大象传媒

The proposals have been drawn up by the 大象传媒 Executive following a challenge from the 大象传媒 Trust to the Director General to carry out a full scale review of the 大象传媒's strategy.

The Trust issued the challenge in July 2009 to address questions about the scope of the 大象传媒's activities, focusing on how the 大象传媒 can most effectively deliver its public service mission and meet audience needs and deliver value for money.

The proposals will now be subject to a 12 week consultation. The Executive's proposals can be found on the Strategy review page.

大象传媒 Trust Chairman Sir Michael Lyons said:

"The public pick up the bill for the 大象传媒 and it is right that it constantly evolves to meet their expectations. This strategy review is a key part of that process.

"We welcome the general direction of this report, although we will want to test it and consider how it is delivered. We are clear it heads towards a more disciplined and sharply focused 大象传媒. That will mean some difficult choices. But we will not shrink from those choices where they are in the interests of licence fee payers.

"The end result should be a 大象传媒 that is genuinely distinctive, genuinely open and transparent and genuinely public service."

In its original challenge to the Executive, the Trust set out five key questions:

• How can the 大象传媒 best maintain quality and distinctiveness?
• Where if necessary could its focus be narrowed and its scale reduced?
• What will a fully digital 大象传媒 look like?
• Can the 大象传媒 better define the 'public space' it provides?
• How can the 大象传媒 create most value from its scale?

In publishing the Executive's proposals today, the Trust has stressed that it supports the Director-General's vision of "a 大象传媒 focused on quality content and enduring values that keeps open a public space for all" and that it endorses the central proposals put forward for achieving that vision.

In its response the Trust has also set out the areas that it supports, those it will want to consider further and those where longer term thinking is needed.

The Trust will use the responses from the 12 week consultation and its own analysis to form a final view on what the future strategic framework for the 大象传媒 ought to be. It will aim to provide a provisional view of its conclusions in the summer and a final strategy in the autumn.

At this stage the Trust is consulting on the overall strategy for the 大象传媒. It is not formally considering any specific changes to services, including for example those proposed for the Asian Network or to 6 Music. Under its formal regulatory processes, to make such changes, the Trust would need first to receive applications from the 大象传媒. It would expect the Executive to put those forward only after the Trust has completed its own work and set out its final view on what the 大象传媒's future strategy ought to be.

Any specific changes to services would be subject to full regulatory scrutiny, including further rounds of consultation where appropriate.

Notes to editors

The strategy review page containing the Executive's proposals and the Trust's response can be accessed at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbctrust/our_work/strategy_review/

The list of areas that the Trust supports, those it will want to consider further and those where longer term thinking is needed can be accessed on pages vii-viii in the Trust commentary at the beginning of the report

The Trust's consultation process will involve a combination of:

• a public consultation website, also launched today
• structured consultation events
• discussion with the Trust's Audience Councils
• engagement with 大象传媒 staff
• analysis of existing audience research
• further audience research in specific areas of interest
• continuing work on our television services review, which is already addressing some of the key questions

The Trust's final statement of the 大象传媒's future strategy will incorporate:

• the key commitments it will require of the 大象传媒
• the changes it will ask the 大象传媒 Executive to make to fulfil each of those commitments; and
• the set of headline measures the Trust will use to determine whether or not the strategy is being delivered