The Technological Innovations and the Business Strategy of BBC - Essay Example

This paper is about the BBC or the British Broadcasting Corporation. This paper focuses on the achievements of the BBC, its history, business strategies, relationship to a media conglomerate, its technological innovations, its regulatory challenges, and its particular programming. The focus throughout this paper is on a critical analysis of how the BBC works and what its strengths and weaknesses are with respect to each element that is described above. The BBC was one of the first media organizations to have been setup and it was formally incorporated in 1922. Over the years, the company grew from a single person entity to one that employs people in the thousands and spans across the globe in its operations. (Briggs, 1985) The BBC is well known for its record of impartiality and independence in reporting and coverage of news events. Though there has been some criticism in the recent past about the way in which it has handled some events, nonetheless, on the whole, the record of BBC has been relatively unblemished. The BBC is a pioneer in terms of launching a global news channel covering almost all regions in the world. To quote from the profile of BBC on its website, “The BBC is the largest broadcasting organization in the world. Its mission is to enrich peoples lives with programmes that inform, educate and entertain. It is a public service broadcaster, established by a Royal Charter and funded by the license fee that is paid by UK households. The BBC uses the income from the license fee to provide services including 8 national TV channels plus regional programming, 10 national radio stations, 40 local radio stations and an extensive website.” (BBC, 2010) The business strategy of BBC is relatively straightforward. The primary revenue earner for BBC is through its license fee that averages around 145 GBP per year per household. This is the fee paid by individual households to receive the broadcast television in the UK. Though there is no fee to own a television in the UK, there is a fee to receive the cable TV. However, the world service of the BBC is funded by government and as the website puts it, “BBC World Service broadcasts to the world on radio, on TV and online, providing news and information in 32 languages. It is funded by a government grant, not from the license fee.” (BBC, 2010) The technological innovations that have been introduced by the BBC are to do with the re-launched news website that receives visitors in the millions. The BBC claims the site to be "Europes most popular content-based site" and states that 13.2 million people in the UK visit the sites more than two million pages each day. The popularity of this online news site has spurred many of its rivals to introduce similar themes though they complain that BBC is at an undue advantage as it receives more fees from license funding and hence the rivals are not able to compete with the BBC on its own terms. (Alexa, 2008) The popularity of BBC is evident from the fact that studies have shown that viewers and the general public at large turn to the BBC in times of events like the Jul 7 2005 bombings in London as a means of getting the information first and this shows that the BBC is viewed as a reliable organization in the public perception. (Claire, 2005) BBC is a household name in many parts of the world for its coverage of the world events and news and it is one of the news channels that is always preferred over its competitors when it concerns the need for accurate and reliable information. In recent times, there has been a perceptible shift in the attitude of BBC towards the way in which it broadcasts as evidenced by this recent announcement where “The BBC claimed yesterday that it was embarking on a historic "step change" in its priorities, shifting more money into the production of "quality" programming while cutting the amount spent on the website and closing two digital radio stations, 6 Music and Asian Network. What had been widely billed by the director-general Mr Mark Thompson as a cost-cutting exercise that would significantly reduce the scale of the BBCs operations n in the face of criticisms about overspending n turned out to be a statement of renewed ambition?” (The Statesman, 2010) Though this move of BBC has been viewed as appeasing the Tories who are tipped to win the upcoming elections, nonetheless the fact that the BBC deems fit to change direction is noteworthy. The above point underscores what has been long considered the “Achilles heel” for BBC: namely its reliance on Government funding. Though the license fee covers most of what BBC does, there is still a significant need for government funding, particularly for its overseas operations and hence the BBC needs to bow down to the party in power in the UK. This has led to criticism over its priorities and there have been moves in the past to make it truly independent instead of depending on the government for funding. (TV Licensing, 2008) On the other hand, the move to make it a commercial entity has also drawn fire from its supporters who claim that such a move would make it susceptible to the whims and fancies of advertisers. In conclusion, BBC has had a huge impact on the way in which news and views are propagated around the world. It has made a significant difference to the way in which people receive and use news. In these days of media conglomerates and “paid news”, BBC stands out for its relative independence though there have been occasional murmurs about editorial freedom at the BBC. It is evident that organizations like BBC have to be encouraged and it would suit governments in the developing world to have such news outlets as a means to guarantee balanced coverage of events and news. References Alexa. Alexa Metrics. 01 Apr 2010. 04 Apr 2010 . BBC. What is the BBC? 01 Apr 2010. 04 Apr 2010 . "BBCs flight to quality in bid to satisfy Tory critics? " The Statesman  4  Mar. 2010,Research Library, ProQuest. Web.  4 Apr. 2010. Briggs, Assa. The BBC - The First Fifty Years. London : OUP, 1985. Legislation and policy. 22 Feb 2010. 04 Apr 2010 . Read More