The Broadcasting Bill 1989 and Act 1990 and the BBC

[ToasterMan]

Well documented about the Broadcasting Bill 1989 and Act 1990 is the eventual consolidation of the ITV network, the IBA being replaced by the ITC and Channel 4 becoming independent of ITV's advertising revenue from 1993.

However, once aspect that I feel gets overlooked is how dramatically they reshaped the BBC for the 21st century.

Under both laws, the Beeb was now required to commission no less than 40% of it's programming from independent producers, but even by the late 80's they'd already started doing so, what would have been unheard of in say, 1979, is nowadays thoroughly accepted.

When you look back at how the BBC responded to competition until the late 80's, it surprises me how resistant they were and a lot of their homegrown programmes certainly felt like they were stagnating compared to what the commercial rivals were offering.

For all the faults of Thatcher's government, the laws I feel were definitely necessary for the British media landscape to enter the 21st century and allowed for greater democracy in British broadcasting.

[reworP wehttaM]

When you look at it this way, it wasn't great, but it was absolutely necessary.

(Also from a cynic's point of view it feels as if Thatcher was playing favorites, but c'mon, it's the BBC, the world can see it's 3 blocks a mile away)

[Neil Jones]

Must be remembered the Peacock Report sowed the seeds of the 1990 Broadcasting Act, and then of course Death on the Rock was (it was said) the final catalyst to getting things moving.

I've never been able to find a copy of the Peacock Report online, though it was discussed in Parliament and documented in Hansard:
https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansa...ock-report

And of course Thatcher wanted the report to recommend scrapping the licence fee, and it didn't.

[James Martin]

Thatcher talks about this briefly in her autobiography. She was very keen to see the BBC funding model replaced, possibly with a subscription-based model. The Peacock report was intended to reccomend scrapping the license fee, but as we know instead came back with the blind auction for ITV franchises. She felt she needed to break what she saw as "the broadcasting establishment" and in particular felt that "new talent" was being kept out of the system.

The BBC would undergo some changes but again not until Major was in power. In came John Birt, internal markers and "Producer Choice." But there were also radical changes that needed doing, the most famous example being the repositioning of Radio 1. The station was, quite literally, too successful with talent that had frankly been there too long and gotten a bit too comfortable. The audience had grown with the station. Whilst the headline JICRAR and RAJAR figures would tell you ratings fell off a cliff, the numbers tuning in under the age of 25 soared, so it was actually a successful project albeit not without some pain.

However, in a stunning lack of joined-up thinking the displaced audience were homeless until Jim Moir revolutionised Radio 2, which really should have happened when Radio 1 was changed. Instead, the mid-90s were boom years for commercial radio, with new stations sprouting up like mushrooms. Sadly, a lot of these simply struggled with viability when Radio 2 got its act together, and the refreshed network started reclaiming that audience. The result was a struggle for an audience and advertising; the result of that is the commercial network we have today following multiple rounds of deregulation.

[Hatton Cross]

However, in a stunning lack of joined-up thinking the displaced audience were homeless until Jim Moir revolutionised Radio 2, which really should have happened when Radio 1 was changed. Instead, the mid-90s were boom years for commercial radio, with new stations sprouting up like mushrooms. Sadly, a lot of these simply struggled with viability when Radio 2 got its act together, and the refreshed network started reclaiming that audience. The result was a struggle for an audience and advertising; the result of that is the commercial network we have today following multiple rounds of deregulation.

Although to re-position the two main radio networks at the same time, would have been a tricky ask - with the anti BBC press having a go at Radio One heading downwards with audience demographic, and at the other end of the age scale, Radio Two ignoring the pensioners at the same time.

But, the plan was for some of the Radio One 'old guard smashey and nicey' jocks to move to Radio Two in seemless switches. I remember reading at one point Nicky Campbell was touted as a replacement for Jimmy Young - before NC decided to stick with speech broadcasting with Five Live.

The most obvious 'plan goes haywire' was the moving of Dave Lee Travis from weekends over on Radio One, to pretty much the same slots on Radio Two. But no-one tipped him off about that one, and then he opened his mic on a Sunday show to do a link where he mused that changes were being made that went against his principles - and thus ending his career with Radio One and burning the bridges to Radio Two before they were even built.

[James Martin]

However, in a stunning lack of joined-up thinking the displaced audience were homeless until Jim Moir revolutionised Radio 2, which really should have happened when Radio 1 was changed. Instead, the mid-90s were boom years for commercial radio, with new stations sprouting up like mushrooms. Sadly, a lot of these simply struggled with viability when Radio 2 got its act together, and the refreshed network started reclaiming that audience. The result was a struggle for an audience and advertising; the result of that is the commercial network we have today following multiple rounds of deregulation.

Although to re-position the two main radio networks at the same time, would have been a tricky ask - with the anti BBC press having a go at Radio One heading downwards with audience demographic, and at the other end of the age scale, Radio Two ignoring the pensioners at the same time.

But, the plan was for some of the Radio One 'old guard smashey and nicey' jocks to move to Radio Two in seemless switches. I remember reading at one point Nicky Campbell was touted as a replacement for Jimmy Young - before NC decided to stick with speech broadcasting with Five Live.

The most obvious 'plan goes haywire' was the moving of Dave Lee Travis from weekends over on Radio One, to pretty much the same slots on Radio Two. But no-one tipped him off about that one, and then he opened his mic on a Sunday show to do a link where he mused that changes were being made that went against his principles - and thus ending his career with Radio One and burning the bridges to Radio Two before they were even built.

It's on-record that Frances Line wasn't on-board with the idea - the overall director of radio left it to individual station heads. Line therefore declined to take on the displaced R1 talent, and stuck with the MOR format they had until 1997.

DLT wasn't actually sacked for resigning on-air, but instad for giving a tell-all interview to Piers Morgan despite given a final warning by Johnny Beerling who was still in charge at that point.