“We need to protect our national IP”, BBC boss Tim Davie told the Media & Telecoms 2025 and Beyond Conference, organized by Deloitte and Enders Analysis, in London on Tuesday. “That’s where the value is.” For example, “we need to decide if we’re going to invest in things like the World Service, which to me, is a no-brainer.”
Also important for the BBC‘s future are “muscular partnerships with the big American tech companies,” he highlighted. “I think we cannot work without some of those really big guys. And I think we can create co-ventures and create value for us and the U.K. public in that in quite a compelling way.”
Amid an ongoing debate about the BBC’s future ahead of its current royal charter, which details its priorities and governance, he also called the independence of the BBC, and other public broadcasters around the world, “sacrosanct” and urged to ensure “universal funding” for the broadcaster.
He even expressed concern that there could well be a future in which “people don’t care” anymore about the U.K. public broadcaster.
“The BBC is venture capital for the U.K.,” he also argued in highlighting its ability to invest in areas outside of London, including in the likes of Manchester.
Serving people rather than forcing things on audiences is key, Davie also mentioned on Tuesday, mentioning that AI can help with curation.
His comments came a year after he had highlighted the “red alert situation” for public service broadcasters in many parts of the world at the conference, saying about the U.K. public broadcaster that he leads: “I don’t want to be a market failure.”
A BBC review of allegations of bullying, published at the end of April, found no evidence of a “toxic culture” but a “minority of people whose behavior is simply not acceptable.” The broadcaster vowed to “take immediate action to improve workplace culture” after publishing the comprehensive independent report that its board had commissioned.
