BECTU discusses the BBC's future strategy

It has been an important week for the debate on public service broadcasting, the future of the BBC and its income.

 BECTU officials meet with representatives of the Kurdistan Cultural Workers Union

Following James Murdoch's Edinburgh broadside last month, director-general Mark Thompson is preparing for the RTS Cambridge Convention (15 - 18 September) and Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, wrote an open letter to licence fee payers which cited favourable research demonstrating opposition to top-slicing of the licence fee.

To succeed with any argument, timing and context is everything and the debate is certainly progressing ahead of the party conferences.

As you'll appreciate, BECTU and its sister unions in the creative sector, are very much focussed on this issue; the BBC is of major importance to UK culture, to the interests of our current and prospective members and to the future shape of the broadcasting industry. The NUJ's Jeremy Dear, and I were part of the team which met with the director-general on Tuesday this week. This was followed on Thursday by discussions with Sir Michael Lyons. Support the campaign against top slicing. Members should log in to take part in the forum. 

Central to the BBC's future planning, of course, is value for money and the other side of this particular coin is the BBC's purpose. Regionality, and the desire to build greater ties in the nations and regions, have brought changes to the BBC's current and planned presence outside London.

Cue a meeting with representatives of the National Audit Office on Friday to discuss the quality of the BBC's consultations with the unions on its relocation programmes. The NAO is compiling a report for the BBC Trust.

Relocation, relocation

Jeremy Dear and I were together in stating that BBC Glasgow's relocation to Pacific Quays was not the best exercise in this regard. Union members and reps' contributions to the consultation were overlooked in parts, leading to prolonged settling in problems. However, those lessons may be being learned.

BH1 - the first phase redevelopment of London's Broadcasting House, ran more smoothly from the staff's perspective and consultations on Salford Quays are proving constructive. Similarly, BH2 - phase two of the London project - which will see Worldwide and News staff re-sited, and in some cases returning, to central London in 2011, is already drawing on the substantial input of union reps on the issues which affect staff.

Limbo for studios and post-production

One additional element of progress to share with you is agreement on a meeting with Peel Holdings, operators of Media City UK, about their plans for  production resources. Whilst several groups of staff affected by the relocation to Salford now know whether they are going or staying, members in London studios and post-production remain in an uncomfortable limbo. My letter to Ascent Media produced the desired response; we hope that the planned meetings will clarify matters soon.

Union submissions

Meanwhile, BECTU has delivered a further submission to Ofcom about its plans for moving PMSE (programme making and special events) users away from Channel 69 as part of its Digital Dividend Review project. The full text of this latest submission is available here. Further  formal and detailed comments on the Digital Britain report will follow.

Whilst we campaign to ensure that commercial exploitation of our cultural assets does not limit either access to culture or creative content, others across the world are keen to express themselves too.

Kurdistan cultural workers

Willy Donaghy ( who heads up our arts and entertainment division) and I were pleased to meet representatives of the Kurdistan Union of Cultural Workers at our offices this week. They need to secure technical training for their theatre and broadcasting crews. We'll do what we can to help them to connect with members of our arts community to progress their plans.

Next week, BECTU will be joining other union delegations at the TUC's conference in Liverpool. We have submitted motions on illegal file-sharing and on the future of the Mimimum Wage regulations. We'll let you know how we fare. We also expect to hear soon whether our bids for UMF (Union Modernisation Fund) support for some key initiatives have been successful.