what does the British model of the BBC look like, which some would like to draw inspiration from in France?

While some are calling for French public broadcasting to become a “French-style BBC”, the British audiovisual group has been tightening its belt and reducing its workforce in recent years.

A “French-style BBC”. While the French public broadcasting reform project must be presented to the National Assembly in the coming days, the reference to the British public television and radio group comes up regularly. However, the BBC has been a world reference that has been under attack for years.

Created in 1922 initially as a commercial broadcasting company, the British Broadcasting Corporation has been, since 1927, a public company governed by a Royal Charter. “The mission of the BBC is to act in the public interest, serving all audiences with impartial, high quality and original productions and services, to inform, educate and entertain“, we can read.

This institution, which today brings together television (eight national and seven regional), radio (10 national, seven regional and 39 local) and online media in the United Kingdom, as well as a major international service, BBC World Service, employs approximately 21,000 people, is 65% financed by TV licenses and has an overall budget (including commercial revenues) of 5.7 billion pounds (2022/23, or around 6.6 billion euros).

In ten years, the BBC’s budget has fallen by 30% due to budget cuts by the Conservative majority. This same majority which had decided to freeze the fee over the last two years while inflation was bursting through the ceilings. A gift for households, but a new effort for public broadcasting. As a result, the group has just cut 1,800 positions and launched a savings plan of nearly 600 million euros per year. Financially battered in a global landscape that is swaying: like all traditional players in the market, the BBC is facing increased competition from platforms like Netflix, Amazon, YouTube and others.

The management of the “Beeb”, as it is called across the Channel, has therefore also decided to redeploy more than 230 million euros to invest more massively in digital technology and innovate in this area. But it is also less money for the existing system and consequently, an impoverished offer: international and local programs have particularly suffered from these budgetary orientations. Entire services and specific shows, more than 1,000 hours in total, have been removed.

Faced with this decline in resources, there is therefore a need to find financing solutions, which the BBC is currently seeking. The main subject is that of royalty. Frozen for two years, it now stands at €198/year and has just increased by €12. Today, Tim Davie, the director general of the BBC, must reflect on its evolution. Within four years, this system will change and one of the avenues for reflection is a fee that would adapt to income. Clearly, the poor pay little or nothing and the richest compensate. At the same time, the group’s boss specifies that he will no longer be able to assume the cost of BBC international, 350 million euros per year.

However, this is a service which is available in all English-speaking countries and which does a lot for the reputation of the brand and the United Kingdom. A soft power that the government must take responsibility for, according to Tim Davie. The institution also has a commercial branch which brings in money, BBC Studios, which represented 280 million euros brought into the coffers last year.

An amount that management wishes to double. And for this, it wants to work with large international groups like Disney, with which the BBC has already co-broadcast the last season of the British series Doctor Who, giving it a global impact and therefore more income.