In the aftermath of the London Olympics three months ago, there was a clearer consensus in favour of the BBC than at any time in the past 30 years. The financial crisis had freed the BBC from the neoliberal swaddle in which its critics sought to wrap it. No longer did it have to justify itself merely as the solution to failures in a market. Instead, the BBC could make its own case: that it made great programmes more widely available and less expensively than could be done via any other funding method. The Olympics made this theoretical argument real. The Leveson inquiry reminded Britain of the benefits of an impartial part of the media.
The next director-general must make the case for the BBC all over again. Critics, for example the FT’s Janan Ganesh, argue that it must become smaller and cheaper. But this neglects how, in today’s media, the BBC’s role is more important than ever. There is a great danger that it will reach for solutions that will make another egregious editorial mistake more likely rather than less.
We are approaching a world in which the BBC may be as much an editor as a broadcaster – our guide to the best of culture, debate, news and entertainment. The iPlayer has positioned the BBC to become that editor but the potential for it to be a trusted guide and the changes that it will need to make to its programmes are only just starting to be explored.