The BBC‘s new director general will review the UK broadcaster’s foreign content acquisitions strategy amid anger over the corporation outbidding commercial rivals for U.S. series.
Matt Brittin said he wished to examine whether the BBC is getting the “balance right” with buying in content, opening up the possibility that the broadcaster could cut its acquisitions budget.
Brittin’s comments follow concerns from ITV, Sky, and Channel 4 over the BBC using licence fee cash to outspend rivals for shows like Schitt’s Creek.
There was also frustration over the BBC’s decision to poach Warner Bros. Discovery-owned cartoon Scooby-Doo in a competitive situation last year.
Brittin was asked about the Scooby-Doo deal during a hearing held by UK Parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee on Wednesday.
“What’s the public service value in outbidding commercial broadcasters for things like Scooby-Doo when you could be investing in Britain?” asked Natasha Irons, a Labour member of Parliament.
Brittin, who is six weeks into the job, said less than 5% of the BBC’s content budget is spent on foreign acquisitions and that the shows can drive viewing to public service content, such as Newsround. “It’s part of a deliberate strategy to serve audiences,” Brittin said.
He added, however, that the BBC will examine acquisitions in the context of the corporation striving to save £500M ($670M) over the next three years. “That’s something I’m looking at reviewing as part of the cost savings,” Brittin said.
ITV has consistently raised the issue in recent years. In a written submission to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, ITV said: “We can see no reason for the BBC to use public funds to compete for content that would otherwise find a home on free-to-access commercial services.
“For this reason, we would urge the government to include a new rule in the charter preventing the BBC from using public service broadcasting expenditure for any non-UK acquired content except where the BBC is the purchaser of last resort, and for the BBC to be more transparent about the titles it acquires.”
In its submission, Sky added that the charter, the BBC’s operating agreement, should prevent iPlayer from “evolving into an aggregation platform for third-party content.”
