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In a letter from the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Trust Chairman to the Director-General Mark Thompson, Sir Michael Lyons said:

"As we discussed on several occasions… the ´óÏó´«Ã½ faces a complex set of demands. It is therefore important for the Trust to set clear priorities and realistic expectations informed by our research."

The six public purposes, which the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is required to promote through all its output are:

• Sustaining citizenship and civil society
• Promoting education and learning
• Stimulating creativity and cultural excellence
• Representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities
• Bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK
• Emerging communications

Earlier this year, after consulting widely on draft priorities in each of these areas, the Trust highlighted "innovation and distinctiveness" as the single biggest issue for all audiences and published research showing there was demand for more new programmes and fresh ideas from ´óÏó´«Ã½ television. This remains the Trust's top priority and, to ensure a proper understanding of what people want in response, they commissioned some in-depth analysis, a summary of which is also published today.

In his letter, Michael Lyons said:

"What we have learned is that audiences do not want a radical change of direction from the ´óÏó´«Ã½: there is support for programming in every genre and they value the familiar ´óÏó´«Ã½ classics that no one else offers. It seems that, although there is more choice of channels across UK television as a whole, people nonetheless perceive there to be less choice of programmes and they are keen to see the ´óÏó´«Ã½ give greater prominence to the range of its high quality work. That said this is not just about perception. People do expect the ´óÏó´«Ã½ to avoid well-trodden paths and they are clear that their expectations of the ´óÏó´«Ã½ are different from other broadcasters."

Amongst several priorities singled out by different audience groups as important, and not necessarily in need of improved ´óÏó´«Ã½ performance, the Trust also highlighted news and current affairs, formal education for children, and serving audiences in the devolved nations and those in areas further away from the South-East, as top priorities for the ´óÏó´«Ã½.

Purpose Remits - background

The Trust is required to publish a remit in final form for each of the six Public Purposes before 31 December 2007. Drafts were published in January and the Trust consulted widely on what people think about how the ´óÏó´«Ã½ is performing in these six areas and how the public ranks the importance of each priority proposed.

Once the Trust has considered the Executive's response to the remits early in the New Year, it will consider what amendments are necessary to Service Licences and reissue them before spring.

Documents published today

In addition to the Chairman's letter to the Director-General, the Trust is also publishing four other documents today:

1. To assist the ´óÏó´«Ã½ in fulfilling the remits, a summary of the public's main priorities, including how different demographic groups rank importance and performance.

, PDF (90KB)

2. Summary of the research carried out by Blinc about audience perceptions of innovation and distinctiveness.

, PDF (78KB)

3. For the benefit of everyone who contributed to the consultation, the Trust is publishing a description of how the remits have been amended, the reasons for the changes and an explanation where the Trust has decided against making some other changes suggested by the consultation.

, PDF (254KB)

4. Final Purpose Remits.