and open to structured challenge.
Funding: A universal funding model remains appropriate, provided fairness and equity are strengthened. The BBC should focus on essential services. Perceptions that it operates as a protected employment structure or overreaches into market activity weaken public support.
There should be a meaningful right to opt out of non-essential services while preserving universality for core public purposes.
Market Impact and Spectrum: Current market impact regulation is insufficiently anticipatory. The BBC has a tendency to protect legacy assets and enter emerging markets in ways that crowd out fragile providers.
Spectrum use should be reviewed for efficiency. Legacy analogue allocations should not constrain local and independent capacity. The BBC should not function as a de facto development agency for regional economies.
R&D and Innovation: The BBC’s role in innovation should focus on open standards, early-stage experimentation and ethical frameworks. It should operate as an Open Data provider where lawful and feasible, enabling distributed innovation across the sector.
Skills: The BBC can support workforce development but should not be treated as a primary skills agency. Government should invest directly in independent and decentralised creative skills provision.
News and Trusted Information: Accuracy and impartiality are non-negotiable. They must be demonstrably applied and open to structured oversight without politicisation.
Ensuring access to trusted information should be central to all BBC services. This includes supporting integration and shared civic understanding in a rapidly changing UK population.
Distribution and Platforms: The BBC should not increase reliance on third-party social media platforms as a primary strategy. It should strengthen its own accountable platforms and act as a stable civic anchor rather than chase temporary popularity.
Conclusion
The key recommendation is a holistic reset:
– Reassert civic purpose over market ambition.
– Decentralise internal structures.
– Leave space for plural market development.
– Strengthen transparency and democratic accountability.
The BBC should embed itself in civic life while enabling a distributed and open media ecosystem to flourish alongside it.