The findings of a review into the running of the BBC were made public this week. Following a five-month consultation period with the BBC Executive and Ofcom, among other parties, Sir David Clementi, who led the review, concluded that there should be a fundamental reform of the system of governance and regulation for the BBC.
There are currently three key groups that make up this system at the BBC. The BBC Executive, which runs the day-to-day activities of the BBC; the regulator Ofcom, which is also responsible for the wider broadcast and telecoms industries; and the BBC Trust, the sovereign body which has overall responsibility for the strategic direction of the Corporation, acts as steward of the licence fee', and holds the BBC Executive to account. At a press briefing this week Clementi argued that this model is flawed , and needs to be replaced. His report, which forms part of the government's review of the BBC's Royal Charter, recommends that regulatory oversight of the BBC should be passed to Ofcom and that the Trust should be disbanded and replaced by a single unitary board comprised of a majority of non-executive directors.
Clementi argued that there needs to be a more distinct divide between governance and regulation at the broadcaster, a point which was according to Clementi was accepted by the Trust in his discussions with its members. The new board should be led by a non-executive chair, and the time devoted to this role should be considerable and more than expected of usual non-executives of boards. The quality of people who serve on the board, he continued, will determine the future success of the BBC. The board will be accountable for the BBC and will speak for it activities, the report recommends.
Clementi argued that it is common for distinction between operational and strategic breaks down in the face of events and the interests of accountability would be better served by a model in which bodies have clear responsibilities. Accountability is not a separate function, but an inherent part of good regulation , he added.
Recommending a completely external regulator in Ofcom would provide this required distinction. The body is already charged with operating in the public interest, argued Clementi, and has the capacity to look at the BBC in the context of the market as a whole. It has scale and credibility as well as considerable resources and would provide a strong regulator to match a strong BBC board. Serving the interests of citizens would be at the fore, and having a single regulator, rather than splitting these powers, would provide clarity that a public body like the BBC deserves.
Despite calling the current structure of the public broadcaster flawed and a mistake , Clementi did accept that the Trust has done some good work and that it is not flawed in terms of individuals , it is just that these individuals were set an impossible task ten years ago. The BBC Board and Trust have had some hard issues to deal with, especially in last few years, with scandals including high executive pay and cases of historic child abuse. Has the flawed structure contributed to such scandals? Clementi pointed out that the issues around Saville occurred in the 1970s and 80s, before the creation of the Trust. As for the issues around remuneration, Clementi himself asked which board is responsible? and followed with the assertion that if you have a single board with good governance systems, you know who's responsible? The creation of a unitary board, which will be responsible for the actions of the BBC means there will be no hiding places .
Ofcom already has powers to fine the BBC - which it exercised in 2009, when the broadcaster paid £150,000 after two episodes of the Russell Brand radio show breached the Broadcasting Code - so how will increasing its powers over the BBC alter the current relationship? In some regulatory systems, relationships can be too adversarial or too cosy , said Clementi. He would expect that [Ofcom] won't bash the BBC for the sake of it but would retain a tough stance, he said. He hopes the relationship between the regulator and broadcaster would be one of mutual respect .
Clementi recommends that the new board be half appointed by the government - including the board's chair - and half by a nominations committee. Currently, the director-general is chairman of the Executive Board, as well as chief executive and editor-in-chief of the BBC, and is appointed by the BBC Trust. The Board is made up of executive directors from within the BBC and a number of non-executive directors. In terms of the new chairman, Clementi is disinclined to say what kind of candidate he hopes will assume the role. Experience running a big business is a must, however, and he views the position as a full time job .
Clementi has presented his findings to secretary of state for Culture, Media and Sport, John Whittingdale, to feed into the ongoing BBC Charter Review process. Proposals for charter renewal were originally intended for publication this spring, however, it was reported this week that this may be delayed until after the EU referendum in June.
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
The findings of a review into the running of the BBC were made public this week. Following a five-month consultation period with the BBC Executive and Ofcom, among other parties, Sir David Clementi, who led the review, concluded that there should be a fundamental reform of the system of governance and regulation for the BBC. 
