BBC Trust: “Tighter Management” Needed for Pubcaster’s Website

LONDON, May 29: The BBC
Trust has released the results of its review of bbc.co.uk, calling it an
“excellent service” but noting that “tighter management” controls are needed as
a result of “poor financial accountability.”

BBC Trust praised bbc.co.uk
for being “an excellent service that is highly valued by users and makes a
strong contribution to delivering the BBC's public purposes.” The review notes
that “it is essential that the service remains distinctive” and that it “should
continue to develop to meet changing customer needs.” However, “the Trust will
not approve new investments without further scrutiny and until confident that
improved management controls are in place to ensure better financial
accountability and editorial and managerial oversight.”

In 2006/7 the BBC spent 3
percent of the license fee on bbc.co.uk compared to 70 percent on television
channels and 17 percent on its radio services. As the BBC's fourth-most widely
used service, the website, BBC Trust says, delivered good value for money.
However, the review revealed that in 2007/8 the actual spend on bbc.co.uk was
£110 million, 48 percent higher than the Service Licence baseline budget. “Most
of this increase was not overspend, but the misallocation of £24.9 million in
overheads and costs to other budgets within the BBC,” the review states.

“The Trust has concluded
that tighter management controls are necessary for bbc.co.uk and has requested
these be implemented to the Trust's satisfaction before it will consider
approval of the additional investment for the service as proposed by BBC
management.”

In its response, the BBC
stated: “We accept the Trust's conclusions that our processes and management
controls were not adequate for a pan-BBC service straddling multiple cost
centers. This is regrettable and we recognize the need to address this. We are
developing plans which we believe will fully meet the concerns raised in the
report, and provide a high level of reassurance to the BBC Trust that
additional controls will be quickly implemented. We will do this while ensuring
that bbc.co.uk continues to be a distinctive service delivering strong public
value. We look forward to discussing our plans in detail with the BBC Trust in
the coming weeks."

—By Mansha Daswani