BBC campaign goes political

BECTU is taking its campaign against BBC privatisation to the political party conferences this month.

Delegates to the TUC, and Liberal Democrats have already been lobbied by BECTU representatives, and a fringe meeting is planned at the Labour Party conference on Monday September 27th.

Details of Labour fringe meeting

Activities are also planned for Plaid Cymru and the Conservative party in October.

The union is aiming to convince decision-makers that the plan to privatise BBC Resources Limited, and 49% of BBC Worldwide, is bad news for licence payers, and is not necessary in order to fund the BBC's move into digital broadcasting.

At the moment the Gavyn Davies report, which proposed the sell-offs, is open for public consultation, and BECTU's entire membership has been asked to contact MPs throughout the UK, to explain why privatisation would be a bad move.

Among the arguments that members have been asked to put to MPs are:

• The cross-fertilisation of creative production talent and technical expertise is an important ingredient in the BBC's best work.
• BBC Resources Limited contains the country's biggest resource of skill, talent and dedication built up over many years.
• BBC Resources Limited is the key to the training of broadcast technicians for the entire industry and without it the industry as a whole will be damaged in the future.
• Without its own dedicated Resources staff the BBC would not be able to cover national events such as Royal Weddings, Royal Funerals, this year's millennium celebrations, etc, as well as the licence-payer would expect.
• The strength of the BBC brand is the major selling point of BBC Worldwide. Any dilution of the brand would affect the ability of various elements of the business to function effectively.
• The loss of certain areas of Worldwide (eg international books/videos) would affect the ability of the company globally to market a brand. Recently the loss of Teletubbies distribution rights in the USA was seen as a massive mistake. Privatisation raises the probability of conflict strategies from third party companies which would make BBC Worldwide's current five year strategy impossible to impose. The industry as a whole would be damaged in the future.
• The licence-payer has invested heavily in BBC Resources Limited and BBC Worldwide. Why should commercial companies now be allowed to benefit from this investment, bearing in mind that they have made no initial investment?
• Nothing in the Davies Committee report demonstrates how privatisation will benefit the licence-payer.