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The British Academy BBC report: time for big changes episode artwork

Dec 12, 2025 32 min

The British Academy BBC report: time for big changes

from Roger Bolton's Beeb Watch

Professors Georgina Born and Justin Lewis are co-authors of the British Academy report on the future of the BBC and public service media. From the UK to Scandinavia, Canada to Australia, the report presents evidence about what works and what doesn’t. We discuss some of their findings: the importance of democratic governance, the decline of the licence fee, and the need for independent funding mechanisms. We explore the role of public service media, the threat from global big tech, governance and political independence, alternatives to the licence fee, the idea of a permanent charter, strategies for engaging young audiences, and the need to develop new approaches to public service media in the digital age. "The BBC has been built and developed over 100 years. It could be abandoned in one term of one government under our current structure, which I think we would all come to regret if it happened." Find the British Academy report here: https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/publications/future-of-public-service-media/ Listen to all our episodes here: https://podfollow.com/beebwatch To support our journalism and receive a weekly blog sign up now for £1.99 per month www.patreon.com/BeebWatch/membership @beebwatch.bsky.social @BeebRoger Instagram: rogerboltonsbeebwatch LinkedIn: Roger Bolton's Beeb Watch email: [email protected]

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