Section B - Case Scenario

(Answer ALL Questions in this section. The section is worth 40 marks)

In 2016, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) was named one of the worlds leading media organisation with 9 TV channels, 15 network radio stations, a local radio station, an online presence, and the World Service. The constitutional base for the BBC is the Royal charter, which sets out the public purposes of the BBC Trust and the executive board.

In the earliest days, BBC TV was a monopoly until 1955 and BBC radio until 1972 with a growing audience and a growing income, with the emphasis on producing quality output. With the loss of the monopoly, BBC capitalised on cost reductions, and to embed a culture of continuous improvement focused on two culturally distinct groups, namely the programme makers and the managers. This meant recruiting capable people and giving them a high degree of professional autonomy. The programme-makers are a relatively small group of people, to whom most of the other staff provide support.

Programme makers are outstanding individuals who create award winning documentaries, comment on major sporting events or host popular entertainment shows. They are well known public figures and often have more frequent access to senior politicians and business leaders than senior BBC managers. Their focus is on the quality of the programme, with little interest in budgets, schedules, or routine considerations.

On the other hand, managers, senior managers, and their subordinate staff working close to the top of staff functions and administrative staff, have other values. They give attention to external stakeholders and their interests and intentions towards the BBC. They value rules about budget and compliance, consistency with salary policy, ensuring expenses claims are in line with the rules and BBC policy. The managers closely monitor the publics concern on broadcasting and have a role to ensure value for money for their licence fee.

External change, especially more competition, has affected the relationship between the two culturally distinct groups. Marketing and scheduling have become more vital to ensure the best chance of attracting audience numbers, greatly increasing the role of programme makers who decide what programmes to make, together with the content and timing of schedules. They are also able to commission work from external programme-makers working for independent production companies, who now provide about a quarter of the total BBC output.

Since1955, BBC Television competes with four independent channels and many subscription channels - sometimes termed narrowcast as they cater for specific interests, such as ITV, Sky, Fox News and CNN. Another option for viewers is to download videos or computer games, vastly widening the range of alternatives available to them.

Social media offers consumers new ways to engage with content, enabling them to create and share it as well as receive it. They can contribute blogs, write online reviews, share videos, and belong to online communities designing and publishing content. Younger viewers watch less TV than older people - they like exploring YouTube, Facebook, and other social media platforms (Hendy, 2013).

They also like watching on-demand services and ignore TV with set times at which they can view content. This has led to a steady decline in the number of people watching TV production. Young audiences are keen to be involved in creating programmes, suggesting that entertainment is no longer a matter of professionals creating content for audiences - at least part of the audience like to feel they have a say in the programme and want to be involved in customising what is broadcast.

BBC has responded by creating interactive programmes, investing heavily in BBC online and promoting the iPlayer, which it sees as central to its response to the digital revolution.

Answer all questions

21. Identify and explain Porters five forces in the BBCs environment with examples from the case, in your answer, show the intensity of the threat either low, medium or high. (15 Marks)
22. Using Handys (1993) cultural types, discuss the four cultures expressed by the programme makers and the managers. (10 marks)
23. Discuss five marketing mix strategies that the BBC could use to recover from a steady decline in the number of people watching TV production. (15 marks)