many happy returns, auntie
As many of you are probably already aware, our very own British Broadcasting Corporation turned a hundred years old this week and I, for one, would like to wish it a very sincere and genuine happy birthday. My life would be less rich without her dulcet tones caressing my ears on a daily basis.
When radio broadcasting first began in 1920, the powers-that-be worried that too many stations would lead to uncontrolled chaos on the airwaves, and so persuaded six ‘wireless’ companies to band together and form a single monopoly organisation, which began daily broadcasting on the 14th November 1922. Originally intended to be funded by the subsequent sale of wireless sets, this idea quickly bit the dust and the licence fee as we now know it, was introduced the following year.
From the onset, the BBC’s ethos – “to inform, educate and entertain” – has shaped the development of our democracy, though its early intent was to focus on variety shows, light music, comedy and children’s programmes as opposed to hard news. In fact, the universally accepted moniker “Auntie” came from Auntie Violet, who read stories on its most popular programme, Children’s Hour. However, the general strike of 1926 effectively put the papers out of production for almost a year and the Beeb stepped in and cleaned-up.
During the next decade, many of the BBC’s mainstays were established: live footie, gardening, political analysis, the Shipping Forecast, the Proms and hourly timing ‘pips’, and by 1935 its reach encompassed 98% of the population. Its radio stranglehold was to remain until the turning point of Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation when more than half the population watched it ‘on the box’ and by 1958 television licences surpassed those of the radio-only. Today, the combined services reach a weekly audience of just under five hundred million people and it remains the world’s largest broadcaster by this measurement.
It is required by law to be fair, unbiased and impartial in all its output and continuous polls have shown it to be the most trusted and accurate news source. Notwithstanding, generations of politicians have begged to differ. Churchill complained about its “copious stream of pontifical anonymous mugwumpery” (no, really!), Anthony Eden called it a “nest of communists” and even dear Maggie famously loathed it. There’s also a long left-wing tradition of complaint: Harold Wilson raged against it and George Orwell referred to it as “the propaganda arm of the British governing class”. Its infamous intentional reversing of the Orgreave mining dispute footage (wrongly showing striking miners attacking the police followed by their subsequent horse-led charge) did much to undermine the long-held right-wing belief of bias but truth be told, each side believes the corporation to be biased against it and was/will be always thus.
IMHO the Beeb still, at £159/year, represents tremendous value for money but there’s a reasonable case for level of some reform: like any flat tax, the licence fee affects the poor disproportionately and taxing TV ownership is increasingly proving tricky when a large proportion increasingly get their media-fix online through digital device. But, if its impartiality is to be retained, the alternatives are difficult to envisage and enforce: paying for it out of general taxation would be difficult to justify and potentially expose it to direct governmental pressure; supported by a new broadband levy would be politically difficult and widely disliked; advertising could constitute a slippery slope towards privatisation and a direct move away from its ethos; and a subscription model would result in a massive reduction of income, £5.3bn last year, and hence a subsequent reduction in services and outreach.
With its current agreement running out in 2027 it’s undoubtedly going to witness a turbulent few years ahead but, nonetheless, many happy returns, ol’ girl and here’s to many more.
