[00:03.80]1996 Passage2

[00:07.54]With the start of BBC World Service Television,

[00:11.17]millions of viewers in Asia and America

[00:14.19]can now watch the Corporation's news coverage,

[00:17.51]as well as listen to it.

[00:19.94]And of course in Britain listeners and viewers

[00:23.27]can tune in to two BBC television channels,

[00:27.19]five BBC national radio services

[00:30.33]and dozens of local radio station.

[00:33.87]They are brought sport, comedy, drama, music,

[00:38.41]news and current affairs,

[00:40.49]education, religion, parliamentary coverage,

[00:44.23]children's pragrammes and films

[00:46.62]for an annual licence fee

[00:48.43]of 83 pounds per household.

[00:51.86]It is a remarkable record,

[00:53.66]stretching back over 70 years

[00:56.48]--yet the BBC's future is now in doubt.

[01:00.41]The Corporation will survive

[01:02.00]as a publicly-funded broadcasting organization,

[01:05.53]at least for the time being, but its role,

[01:08.86]its size and its programmes are now the subject

[01:12.25]of a nation-wide debate in Britain.

[01:15.28]The debate was launched by the Government,

[01:17.81]which invited anyone with an opinion of the BBC

[01:21.55]--including ordinary listeners and viewers

[01:24.88]--to say what was good or bad about the Corporation,

[01:28.92]and even whether they thought it was worth keeping.

[01:32.76]The reason for its inquiry

[01:34.68]is that the BBC’s royal charter

[01:37.20]runs out in 1996 and it must decide

[01:41.04]whether to keep the organization as it is,

[01:44.07]or to make changes.

[01:46.48]Defenders of the Corporation

[01:48.40]--of whom there are many

[01:50.32]--are fond of quoting the American slogan

[01:53.24]"If it ain't broke, don't fix it."

[01:56.47]The BBC "ain't broke", they say,

[01:59.60]by which they mean it is not broken

[02:02.64](as distinct from the word 'broke',

[02:04.96]meaning having no money),

[02:06.77]so why bother to change it?

[02:09.69]Yet the BBC will have to change,

[02:12.72]because the broadcasting world around it is changing.

[02:16.56]The commercial TV channels

[02:18.58]--ITV and Channel 4-- were required

[02:22.05]by the Thatcher Government's Broadcasting Act

[02:24.67]to become more commercial,

[02:26.69]competing with each other for advertisers,

[02:29.21]and cutting costs and jobs.

[02:32.53]But it is the arrival of new satellite channels

[02:35.56]--funded partly by advertising and partly

[02:38.38]by viewers' subscriptions--which will bring about

[02:41.28]the biggest changes in the long term.