Commercially it’s performing well but is the BBC doing a good job?
Management Today
How well, badly or averagely managed is the BBC? That is a hard question to answer, primarily because of the broadcaster’s hybrid public-private status likened by British PR guru Mark Borkowski to being “half-pregnant”.
This means, he says, “the BBC is damned if it does” – by, for example, expanding its online presence – and “damned if it doesn’t” – by relying on the TV licence fee which generates £3.7bn (65%) of its revenue.
The fact that the BBC is constantly assailed by critics across the political spectrum is sometimes taken as proof it is doing a good job. Some of the claims are absurd (in the Daily Mail, Peter Hitchens recently alleged that Nick Robinson’s “Big Issue beard” and lack of tie were a calculated insult to interviewee Rishi Sunak). That said, such flak could also provide useful cover for managers who are not as effective as they might think.
The toxic atmosphere of British politics, and the digitally-driven restructuring of the media – which has made the roles of publisher and broadcaster virtually interchangeable – could turn the review of the BBC’s charter and funding in 2027 into a day of reckoning. Before then, Borkowski says the corporation must do two things: win the PR war by eloquently defending its place in British culture and keep “creating content that unites and engages the nation”, whether that be Strictly Come Dancing, Traitors or its coverage of Wimbledon.
Commercially it’s performing well but is the BBC doing a good job? | Management Today