BBC invited to bid for Five news contract

http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/ThisWeek.News.View.aspx?ContentID=10342

How would this work ? Would the licence fee be used to fund a news service on a commercial channel or would it be provided by a separate arm of the BBC ? Anyone care to enlighten me on how it would work ?

I think it could be BBC Worldwide or one of the other BBC commercial arms that would take on the Five news contract in the event of it happening. This arm would then use the money Five pay in accordance with the contract to fund a news service for Five.

This would provide the cost for things like facilities, equipment and dedicated correspondents and presenters, and could be a contribution to BBC Newsgathering so they can use newsgathering-produced reports.

Plus, the BBC also provides a news service for S4C in Wales, not sure how exactly that works though.

Basically if a company is not employed (or a station doesn't do its own newsgathering) then it is in fact the BBC's obligation to provide a news service for the channel as their role as the state broadcaster.

I think the case of S4C is that the BBC do actually receive payment for the production and newsgathering in the same as any other BBC programmes that appear on S4C. It is/was after all a joint effort between the BBC and HTV to shift all their Welsh programming onto one channel.

But that's not the case here, they are being invited to tender for the contract, in the same way that Sky and ITN would do. I'm sure Sky & ITN would both be bidding for the contract, and so on the basis of your description, the BBC would only be used as a very last resort.

We are dealing with something different here, and quite unprecedented I would suggest.

Not strictly on topic I know, but I think the news output the BBC provide to S4C~ is part of the 10 hours of programming per week the BBC is obliged to provide to the station.

This is funded by the licence fee, which the whole of the country pays, but it's an almost negligible amount.

I agree - it does seem strange but as has been said I'm sure the commercial arm of the BBC would be used for this venture. BBC World actually works in much the same way - BBC News provide the news bulletins but BBC Worldwide are in charge of the programmes and other parts of the channel. I believe BBC Worldwide funds BBC News for the bulletins on the channel but it just seems like red tape to me!

I doubt the licence fee would be used in any way - there would be uproar but no doubt that this could be seen as the BBC receiving income for BBC News from a commercial source and not directly from the licence fee - something which could be highly controversial. The only way around it would be that they employ a completely new set of a people and be seperate from the main BBC News operation. Else - whichever way you look at it...BBC News would be funded in part by commercials and some correspondents which are on the payroll on normal BBC News programmes (funded by the licence fee) would be contributing to the programme and therefore indirectly using the licence fee money.

Mediaweek online quote.

“The BBC has been asked to submit a rival bid for Five’s news bulletins, in a move that will raise questions about its non-commercial status and will also place it in direct competition with ITN, which currently hold the contract to provide the bulletins to the channel.”


This seems too good to be true. As a regular viewer of Five and BBC news this would

be a marriage very much made in ' news heaven' .

To Five it would give them access to the largest news gathering operation in the world and even more scope to develop their individual style.

To the BBC an opportunity to deliver news of a more commercial style that moves away from the cheesy travelogue style of say the Six pm news, a news that is less restricted by the diktats of the corporation.

If this happened and it is a very unlikely if, I would hope they could keep some of the presenters and reporters who are working for Five.

I remember reading on this forum that if ITV/Channel 4/Five lost its news service it would have to be provided by the BBC. Is there any truth in this?

Five would pay the BBC for the programmes, just in the same way that it now pays ITN. No license payers money would be used because Five would only use what it pays for - just like now at ITN.

It's not entirely without precedent, BBC World is a commercial channel and that pays BBC news to produce it's news bulletins. Also Five has just started to use BBC Broadcast Ltd to provide it's emergency playout facilities (basically if the current ive transmission centre in Central London goes tits up, they'll bung all their tapes into bags and hop onto the Central line to White City)

If you think about it it's really not that different to a programme being made by an independant producer. In this case, the BBC would effectivly become the Independant. It's not dissimilar to YTV making shows for Channel 4 I don't think...

I think Sky News is more likely to provide the news for Five in the near future. Five already show Sunrise every morning.

There is another alternative. If five were to reduce their UK News bias they could buy a BBC World Bulletin like many other broadcasters and airlines do.