Lords questions BBC's Director-General and Director of Strategy and Digital on BBC public purposes
Tomorrow, the House of Lords Communications Committee will question Lord Hall, Director-General of the BBC, in the latest evidence session in its ongoing inquiry into the public purposes of the BBC. He will be joined in the session by James Purnell, Director of Strategy and Digital at the BBC, and former Secretary of State for Culture Media and Sport.
The session will be followed by one with representatives from two commercial Public Service Broadcasters (PSBs) and the regulatory body for S4C.
The Committee will explore a number of areas with Lord Hall and Mr Purnell, including:
- How do the six Public Purposes of the BBC translate into action on a day to day basis, and how effective are the BBC at putting the BBC Trust's verdicts on performance into action?
- How do they react to accusations that the BBC is failing to represent some groups in society?
- How do they define universality in relation to the BBC, and what possible changes do you think would undermine the BBC's universality and ability to serve everyone?
- The BBC's role in communications technologies and services as they relate to the sixth public purpose.
Following on, at 4.30pm, the Committee will speak to:
- Dan Brooke, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Channel 4;
- Magnus Brooke, Director of Policy and Regulatory Affairs at ITV; and
- Huw Jones, Chair of the S4C Authority.
The Committee will question the witnesses on a variety of issues including how well they feel the BBC has delivered on its Public Purpose obligations, and if they feel it is appropriate that they differ from the purposes set out for other PSBs; whether the BBC's acquisition of programmes presents a problem for commercial PSBs and/or the wider industry; following calls for the BBC to be more "distinctive", how they define or measure distinctiveness, and how they believe it should apply to the BBC.
The evidence session will take place on Tuesday 10 November at 3.30pm in Committee Room 2 of the House of Lords.
