Page 6 - 04_Bafta ACADEMY_Mark Thompson_ok

Academy First Person
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AGAINST A BACKGROUND OF MASSIVE STAFF CUTS, MARK THOMPSON, BBC DIRECTOR OF TELEVISION, OUTLINES HIS CONTROVERSIAL VISION FOR THE FUTURE
Television is changing and changing probably faster and more radically than at any time in its past. We all agree on that. So far, so good. Where we differ, some more vocifer- ously than others, is whether public service television should change too. Some believe that the whole point of public service television is that it does not change. They believe that the schedules of channels like BBC 1 are loaded with symbolic mean- ing and any change is certain to be for the worse, so they leap – usu- ally in print - onto the first sign of dumbing-down.
When I made a speech at the Banff International Festival a few weeks ago on this same theme, the headlines crossed the Rockies faster than a comet and with a similar attempt at destruction in their wake.
It’s true that they may, like Lord Copper, have a point. They are right when they cry that public broadcasters need to protect seri- ousness and creative diversity.
But that doesn’t mean that we have to embalm the current sched- ules, and bury the future alongside a sentimental attachment to the past. Continued on page 6
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