Broadcasting is on the cusp of immense change. Within the next decade most homes will have access to hundreds of channels and a wide range of interactive services. For public service broadcasters it could be the best of times, the worst of times. The dangers are obvious. Falling audiences, greater competition, big increases in the cost of sports rights and star talents at one end of the market, and hours of cheap, imported programming at the other. But it can also be a chance to broaden and enrich millions of lives; to reach new audiences;to stretch our imaginations; to change the way we live and work.
The BBC faces an extraordinary challenge. While our commercial rivals can concentrate their output on sport or movies, we have to provide a breadth of programmes and services that appeals to every audience.
The BBC has just produced its own restatement of its commitment to public service broadcasting in the digital age: The BBC Beyond 2000. We want everyone to have access to the new services which will be available, to offer our viewers new experiences, to be a trusted guide in a world transformed by an abundance of choice.
But I also know that when organisations face unprecedented competition there is a danger that they forget who they are. It happens in the best of companies. Core qualities are forgotten. Fashion rules. They lose their way.
Just as the new technologies emerge, other challenges are surfacing, too. Globalisation is creating a cultural hegemony, encroaching on distinct national identities and voices. Political landscapes are also being transformed. Here in Britain devolution will have a profound impact.
Historically the BBC has done more than inform, educate and entertain. It has also embodied the values of this country: tolerance, fairness, reason. We have an international reputation for excellence for the accuracy and impartiality of our journalism, for having a mission which goes beyond the bottom line. I want those values to be at the heart of our contribution.
But not everyone sees things as we do. As the government finalises its plans for a review of our funding it is right that there should be a wider debate about the BBC. I don't doubt that if parliament scrapped the licence fee, we would continue to make good programmes, win high audience ratings and continue to export more programmes than any other European broadcaster. But equally, I have no doubt that over time such a change would subtly shift our purpose, jeopardise our integrity, narrow the range of programmes we produce and divide this country in new and damaging ways.
I want a BBC which can compete with the best of our commercial rivals. The next licence fee review will explore these issues. We need to build the revenues we earn from our commercial activities, exploiting more effectively the asset created by the licence payer, so that these can be reinvested in our core activities. We have a target to raise these earnings fourfold over the next seven years. But this is a means to an end, not an end in itself. We must not let the commercial tail wag the public service dog.
However, funding is inseparable from creativity. I want us to remain the benchmark for excellence, drawing new generations of talent to the corporation. I want us to experiment, to take risks, to be able to venture where commercial companies will not. Over the past few years columnists have endlessly demanded that Radio 1 should be privatised or sold-off. Leaving aside the fact that more young listeners tune in to Radio 1 than any other station, Radio 1 plays vastly more live and specially recorded music of much greater variety than any of its commercial rivals. The British pop industry could scarcely survive without it.
I want the BBC to embody all that is best in Britain. To amuse and enrich the lives of our viewers and listeners, to remain fiercely independent and continue providing a British view of world events and their implications. The BBC at its best is a civilising force, a national strength.
A simple example: after less than a year BBC Online is now the biggest and most visited content website in the UK with over 33m hits a month. Only a few years ago hardly anyone had heard of the internet. Now it is rapidly becoming the third medium of broadcasting and in the next 10 to 15 years might grow into the most significant means we know of distributing programmes and services.
We saw the potential of this service early, and have developed it on classic public service lines. It entertains, informs, educates just as vigorously as those who founded the BBC in 1922 intended when they wrote their manifesto for the fledgling corporation.
I want everyone to enjoy such benefits, not just those who can afford to pay more for them. A universally funded, universally available BBC will help to avoid the development of an information-rich, information-poor divide. Whatever challenges lie ahead, the BBC will only deserve to survive if we remain creative and trusted, remember our public purposes and aspire to the highest ethical standards in every aspect of what we do.
