In her third and final appearance at an RTS Cambridge Convention, the outgoing CEO of Ofcom, Sharon White, gave a candid insight into what she described as the regulator’s tense relationship with the BBC, and reflected on why the TV industry had failed to improve its record on diversity.
At her final Cambridge, Ofcom’s CEO Sharon White talks to ITN’s Julie Etchingham about the challenges facing our industry.
During these past 12 months Rupert Murdoch has been only half the man in the UK he used to be. But that’s only by one measure – Ofcom’s “share of references”, which calculates which news sources are consumed across different media. It was a year ago, in September 2018, that the then 87-year-old’s long association with Sky came to an end.
In recent years, Channel 4’s new national HQ in Leeds and the BBC’s relocation of 2,300 posts to Salford have dominated our perception of out-of-London programme production.
This is perhaps not surprising: the corporation has the largest Ofcom quota for UK production outside the M25 – 50% – followed by Channel 4 and ITV, who both have 35%, and Channel 5, with 10%.
In March 2018, CBeebies pulled off a spectacular staging of The Tempest, a pacy version that preserved all the best “O brave new world” lines, while gripping its audience of under-sevens.
A report by Ofcom released this week found that the number of households with a subscription to a streaming platform in the first three months of this year (15.4m), exceeded pay-TV homes by around 300,000.
In 2017, more than half (55%) of adults reported that they watched content on-demand.
The results from the register show that the BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 all met their value and volume-based regional production quotes in 2017.
To be considered a regional production, Ofcom requires that productions to either be based outside of the M25, spend at least 70% of their budget outside the M25, or ensure that at least 50% of the production talent come from outside of London.
A newly appointed boss is addressing journalists in the newsroom. They know him only as an outspoken TV presenter with strong links to their government. He tells them: “The time of detached, unbiased journalism is over. Objectivity is a myth forced upon us. Editorial policy will be based on the love of our country.”
