The referendum result of June 24 made millions of people in Britain sit up and think about whether our most important public institutions are fit for purpose. That includes our broadcasters. At a time when the UK appears to be increasingly polarised, to what extent can our television ecology claim to retain the trust, support and loyalty of an unsettled population and fragmenting audiences?
The inquiry into the future of public service television chaired by Lord Puttnam, has published its final report in these very challenging circumstances. We have organized public events around the UK, received high-quality submissions from broadcasters, academics and civil society groups and had conversations with key stakeholders and one thing has become clear: that there is very little agreement on many of the key issues. There isn’t a consensus on the pace of change, on the impact of current developments, on whether television should (or can) be "impartial", on the measures needed to secure public service television, or even on whether we need public service television any more.
Perhaps that is the key: that dissensus, not consensus, is the new normal and that we better get used to the absence of agreement. And perhaps that is one of the failings of our most popular broadcasters: that they have for too long gravitated towards a perceived ‘centre ground’ when this ‘centre ground’ was coming unstuck; that, instead of promoting a multitude of voicesand formats and taking risks, they have too oftenclung to the familiar and acceptable.
