Be more Beeb
By now you’ll have seen Uncommon Studio’s latest ad for the UK’s broadcasters. Playing simultaneously across the BBC, ITV and Channel 4, it makes a powerful case for national, mainstream broadcasters as a force for unity in uncertain times.
But one broadcaster that’s at the heart of the story, really shouldn’t be.
As economist Mariana Mazzucato points out, the BBC really breaks all the rules when it comes to non-commercial, public broadcasting.
Most public broadcasters aren’t created to make soap operas, or chat shows, or comedies, or quizzes. They’re there to do what commercial broadcasters can’t, or won’t. That’s why broadcasters like PBS in the US make documentaries and public service announcements. Other national broadcasters just focus on news and current affairs.
They’re there, in other words, to do what most public bodies are there to do — to correct market failures. To fill in the gaps that the profit motive leaves out. And leave the for-profit sector to do its thing, for better or worse.
But right from the start, the BBC has taken a completely different view of its role. It’s defined success as ‘public value’. That means Eastenders as well as the World at One. And I May Destroy You and Killing Eve as well as Antiques Roadshow.
Few would argue that the commercial broadcast sector is weaker because of the Beeb. Indeed, it’s set standards in broadcasting and tastes in public expectation that have reverberated around the world. No BBC, no David Attenborough. Not to mention the thousands upon thousands of writers, producers, technicians and others who it’s trained and given chances to, who are now working in other companies and industries and countries all over the world.
It’s hard to imagine, not just a UK without the BBC, but a world without it. And all because it decided its mission was public value, not market correction.
What if more non-profit bodies — like charities, membership organisations and unions — thought about their mission in this way? The point of non-profits shouldn’t just be to make up for the failures of capitalism (which by extension are almost always failures of government), but changing it, by changing societal expectations and creating new forms of value.
In doing so they could be not just useful, not just valued, but part of the fabric of our daily lives — impossible to imagine life without.
When we talk about engagement and relevance in the charity sector, are we really thinking big enough? Don’t just plug the gaps. Be the best. Build a legacy. Change the world.
Be more beeb.
