IV.

The 1980s and 1990s

The 1980s and 1990s saw yet more rapid technical change, increased competition, and, for the BBC, an ideological shift in government attitudes: the Conservative government of 1979 to 1990 under Margaret Thatcher challenged the corporation’s basic principles, while satellite and cable transmission opened up the possibility for more channels and, it is hoped, more choice. The BBC was at first invited to develop two direct-broadcasting-by-satellite (DBS) channels, without any government assistance, and a fierce debate developed as to the practicalities. The plan fell through after the expenditure of much effort and money, with the highly competitive, commercial Sky Channel (now British Sky Broadcasting, or BSkyB) becoming the eventual main provider of satellite television in Britain.

The BBC continued to take the initiative with the start of Breakfast Television in 1983, just ahead of ITV, alongside its by-now-accepted high-level and wide-ranging existing output.

Challenging programs such as “Tumbledown,” reflecting on the Falklands War, and “Real Lives: On the Edge of the Union,” concerning terrorism in Northern Ireland, angered the already hostile government and 1987 became a cataclysmic year for the BBC. Its headquarters in Glasgow were raided by the police concerning another contentious series and the director general, Alasdair Milne, was removed.

In the first half of the 1990s, under a new chairman of governors, Marmaduke Hussey (appointed in 1986), and new directors general Michael Checkland (from 1987) and then, from 1993, John Birt, the BBC underwent a rapid and painful transformation. The staff was radically slimmed down, and new procedures for program-making, such as “producer choice,” a kind of internal market, put in place. Such changes, comparable to those in other public sector institutions, proved highly unpopular, particularly with older staff, many of whom were let go.

The management, however, achieved a renewal of its charter for ten years from 1996. Also, a license fee increase allowed the BBC to enter the new field of digital broadcasting. In spring 1997, partly in order to concentrate resources, the BBC was reorganized into five new bi-media (radio and TV) directorates: BBC Broadcast, BBC News, BBC Production, BBC Resources, and BBC Worldwide. No distinction was made between radio and television within these directorates. A deal regarding a digital television venture between BBC Worldwide and Flextech Television, whereby Flextech takes care of distribution and general management and the BBC retains editorial control, went into effect in 1996. BBC News 24, a 24-hour digital news service, was launched in November 1997. Further digital broadcasting services, BBC Choice and BBC Parliament, began in 1998, with BBC Knowledge being launched the following year. A pilot version of BBC Online, an official BBC Web site, was created toward the end of 1997, and a year later obtained government permission to become the third broadcast medium alongside television and radio.