BE
benjiman
(Nicked from Digital Spy)
The BBC should be 'the most creative organisation in the world', Director-General Greg Dyke has today told BBC staff across the UK.
He said that the Corporation should have three distinct roles in the 21st Century - local, national and international - and would become more, not less, important due to market changes.
Cost-cutting exercises and more investment in programmes would reduce the amount spent on overheads by 15% over the next twelve months. 'Having saved the money and changed the structures it's time to concentrate on audiences, creativity and making this a really great place to work,' he said.
He unveiled the new initiative - One BBC - Making it Happen - with the aim of driving internal change. 'In the next couple of years we have an enormous opportunity to really change the BBC. The collapse in the advertising industry is having a profound effect. All of this gives us an opportunity, but it also puts a great responsibility on the BBC to deliver. Because we are publicly funded we have to up our game and produce even better programmes and services for all our audience.'
'Let me offer you a new vision,' he told staff. 'We want to be the most creative organisation in the world. And I don't just mean in the production and programme areas, I mean right across the BBC.
'The first task is to understand audiences better and reach those we're not appealing to. We need to ensure we are not only meeting their hopes and expectations, but that we are exceeding them. The second task is to make sure that we're the most innovative and risk taking place there is - and that will mean giving people the right to fail, encouraging new ideas in every part of the BBC and really changing some of the ways we work.'
'The role of the BBC will be more important in a decade's time, not less, because, as a result of market fragmentation, the commercial market will not be able to afford to provide some of the services it has historically produced. More will be required of the BBC, not less. I believe that the BBC will have three distinct roles in the 21st century. The first is an international role and, post September 11, the role of the BBC around the world becomes not less, but more, important.'
Internationally, the BBC could bring back credit to Britain, he said, because its services reflect British values - independence, openness, fairness and a range of opinion.
'Our second role in 21st century Britain is a national role. The BBC is part of the glue which binds the United Kingdom together. This role of uniting the nation becomes more not less important in a fragmenting media world. Remember 35 million people in the UK turned to the BBC's radio and television news services on September 11. It is also why it is so important that our services are universally available.
'Finally, I believe the BBC will have an increasingly important community role. In television, the ITV system was historically the regional system and the BBC the national system. That will gradually be reversed as the ITV system comes under greater financial pressure. In terms of regional television news viewing, we are now ahead virtually everywhere, something that was unthinkable even five years ago. In the past 18 months our local radio stations have shown their value when reporting the fuel crisis in the autumn of 2000, followed by the floods of that winter and then by the foot and mouth crisis last spring.'
The Making it Happen teams will be led by Susan Spindler, creator of acclaimed documentary series Walking with Dinosaurs and The Human Body.
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Hmm... the last bit sounds interesting.
The BBC should be 'the most creative organisation in the world', Director-General Greg Dyke has today told BBC staff across the UK.
He said that the Corporation should have three distinct roles in the 21st Century - local, national and international - and would become more, not less, important due to market changes.
Cost-cutting exercises and more investment in programmes would reduce the amount spent on overheads by 15% over the next twelve months. 'Having saved the money and changed the structures it's time to concentrate on audiences, creativity and making this a really great place to work,' he said.
He unveiled the new initiative - One BBC - Making it Happen - with the aim of driving internal change. 'In the next couple of years we have an enormous opportunity to really change the BBC. The collapse in the advertising industry is having a profound effect. All of this gives us an opportunity, but it also puts a great responsibility on the BBC to deliver. Because we are publicly funded we have to up our game and produce even better programmes and services for all our audience.'
'Let me offer you a new vision,' he told staff. 'We want to be the most creative organisation in the world. And I don't just mean in the production and programme areas, I mean right across the BBC.
'The first task is to understand audiences better and reach those we're not appealing to. We need to ensure we are not only meeting their hopes and expectations, but that we are exceeding them. The second task is to make sure that we're the most innovative and risk taking place there is - and that will mean giving people the right to fail, encouraging new ideas in every part of the BBC and really changing some of the ways we work.'
'The role of the BBC will be more important in a decade's time, not less, because, as a result of market fragmentation, the commercial market will not be able to afford to provide some of the services it has historically produced. More will be required of the BBC, not less. I believe that the BBC will have three distinct roles in the 21st century. The first is an international role and, post September 11, the role of the BBC around the world becomes not less, but more, important.'
Internationally, the BBC could bring back credit to Britain, he said, because its services reflect British values - independence, openness, fairness and a range of opinion.
'Our second role in 21st century Britain is a national role. The BBC is part of the glue which binds the United Kingdom together. This role of uniting the nation becomes more not less important in a fragmenting media world. Remember 35 million people in the UK turned to the BBC's radio and television news services on September 11. It is also why it is so important that our services are universally available.
'Finally, I believe the BBC will have an increasingly important community role. In television, the ITV system was historically the regional system and the BBC the national system. That will gradually be reversed as the ITV system comes under greater financial pressure. In terms of regional television news viewing, we are now ahead virtually everywhere, something that was unthinkable even five years ago. In the past 18 months our local radio stations have shown their value when reporting the fuel crisis in the autumn of 2000, followed by the floods of that winter and then by the foot and mouth crisis last spring.'
The Making it Happen teams will be led by Susan Spindler, creator of acclaimed documentary series Walking with Dinosaurs and The Human Body.
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Hmm... the last bit sounds interesting.