Tim Davie, Director-General at the BBC, sets out the blueprint for the future direction of the BBC and its role for the UK at an RTS event.
Davie discussed AI and UK-centric algorithms, commercial partnerships with tech companies, and a “progressive” licence fee.
Following the keynote, Davie answered questions from the audience, chaired by Martha Kearney.
The event took place at the IET London on Tuesday 26 March.
Tim Davie, the BBC’s Director-General, has called for urgent action to ensure that British media can prosper into the 2030s. He said the BBC must work together with politicians, policymakers, regulators, and other parts of the sector to secure the future of a world-leading UK media market.
Good morning. Today, 100 years and 23 days after the first BBC broadcast, I want to talk about choices. Choices for us all.
Choices that have profound consequences for our society; its economic success, its cultural life, its democratic health. Our UK and its essence. Of what we hand to the next generation. Of growth.
Choices that concern not just the role of the BBC, but something bigger. About whether we want to leave a legacy of a thriving, world leading UK media market or accept, on our watch, a slow decline.
Tim Davie, Director-General of the BBC, delivered a speech on leading the UK into digital. His speech was followed by a Q&A with RTS CEO Theresa Wise on an internet-only BBC, the streamers and the future of PSBs.
The event took place on Wednesday 7 December at St Martin-in-the-Fields.
In a month that saw No.10 Downing Street train its guns on the BBC, Bolton was pointing out how difficult the job has become. With current Director-General Tony Hall leaving the BBC in the summer to take over as chair of the National Gallery, the search is on for candidates.
There are serious issues to address for an incoming D-G: the Government wants to decriminalise failure to pay the licence fee; the decision by the BBC to make over-75s not on benefits begin paying the licence fee again this year; and the decline in young people accessing BBC services.
And so to my first-ever RTS Cambridge Convention: nine months of meetings, a few too many summer weekends spent writing presentations and chatting to panellists around the world, all to prepare for (what I hope will be) an extravaganza of an opening session.
It was time to take stock. After three days of intense and stimulating debate, Lorraine Heggessey corralled some of broadcasting’s big beasts onstage to chew the fat at the final session of Cambridge 2015. Was television heading for Happy Valley or was the House of Cards about to collapse?
