Booth / Bourne / Congdon In Focus: The Case for Privatising the BBC

The Case for Privatising the BBC
1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-0-255-36726-4
Verlag: London Publishing Partnership
Format: PDF
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 168 Seiten, Web PDF

The BBC holds a special place in the world of broadcasting. It derives its funding from a compulsory levy on people who may not even use the service. The protection it receives is justified on the grounds that it contributes to national welfare because of its role in ‘public service broadcasting’. The authors of this book argue that the BBC’s funding model is becoming untenable as technology changes. Furthermore, technology has also undermined the justification for government support for public service broadcasting.
There is also major concern about bias at the BBC. However, the book concludes that bias is not confined to the BBC, but is common to all media providers. The problem is not bias as such, but the link between the BBC and the government, together with the compulsory funding model which does not allow people to not fund content of which they disapprove.
Various options for reform are presented, concluding with a proposal for fullblown privatisation. It is concluded that this is the only way to realise the potential of an organisation that should be international in scope and which, under the current funding model, will become marginalised by media players operating worldwide across a range of platforms.
This book is essential reading for anybody involved in public policy or the economics of broadcasting.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Bourne, Ryan

Congdon, Tim

Davies, Stephen

Veljanovski, Cento

Booth, Philip

Über Autor(innen)

Booth, Philip
Philip Booth is Academic and Research Director at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and Professor of Finance, Public Policy and Ethics at St Mary’s University, Twickenham. He was formerly Professor of Insurance and Risk Management at the Cass Business School, where he also served as Associate Dean. He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Durham and a PhD in finance. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and of the Royal Statistical Society. Previously, Philip Booth worked for the Bank of England as an adviser on financial stability issues. He has written widely, including a number of books, on investment, finance, social insurance and pensions, as well as on the relationship between Catholic social teaching and economics.

Veljanovski, Cento
Cento Veljanovski is Managing Partner of Case Associates, and IEA Fellow in Law and Economics. He was previously Research and Editorial Director at the IEA (1989–91), and held academic positions at University College London (1984–87), Oxford University (1974–84) and other UK, North American and Australian universities. He holds several degrees in law and economics (BEc, MEc, DPhil). He has written many books and articles on media and broadcasting, industrial economics, and law and economics, including Selling the State: Privatisation in Britain (Weidenfeld: 1988) and, for the IEA, Freedom in Broadcasting (1988), The Economics of Law (1990; second edition, 2006) and, together with Cambridge University Press, Economic Principles of Law (2007).

Congdon, Tim
Tim Congdon is often regarded as the UK’s leading ‘monetarist’ economist, and was one of the foremost advocates of so-called Thatcherite monetarism in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He is currently a professor of economics at the University of Buckingham, where he has established a new research institute, the Institute of International Monetary Research (www.mv-pt.org). His books include Money in a Free Society (New York: Encounter Books, 2011).

Bourne, Ryan
Ryan Bourne is Head of Public Policy at the IEA and a weekly columnist for City AM. He has previously worked at both the Centre for Policy Studies and Frontier Economics, and has written widely on a range of economic issues. He has both MA (Cantab) and MPhil qualifications in economics from the University of Cambridge.

Davies, Stephen
Stephen Davies is Head of Education at the IEA. From 1979 until 2009 he was Senior Lecturer in the Department of History and Economic History at Manchester Metropolitan University. He has also been a Visiting Scholar at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio, and Program Officer at the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University in Virginia.