Process

There's been a dump of three sets of minutes from the panjandrums of Ofcom Content Board. I've filleted the bits relevant to imposing targets on the BBC, which ended up in marvellous micro-decisions such as requiring an extra hour a week of news and current affairs from Radio 2.

April

Members gave their initial views in response to Ofcom’s proposed BBC performance measures and the draft BBC Operating licence, published on 29 March 2017 in the consultation document "Holding the BBC to account for the delivery of its mission and public purposes".
Members then formed three groups to discuss the BBC’s public purposes as set out in the Charter and Agreement and mirrored in the draft Operating Licence, as follows:
provide impartial news and support learning;
provide creative, high quality and distinctive output and reflect and serve all UK communities in the Nations and regions;
support the creative economy and reflect the UK to the world.
In a plenary session members then provided feedback on and discussed the issues raised in the group discussions.

June

Ofcom colleagues joined the meeting and members had received a paper to update them on Ofcom’s BBC competition programme workplan. It was NOTED that under the new Charter, the BBC was required to consider the competitive impact (it may be positive, it may be harmful) of its activities in the wider media market. [Witheld from published minutes.]

Issues discussed included the need for transparency by the BBC; the impact of the BBC’s online news on other online news sites; BBC Studios and how it would operate; local TV and BBC funding (a matter for the NAO); and Ofcom’s approach to competition, which would be based on guidance rather than a policy of halting services.

July

Members were updated on and discussed issues including:
• Stakeholder engagement since the recent publication of Ocom’s consultation on the BBC’s new operating licence;
• The strategy set out by the BBC in its own Annual Plan, published in early July;
• The key messages from stakeholder responses received so far; and
• Spend and production in the Nations and regions and how Ofcom should achieve the right balance of operating licence requirements in these areas

More as we get it.....