New BBC chair Samir Shah faces daunting in-tray

A damning report last month by an influential group of MPs gave incoming BBC chair Samir Shah a taste of things to come even before he sets foot in Broadcasting House this year.

Tasked with vetting the 71-year-old former non-executive director of the UK’s national broadcaster, the House of Commons media committee said he was “appointable as chair”.

But the cross-party group voiced “serious reservations” about his willingness to challenge the corporation’s leadership.

On social media commentators were split between attacking Shah as a government patsy for his perceived links to the ruling Conservative party and defending him as an independently minded TV executive who would add rigour to the BBC’s operations.

Such extreme reactions were of the kind that the publicly funded broadcaster uniquely attracts. Reflecting on future scrutiny, Shah told the MPs: “I think it’ll be a tough job, but it should be.”

BBC insiders said 2023 — during which there were scandals over presenters including Huw Edwards and Tim Westwood, rows about coverage of the Israel-Hamas war and Gary Lineker’s social media posts, and job cuts and cash squeezes — could go down as an annus horribilis.

But they added that many years can be difficult for an organisation that often finds itself accused of bias and at the centre of Britain’s culture and political wars.

In evidence to the Commons media committee, Shah split the BBC’s challenges into the “acute” and the “chronic” — a neat summation of the short-term firestorms it frequently faces — while discussing long-term matters with ministers.

But for all the “acute” need to deal with issues around coverage and personnel in 2024, Shah left little doubt that his central task would be renegotiating the BBC’s charter — which expires in 2027 — and therefore securing its future funding and strategic direction.

With licence fee payers still squeezed by the cost of living crisis, ministers are already chipping further at funding for the corporation. In December, they said the increase in the levy set at inflation two years ago, under a deal that also froze payments until 2024, would be delivered at the lowest possible level.

Executives at the broadcaster warned that the change would have a real impact, with a further £90mn in savings from programmes and teams now needed on top of the £500mn earmarked for cuts after the 2022 funding settlement.

One BBC executive said the corporation needed to manage a shrinking real-terms budget while trying to meet changing demands from its audience.

“There is a lot of stuff that we will no longer afford to do,” they admitted. “But more important is where we invest the money that we have left.”

Sharp reductions to the budget and scope of Newsnight, the flagship current affairs programme, in November reflected these wider choices, according to BBC insiders.

Former staffers criticised the cuts, accusing the corporation of abandoning the deeply reported and impartial coverage that underpinned its global reputation. But insiders said Newsnight — which draws an average daily audience of 300,000 — was an expensive show to make during a period of cost cutting, especially in light of changing viewer habits.

“Newsnight is not just about the money — it’s about investing where the audience is going,” said one BBC executive. “Appointment-to-view TV is in decline. People are watching and listening where and when they want.”

Sir Peter Bazalgette, a former ITV chair who advises the government on media policy, said in the past the BBC had faced a crisis every three years — “but now it’s more like every three months because of social media”.

The corporation “is not only getting less money but is also in the eye of the storm of a digital revolution. This is a huge double whammy of change management”, he added.

BBC One, which has the highest weekly reach of all TV channels, has suffered a 12 percentage point decline in viewing since 2017. Government officials said the weekly reach of broadcast TV in the UK fell from 83 per cent in 2021 to 79 per cent in 2022, the largest ever annual drop. 

One staffer defended the BBC, saying it was “still bigger than Netflix, Amazon Prime and Disney” in relation to UK viewing figures.

One TV executive, who was approached by the government about the BBC chair role, said the biggest risk to the BBC was demography, with young people neither as interested nor loyal to it as previous generations.

“That undermines universality and that undermines the argument for the licence fee,” he said, noting how children were growing up with social media sites such as TikTok instead.

Shah will work with Tim Davie, BBC director-general, on a strategic review, which will be published in early 2024, to guide the shift from traditional to “digital-first” public service broadcasting.

People close to the review said the BBC needed to “think digitally” about the distribution of its content, with more viewers now watching TV on iPlayer and listening to radio via the BBC Sounds app.

Corporation executives predict that by 2030 most people will use the internet rather than the TV aerial as their primary connection to media. In some cases, this is already true: 57 per cent of all viewing to The Tourist, the BBC’s most-watched drama series of 2022, came via iPlayer.

At an industry conference in September, Davie said public service broadcasting was at a “critical moment”, adding: “I think this is going to be a fight. Loads of people want to own the front of your television. We have to make some choices about how we innovate to make sure we stay relevant.”

The government has already launched a review of the licence fee and alternative funding models post-2027. Different approaches will be considered, including keeping the licence fee unchanged, making the levy means tested, increasing commercial or subscription income, or imposing a special media tax on households.

One BBC staffer said most of those options would result in less money in real terms, leaving Davie with more tough choices.

However, Peter Fincham, formerly controller of BBC One and now a media podcaster, said the corporation had shown it could adjust to new conditions.

“As an institution its survival instincts are pretty good [but] the broadcaster needs to be forward thinking and adaptable. Its role is more valuable than ever in a world of such partial news sources,” he said.