Category: Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ
Date: 29.08.2004
Printable version
Emphasis on excellence and focus on genres that deliver Public Value
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Director-General Mark Thompson today (Sunday 29 August 2004) signalled
changes to programming and a shift in emphasis and resources to ensure
the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ can deliver excellence and public value in the future.
"The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ faces as much change in its programme strategy as it does
in its shape and operations," Mr Thompson told an audience at the Edinburgh
Television Festival.
In his first public speech since becoming Director-General in June
and the launch of Building Public Value, the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's contribution to the
Charter Renewal debate, Mr Thompson said:
"The creative message I draw from Building Public Value is a very
simple one: driving for excellence matters more than anything else.
"There's plenty of it already on the airwaves, but over the next
decade if we want to stand out and succeed, we have to raise our sights
and raise our game.
"Building Public Value calls on us to focus, much more than we do at
the moment, on those areas where we can make a transformational and
distinctive impact on what we've defined as 'public value'.
"We're after excellence in those areas which advance specific
public purposes. It means a series of high profile cultural interventions
which, taken together, can enrich the lives of everyone in the country.
"The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ must change at least as quickly as the world around it. We
need a leap in agility and focus. We need to find new ways and new forms
of delivering our content to the public."
He said resources, funding and energy should be directed towards the
Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's greatest strengths and to programmes and genres that built public
value in a clear and demonstrable way.
By shifting its emphasis in programme making and focusing its resources
and creative energy, the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ could make a transformational and distinctive
impact that could enrich the lives of every household in the country.
"I see a programme strategy which strives more consistently to achieve
the very best and which directs money and energy towards our greatest
creative strengths."
Mr Thompson added that this shift in emphasis underlined the importance
of the reviews that were announced earlier this summer in three main
areas - commercial activities, production and commissioning and efficiencies
and value for money.
"We should recognise that a strategy which calls for excellence and
perhaps substantial new investment in our key priorities is not going
to come cheap - one more reason why those reviews are so important."
