BBC's Quality-First Strategy: BBC One, Two, and Four, Study Guides, Projects, Research of History

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BBC Executive Submission to the BBC Trust’s

Review of BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four

April 2010

Part 1:

Implementing Putting Quality First

Executive Summary

I. The review

The BBC Trust launched its review of BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four in September 2009, as part of its rolling programme of service reviews as required in the Charter and Agreement. It was agreed with the BBC Trust to postpone the Executive submission until Spring 2010 in order to reflect the recommendations and themes of the pan-BBC strategy Putting Quality First.

25 September 2009 Review begins; public consultation launched Autumn/winter 2009 Trust Unit gathers evidence from BBC Executive, public consultation, audience research and other sources

18 December 2009 Public consultation closes

Spring Data analysis and conclusions

Summer 2010 Trust report publication

II. The scope of this submission

This document, Executive Submission – Part 1, details how the BBC’s portfolio of television services – in particular BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four – will support the themes of Putting Quality First and how they will respond to a number of questions which the BBC Trust has asked of the Executive, both in their Terms of Reference and in subsequent communications^1. It aims to be a top level summary of the strategic direction of the portfolio. The questions that this document specifically addresses are:

1. Are BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four equipped to deliver their service licence commitments in the future, in particular to meet audience expectations of high quality and distinctive content? Do the services have appropriate strategies in place? _Are resources appropriately allocated to meet objectives?

2. Should the service licences for BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four be changed?_ A separate, Executive Submission – Part 2 will provide more detail about the BBC’s strategy in specific areas, responding to questions raised by the BBC Trust: the future strategy for current affairs, sport, Nations’ opt-out programming, acquisitions and black and minority ethnic audiences. Further detail on these questions is included in annex 2.

III. Strategic Priorities for the BBC TV Portfolio

The strategic priorities for the BBC TV Portfolio are to: § Focus on outstanding, high quality content above all else, in particular to respond to growing audience appetite for more “fresh and new ideas” § Support the BBC’s five editorial priorities as described in Putting Quality First. There is a particular opportunity to invest more in BBC Two and daytime to better support these priorities § Continue to deliver best value for all audiences through maintaining the appeal of BBC One and BBC Two to broad and diverse audiences, as well as providing targeted output that can have impact with younger audiences § Create longer legacies for our content through effective lifecycle management of our programmes , including a more strategic approach to repeating and through on-demand availability

(^1) Full details of the Terms of Reference and other Trust documents can be found in annex 1 and 2.

i. Further invest in original drama and reduce daytime’s reliance on acquisitions ii. Support greater variety through enhancing the range of consumer and current affairs programming iii. Create more complementary roles for BBC One and BBC Two

V. Conclusions

The future strategy for the BBC Vision portfolio builds on the themes of Putting Quality First through focusing on content of the highest quality and creative ambition. It is important to recognise that while the BBC will aim to maintain the value it delivers to all audiences on television, there may be some risk to reach, particularly on BBC Two, of the revised strategy.

We do not envisage the future strategy for BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four requiring any change to the existing service licences. Some of the strategic priorities will benefit or indeed require some funding shifts to support the ambitions – notably on BBC Two and daytime. Approval of these funding shifts will form part of the on-going Putting Quality First process.

1. Context

The BBC’s strategic plan agreed in 2007, Delivering Creative Future , aimed to safeguard the BBC and delivery of its purposes at a time of radical change in digital technology, enabling our audiences to consume BBC content and interact with the BBC in new ways. Since then, the BBC’s television portfolio has performed strongly in the face of challenges presented by multichannel fragmentation, evolution in digital technologies and changing audience habits and expectations. Portfolio reach and share have remained robust in the face of growing competition for share; quality and originality metrics are high; and there have been some important steps forward in delivering the purposes in new ways through multiplatform.

However the BBC now faces additional and new challenges. Media is changing profoundly, and the BBC must change too. It must articulate its public service mission more clearly than ever before. It must explore new ways of delivering that mission – and of ensuring that the benefits of digital can be enjoyed by all. But it must also recognise the challenges facing other media, and address legitimate concerns about its scope and ambitions.

Putting Quality First has articulated the Executive’s proposals for the future strategy of the BBC from 2012 and 2016. The themes of this strategy are as follows: § Putting quality first – a commitment to growing the proportion of the licence fee dedicated to content, focusing on five clear priorities: The best journalism in the world; Inspiring knowledge, music and culture; Ambitious UK drama and comedy; Outstanding children’s content; Events that bring communities and the nation together, from landmark sporting or cultural events to Saturday night Entertainment § Doing fewer things better – making tough choices to improve our services § Guaranteeing access – working to ensure that UK audiences can always get BBC services free at the point of use, in ways and on devices that suit them; catch up on programmes for free on the BBC’s website; access the best of the BBC’s current and future library of programmes § Making the licence fee work harder – reducing the cost of running the BBC § Setting new boundaries – accepting clearer limits and new behaviours for the BBC, including reducing spend on acquired programmes; capping sports rights and supporting clearer boundaries for online

The Service Licence Reviews

This document, Executive Submission – Part 1, details how the BBC’s portfolio of television services – in particular BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four – will support the themes of Putting Quality First and how they will respond to a number of questions which the BBC Trust has asked of the Executive, both in their Terms of Reference and in subsequent communications^4. It aims to be a top level summary of the strategic direction of the portfolio. The questions that this document specifically addresses are:

1. Are BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four equipped to deliver their service licence commitments in the future, in particular to meet audience expectations of high quality and distinctive content? Do the services have appropriate strategies in place? _Are resources appropriately allocated to meet objectives?

2. Should the service licences for BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four be changed?_

(^4) Full details of the Terms of Reference and other Trust documents can be found in annex 1.

iv. Building on British talent : focusing on content made for the UK, finding the next generation of British writers, directors and performers and helping support UK creative industries across the country

The BBC already has a strong reputation for the creative and editorial ambition of its television content but there is an opportunity to continue to build on this success further, recognising that audiences’ appetite for quality content is growing – with expectations highest for BBC channels, particularly BBC One and BBC Two. This growing appetite for “fresh and new ideas” stems from a number of factors – notably a perceived “innovation gap” in British television more generally. Audiences do not want constant novelty and ‘groundbreaking’ forms for their own sake: they value the familiar alongside the new. But audiences do want regular refreshment and a sense that the BBC should be conspicuous in providing an alternative to commercial output. While quality – a combination of the characteristics above – is already a core value and a measure of our success, our new strategy will reinforce its primacy.

Research shows that audiences’ appetite for “fresh and new ideas” is most pronounced among older and ABCI audiences, presenting a natural opportunity to focus addressing this challenge on BBC One and BBC Two. There also appears to be a natural order in how audiences perceive different genres on quality and originality measures: for example drama singles are generally high performing; entertainment shows less so. In order to assess BBC performance, the following chart evaluates BBC performance for quality and originality between genres and in comparison to programmes on competitor channels within a genre. On the whole the BBC performs ahead of the market in most genres, e.g. specialist factual, current affairs, popular factual and daytime, and will continue to strive for the highest level of creative ambition in order to maintain this position. In other genres – notably Drama on BBC Two, Entertainment on BBC One and Comedy - the BBC performs on a par with competitors. In these areas the ambition is for the BBC to improve its performance and aim to lead the market for the quality and originality of its programmes within a genre, relative to its closest competitors.

Chart 1: Quality and Originality of BBC programmes by genre versus competitors

Behind competitors

<Pulse average

>Pulse average

On par with competitors

Specialist factual and docs

Drama on One

Current affairs

Arts

High performing genre; BBC outperforms the market

Specialist factual and docs

Drama on One

Current affairs

Arts

Specialist factual and docs

Specialist factual and docs

Drama on OneDrama on One

Current affairsCurrent affairs

ArtsArts

High performing genre; BBC outperforms the market

Popular factualPopular factual

DaytimeDaytime

Long running Drama*

Long running Drama*

Some genre perform relatively less well – but BBC still ahead of competitors

Drama on Two

Comedy

Entertainment on One

Entertainment on One

Opportunity to drive greater Q&O

Performance on “high quality” and

“original & different”

Performance on “high quality” and “original & different” relative to nearest competitor^1

1. ITV1 for BBC One; Channel 4 for BBC Two
2. EastEnders is perceived to be on par with Coronation Street; Casualty, Holby City and Doctors perform better Source: Pulse FY08/09. All individuals 16+

Ahead of competitors

In addition to the Quality and Originality metrics laid out above, the BBC has also introduced a new metric of how “fresh and new” a programme is perceived by audiences. This brings a further dimension to our understanding of distinctiveness and will be used as part of on-going measurement of our performance. Further detail on measuring success is included in annex 3.

The following sections describe how the BBC’s channels and genres will aim to capture this creative opportunity to provide the content of the highest quality and editorial ambition in the UK– by continuing to support a stable of well loved, high quality classics, new twists on familiar themes in the way The Apprentice rejuvenated reality factual, as well as a steady supply of genuinely new, groundbreaking formats and subjects that only the BBC could do.

2.2. Supporting the BBC’s editorial priorities

Putting Quality First identified five editorial priorities on which the BBC would focus as the drivers of its reputation for quality content. The following section describes how these priorities will be reflected in the future strategies for BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four.

The best journalism in the world

The BBC aims to be a powerhouse of high quality journalism at the local, regional, UK and global levels on TV, radio and online. BBC journalism will remain rooted in its core values of impartiality, accuracy, independence and authority, reflecting the width and diversity of opinion and debate objectively and fairly.

BBC One and BBC Two are critical for ensuring that BBC journalism continues to reach 80% of the UK population on a weekly basis, maintains its status as the most trusted news provider and stands out for being the best on the big stories of the year. New priorities will include the following:

• Strengthened commitment to international newsgathering and reportage in parts of the world with growing geo-political importance
• Strengthened specialist analysis and explanation of the domestic news agenda, in particular in science, the environment and public services
• Increased business and economy coverage at a nations/local and global level
• Enhanced commitment to scrutiny of political institutions in the UK including at a local level – e.g. strengthened newsgathering and Democracy Live
• Enhanced coverage and analysis of UK arts and culture, following the recent appointment of a new Arts Editor

Reaching over 67% of the adult population every week in 2009, TV news is at the heart of the BBC News portfolio, showcasing the BBC’s journalism to a wide audience. Our output will continue to focus on areas where we add most value and are truly distinctive such as international newsgathering and reportage, specialist analysis and explanation, and investigative journalism and current affairs. We will also report the changing nature of the UK and the realities of devolution through a portfolio of UK-wide, nations and regional TV news outputs.

• BBC One is a core driver of reach – reaching 64% of the 16+ population with news in an average week in 2009. The 1pm, 6pm and 10pm flagship news bulletins are committed to providing unrivalled breadth, depth and analysis of the daily news agenda. New initiatives such as the 8pm summary on BBC One have allowed us to target under-served audiences more effectively with news that is relevant to them.

• Popular factual tends to perform less well on quality and originality compared to other factual genres, but the BBC still outperforms its nearest competitors^7
• BBC One is the most important channel for delivering impact with broad audiences, representing 60% of the audience value^8 generated by BBC factual programmes
• BBC Two delivers impact for a broad range of subjects, delivering c.35% of the overall value generated by BBC factual programmes. Its role is particularly important in specialist subjects, e.g. BBC Two represented more than half of the audience value generated by specialist factual programmes^9 and is rated best among the terrestrial channels for arts, history and science^10
• BBC Four complements and enhances the range of knowledge-building on BBC Two, with a particular focus on arts and culture. For a small channel, BBC Four performs disproportionately highly on “best for arts”, behind BBC Two but ahead of all other channels^11 , and generates almost a fifth of the audience value in arts, music, performance and religion^12
• Online can be used to deepen the experience of factual linear programming and deliver the BBC’s knowledge-building purpose in new and exciting ways – through propositions such as The Wildlife Finder and programme pages that allow audiences to explore by linking out to the best knowledge-building content on the web

Chart 2: Audience value in Knowledge by subgenre and channel (% of total audience value)

(^6) Pulse financial year 08/09, based on adults 16+ (^7) BBC One ahead of ITV1; BBC Two ahead of Channel 4; BBC Four ahead of all channels. Sky 1

performs ahead of BBC One and BBC Two (^8) TRP / Cross Media Insights – FY 2008/09. Audience value is a measure of consumption multiplied by

appreciation (^9) TRP / Cross Media Insights – FY 2008/09. Audience value is a measure of consumption multiplied by

appreciation (^10) PBTS data (16+) based on Q409 among those who watch. Discovery leads in “best for Science”

followed by BBC Two; History Channel and Yesterday lead in “best for History” followed by BBC Two (^11) PBTS data (16+) based on Q409 among those who watch (^12) TRP / Cross Media Insights – FY 2008/09. Audience value is a measure of consumption multiplied by

appreciation

60%

35%

62%

72% 63%

38%

36%

45%

38%

27% 33%

56%

1%

3%

18% 0%^ 0%^ 3% 1%

3% 0%^ 1% 0% 4%

ALL KNOWLEDGE

Art, Music, Performance, Religion

Current Affairs Documentaries Factual Features

Specialist Factual

BBC Four BBC Three BBC Two BBC One

Source: TRP / Cross Media Insights – FY 2008/09. Audience value is a measure of consumption multiplied by appreciation

The BBC is committed to continuing to lead the market for the quality and originality of all its knowledge-building content on linear as well as new media platforms. There is a particular opportunity to build on the current strategy by injecting renewed depth and ambition in BBC Two (while retaining its appeal to broad audiences) and reaffirming BBC Four’s role at the heart of UK arts and culture. Further detail on the knowledge-building priorities for each channel can be found in section 3.

Ambitious UK Drama and Comedy

The BBC provides a stage for the best of the UK’s writing and performing talent to reach a wide audience. This role is becoming more important as commercial broadcasters find it harder to invest in a broad range of programming and the incentives to take risks and innovate decline—though commercial broadcasters have not exited entirely from this kind of output (e.g. Red Riding on Channel 4 or Collision and Benidorm on ITV1).

The BBC’s portfolio of television channels offers a wide range of high quality UK Drama, from long running family dramas that can bring in broad and diverse audiences to highly authored single dramas that bring important and challenging subject matter to UK audiences. The BBC is committed to leading the market for the quality and originality across the full breadth of its drama output.

• Audiences consider the BBC’s drama output to be high quality and highly original compared to drama on other channels^13 , but they also expect the BBC’s programmes to continue to reach new heights. The influence of imported US drama is creating higher quality benchmarks
• BBC One is the primary platform for UK drama, generating 97% of the audience value from BBC TV drama^14 and leading in “best for Drama” by some stretch^15. BBC One continues to lead its nearest competitor for the quality and originality of its drama titles^16
• ITV1 continues to lead on “channel best for soaps”^17 , but BBC One’s long running dramas are considered to be on par with or better than ITV for “high quality” and “original and different”^18
• BBC Two has a strong heritage in drama with titles such as Boys from the Blackstuff and Smiley’s People , but has been under-invested in the last decade^19. BBC Two is considered to be on par with the Channel 4 for the quality and originality of its drama^20 ; the ambition is to lead on this measure
• BBC Four uses high quality UK Drama as part of programme seasons to explore the UK’s cultural and social history
• Drama multiplatform seeks to nurture new talent with projects like E20 and develop new, innovative forms of storytelling with formats like Doctor Who Interactive.

(^13) Pulse financial year 08/09, based on peak for adults 16+ (^14) TRP / Cross Media Insights – FY 2008/09. Audience value is a measure of consumption multiplied by

appreciation (^15) Q409 PBTS (16+) based on those who watch. BBC One 41%; ITV1 20% (^16) Pulse financial year 08/09, based on peak for adults 16+, relative to ITV (^17) Q409 PBTS (16+) based on those who watch. ITV1 53%; BBC One 31% (^18) Pulse financial year 08/09, based on adults 16+. EastEnders performs on a par with Coronation

Street and Emmerdale; Casualty, Holby City and Doctors perform significantly better (on par with The Bill) (^19) The BBC has recently committed new investment to bring more consistency to the BBC Two

drama slate from 2010/11 onwards (^20) Pulse financial year 08/09, based on peak for adults 16+

Outstanding children’s content

The BBC continues to be committed to providing high quality, UK-produced content for children. This is not covered in any more detail in this document as children’s is outside of the scope of the Trust Reviews of BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four.

Events that bring communities and the nation together

The BBC - and BBC One in particular - remains a national gathering point at times of celebration, commemoration and entertainment. Audiences depend on the BBC at times of crisis (such as the recent snow and floods); when they have a simultaneous choice, they overwhelmingly prefer to turn to the BBC at moments of international sporting excellence (e.g. Olympics or the Football World Cup ) or major news events (e.g. the General Election); they participate through the BBC in national or cultural events (e.g. Service of Remembrance ); and they also share in the national conversation when a piece of drama, comedy or entertainment (e.g. the recent live edition of EastEnders , the final of Strictly Come Dancing ) itself becomes a talking point or a major event in households across the land.

• BBC One is the primary platform for events that bring the nation together with a range of national events from important news stories to entertainment shows like Comic Relief , Children in Need or the final of Strictly Come Dancing
• The BBC provides a home for major sporting events predominantly on BBC One and BBC Two, free at the point of use
• Commercial broadcasters have consolidated their resources behind big Entertainment shows that bring in big audiences, raising audience expectations of the scale and ambition of Saturday night. There is a significant gap between BBC One and ITV1 on “channel best for entertainment”^23 ; BBC One performs on a par with ITV1 for the quality and originality of its Entertainment programmes^24
• Online plays a valuable role in deepening the impact of big events, often providing a rich range of additional content for audiences to explore

Chart 4: Channel best for entertainment

(^23) Q409 PBTS (16+) based on those who watch. ITV1 37%; BBC One 15% (^24) Pulse financial year 08/09, based on peak for adults 16+

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q

Channel 4

ITV

BBC One

BBC Two E

Source: PBTS/TRP Base: All who especially choose to watch Entertainment, Adults 16+

20062006 20072007 20082008 20092009

The BBC is committed to continuing to be a home for ‘big experiences for big audiences’ - particularly on BBC One. There is an opportunity to increase the scale and ambition of entertainment on BBC One to continue to meet audience expectations of this genre and seek to grow our reputation for quality and distinctiveness. The whole BBC will also mobilise to deliver brilliant coverage of the range of events in 2012: the Olympic Games, the Diamond Jubilee and the Cultural Olympiad. Further detail on the entertainment priorities for each channel can be found in section 3. Further detail on the BBC’s strategy for sport on television is included in Part 2 of the Executive submission.

2.3. Best value for all audiences

Successful delivery of the Public Purposes is contingent upon maintaining broad appeal to all licence fee payers, from a range of age groups, ethnicities, geographies and backgrounds. BBC television contributes a significant proportion of the overall value delivered to audiences by television (almost 40%) but this value is under pressure by increasing competition for share driven by a fragmented multichannel environment and one in which other PSB channels have shored up their share through the introduction of timeshifted channels. More detailed audience value analysis is included in annex 4.

The BBC television portfolio will aim to deliver value effectively to all audiences. A priority is the under 45s, who receive around 30% less value than the average viewer from BBC television. In addition there is complex picture in the Nations and Regions of the UK: there continue to be purpose gaps, but levels of performance and approval are varied. Key priorities for the future will include:

i. Maintaining the mainstream appeal of our most popular channels, BBC One and BBC Two, to attract broad audiences including under 45s ii. Providing targeted services that can have impact with young audiences iii. Ensuring the BBC reflects and represents the whole of the UK– different geographies, communities and ethnic groups - through network programming, as well as ensuring a complementary role for opt-outs that can have real impact in the Nations of the UK

Point (ii) is not covered in this submission as it falls outside of the scope of the Trust service reviews of BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four. Point (iii) will be covered in more detail in Part 2 of the Executive submission.

2.4. Programme Lifecycle Management

The growth in choice provided by multichannel and the introduction of on-demand technologies has led audiences to expect programmes to be more widely accessible and value “another chance to see” BBC programmes. Supporting longer legacies for our programmes also helps derive greater value for licence fee payers and can maximise a programme’s impact with audiences. To this end, the BBC will increasingly seek to:

• Encourage lifecycle management of programmes, supporting a more consistent and strategic approach to linear repeating of important titles
• Develop further its approach to on-demand availability and scheduling as well as a clear strategy for the Public Service Archive, working with the full range of stakeholders.
• Incentivise Commissioning and Production to think beyond the first transmission through performance metrics (including value for money metrics) that measure audience value over a longer window.

BBC One will experiment further with contemporary adaptations like Small Island and look for innovative ways of bringing the best of period writing to life.

ii. Grow the comedy hits of the future

BBC One will continue to feature a range of programmes that make people laugh, from scripted comedy to comedy entertainment formats featuring the best UK comedians. In particular BBC One will focus on developing new pre and post watershed comedy that appeals to a large mainstream audience, finding new and imaginative ways of nurturing new comedy through piloting and supportive scheduling.

BBC One will also support the on-going development of new talent and formats from across the portfolio that have the potential to grow and be appreciated by a wider audience.

iii. Improve the relevance and ambition of some pre watershed factual while maintaining a commitment to large scale landmark programming.

In recent years, the space for knowledge output has grown on BBC One with programmes like Life , Seven Ages of Britain and The Passion. BBC One will continue to invest heavily in natural history, history, science and arts landmark programming and develop a new array of presenting faces to ensure these programmes feel modern and connected to audiences. It will seek out new opportunities to bring important and challenging subject matter to the channel, applying learnings from other genres to ensure that BBC One attracts the largest possible audience to this type of high end content. It will review the way it markets and supports these programmes with linear and multiplatform content to ensure they feel like events on the channel.

Prewatershed, BBC One will move away from some less ambitious observational documentary and create a new stable of shows which are content rich and entertaining for an early evening audience e.g. Bang Goes the Theory. It will take greater risk with a range of new presenting talent to ensure real diversity on screen.

BBC One will maintain its commitment to broadcast serious current affairs and agenda- setting investigations in peaktime, as well as strengthening its consumer journalism offer. It will build on its success of reacting swiftly to breaking news stories and running topical news specials in the heart of the schedule.

iv. Build on its reputation for delivering event television, including major sport and entertainment events

From the Wimbledon final to EastEnders live , from Question Time to the Children in Need concert, BBC One has delivered unmissable programming which gets the nation talking. BBC One serves as the nation’s gathering point for events of national significance, for example major news stories such as the snow or floods. The channel will continue to expand the range, ambition and scale of its event television and to identify more opportunities for BBC One to bring audiences together.

Entertainment has a core role to play in delivering this objective and BBC One will seek to remain a home for ‘big experiences for big audiences’. Volume of entertainment will not increase; but BBC One will enhance the scale of some shows to boost quality, and drive innovation in the genre with new approaches, forms and talent. Building on the successful return of comedy entertainers such as Michael McIntyre to Saturday night, it will aim to be the first to introduce fresh talent to a large mainstream audience. BBC One will also invest

in piloting and development to identify new factual entertainment ideas to create event television midweek.

3.2. BBC Two

Since its launch 46 years ago, BBC Two has engaged and rewarded audiences curious to find out more about the world. As the BBC redoubles its focus on high quality, original content, BBC Two has a core role to play. With additional investment of £25m a year proposed from

2013 onwards on top of new funding already going into music, arts and drama^25 , BBC Two will re-establish the channel’s reputation as the home of intelligent and ambitious drama, comedy and factual programming. BBC Two’s priorities are:

i. Inject renewed depth and ambition into BBC Two knowledge-building - while retaining its appeal to broad audiences

BBC Two's role in delivering ambitious factual content will be strengthened, with more confidence, purpose and visibility. BBC Two will bring a wider range of important subjects to audiences, from the arts to science to history. Its treatment of specialist subjects will be deeper and it will introduce and develop new, authoritative on-screen talent, refreshing the face of the channel for a new generation.

Increased impact will be delivered through creative scheduling, for example programmes with knowledge-building at their heart stripped across the week, and standout factual seasons. Major single commissions will sometimes be accompanied by complementary programmes which enhance the core offer. The ambition is to create a greater sense of event in the schedule.

The impact of serious factual programmes is enhanced and made meaningful by its mainstream appeal, and the channel is committed to offering a strong factual features portfolio that builds on the success of programmes like Lambing Live which are distinctive but broad, popular but purposeful. At its heart are core BBC Two values, which combine the drama of a format with the BBC’s knowledge-building purpose.

BBC Two will explore a wide range of perspectives and international issues in current affairs output. More detail on the portfolio strategy for current affairs is included in the Part 2 Executive submission.

ii. Re-establish BBC Two’s reputation as the home of signature television drama

(^25) New investment into drama, music and arts on BBC Two is already committed from 2010/

onwards. As part of Putting Quality First the Executive has proposed further investment of £25m a year to support BBC Two’s ambitions in knowledge-building, drama and comedy. This investment is subject to the on-going Putting Quality First process.

BBC Two is the mainstream alternative, with a spirit of bold creativity at its heart. Armed with curiosity and wit the channel is here to provide stimulating TV to a broad audience. Whether you want to explore a passion, discover an interest or see things from a different perspective, BBC Two offers viewing that is as rewarding as it is entertaining.

BBC Four aims to be the pre-eminent channel for in-depth UK arts, music and culture, approaching subject matter with a level of detail and authority second to none. Its purpose is actively to curate, placing these programmes alongside complementary offerings that offer the audience a deeper and more meaningful experience. This will be achieved through:

• An even greater focus on landmark arts programmes and seasons that will stand out in the schedule, building on BBC Four's previous success in this area
• Increasingly working with key cultural partners to enhance range, depth and impact
• Focused publicity and marketing support to increase awareness of BBC Four’s consistent high end arts offer
• This vision will be enabled through a reduced range of entertainment and comedy on BBC Four, focusing only on shows that enhance the identity and role of the channel

ii. Build on successes in drama from the UK and around the world

BBC Four will explore science, culture and social history through UK-originated dramas, extending beyond biographical films with new approaches, such as adaptations of modern literary classics that can contribute to broader programme seasons. Four will also showcase the finest fiction from foreign language films to smart, high quality acquisitions of the very best of contemporary television from around the world, such as Wallander and Spiral.

iii. Further develop BBC Four’s role in enabling archive discovery in linear and multiplatform

BBC Four has proven the value of originated and curated seasons to enable audiences to discover the best of the BBC’s archives on linear television. As part of the BBC’s public service archive strategy, BBC Four will extend its role to highlight the cultural and social history of the UK through the BBC’s television archive, applying a new lens to subjects, using curated seasons and the spark of original programming to bring to life the rich written and audiovisual material in the BBC’s archives across multiple platforms.

3.4 BBC Daytime on BBC One and BBC Two

The daytime audience is very different compared to peak. Daytime viewers are more likely to be women, older and C2DE than peak viewers. BBC One and Two can be viewed as a single schedule in daytime, working together to meet the BBC’s commitments to news, Sport and children’s programming while maximising choice available to audiences, particularly in the face of growing competition from multichannel.

In recent years the BBC has sought a higher level of creative ambition in daytime to ensure a highly distinctive position in broadcasting. The BBC is currently unrivalled in the level and range of UK origination in daytime and scores significantly ahead of competitors for the quality and originality of its output. Going forward the role of the BBC will become ever more important as commercial broadcasters reprioritise investment into peak and focus increasingly on lighter factual and low cost acquisitions. The on-going strategy includes:

• Developing UK Drama for daytime: the BBC is only originator of UK Drama in daytime with highly acclaimed titles such as Missing and Moving On
• On-going refreshment of the daytime factual offer, reaffirming programmes’ knowledge-building credentials, building range and reducing over-reliance on a small number of topics
• In particular the BBC is continuing to enhance its range of consumer and current affairs programming with relevance to the daytime audience

However Putting Quality First presents an opportunity to take this strategy further, in light of a clearer focus on enhancing the quality, originality and distinctiveness of the whole of the BBC portfolio, including daytime.

Key priorities, which are contingent upon additional funding to be confirmed as part of the on-going Putting Quality First process:

• Further invest in original drama and reduce daytime’s reliance on acquired programming
• Support greater variety through enhancing the range of consumer and current affairs programming
• Create more complementary roles for BBC One and BBC Two: BBC One to focus more on information-led programming in the mornings (current and consumer affairs as well as its main factual entertainment brands), whilst providing more than an hour of daily UK-originated Drama and entertainment in the afternoons. BBC Two would continue to focus on factual entertainment in the afternoons.
• This strategy assumes BBC One and BBC Two will continue to deliver dedicated children’s content in daytime hours

These changes will aim deliver a discernable increase in quality on daytime television.

4. Conclusions

The future strategy for the BBC Vision portfolio builds on the themes of Putting Quality First through focusing on content of the highest quality and creative ambition. It is important to recognise that while the BBC will aim to maintain the value it delivers to all audiences on television, there may be some risk to reach, particularly on BBC Two, of the revised strategy.

We do not envisage the future strategy for BBC One, BBC Two and BBC Four requiring any change to the existing service licences. Some of the strategic priorities will benefit or indeed require some funding shifts to support the ambitions – notably on BBC Two and daytime. Approval of these funding shifts will form part of the on-going Putting Quality First process.