BBC - About the BBC - Review of Current Affairs on BBC Television

Review of Current Affairs on BBC Television - Terms of Reference

1. Background

In 2001-2, there was a broad consensus that the audience’s needs and interests, relating to current affairs, had shifted significantly, and that the BBC was no longer serving them as well as it could do. This led to the commitment to a “creative revival and expansion” in BBC current affairs in the 2002 News Strategy which was complemented by a Governors’ objective in 2002/3 and 2003/4 for “more high impact, memorable” current affairs programmes.

2. Scope

The scope of this review is to reassess licence payers’ needs and interests in current affairs on television, and to measure how well the BBC, in the context of other broadcasters, is serving these needs.

The two specific objectives for the review are to:

Monitor the effectiveness of TV current affairs in meeting audience needs. Current affairs and arts are high priority genres for Governors, and Arts was subject to an independent review in 2003/4. (See Governors Review of Objective 1 on pages 13/14 of the 2003/4 Annual Report)
Provide an update on progress made against the commitments relating to current affairs in the 2002 News Strategy.

3. Approach

The review will be undertaken by the Performance & Accountability team. P&A will work with BBC management, in terms of gathering information for the review, but the analysis and findings will be wholly independent of them.

The review will include specially-commissioned qualitative research amongst licence payers in order to understand their needs and interests and their perceptions of how well they are now being served by BBC Television. Research will be undertaken amongst licence payers in the English Regions and Nations, but will cover only UK-wide issues, rather than Regional and National Current Affairs.

4. Timetable

The review will begin immediately and a final report will be presented to the Board before the end of this year.