Charlotte's web

An upbeat Charlotte Moore, Director of Content at the BBC, in an article for the 60th anniversary edition of Broadcast, on her guiding principles:

"First, we’re committed to creative excellence and supporting the British production community. We aren’t driven by commercial imperatives, we don’t need to commission for international audiences and we already have an amazing back catalogue, so our only guide is to continue to take creative risks and commission the best shows.

"And, to reiterate, we’ll keep doing this in every genre – we won’t abandon genres that don’t generate international sales.

"This means we’ll work with independents large or small who want to bring us their best ideas. Last year, we worked with more than 300, we spent just under 90% of our development funding outside of the BBC group, and commissioned 36% of our business from indies with a turnover of less than £10m.

"Second, we’ll continue to invest in the best new talent. The BBC of 2019 must reflect the Britain of 2019. We’ll keep seeking the next Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Stacey Dooley, Guz Khan, Tim Renkow or Mobeen Azhar.

"We’ll improve our support for diverse talent behind the camera, not only with our current schemes but with new opportunities that will be announced shortly.

"Third, we’ll continue to put the reinvention of BBC iPlayer at the heart of our plans. When it launched in 2007, it was revolutionary, but we now need to step up the pace of development to keep up with the market.

"Making sure we have an iPlayer that can compete on a level playing field with SVoDs and act as a showcase for the best British content is key to our future, especially if we want to remain relevant to young audiences. These are the viewers of the future and it’s critically important they feel they are getting value from the licence fee.

"Challenges lie ahead but, with so much talent available, brilliant creativity across the industry and an audience that is hungry for more, there has never been a more exciting or exhilarating time to work in TV."