BATTLE of THE BBC

It may be touted as the public broadcasting model for New Zealand to follow, but the UK’s favourite media outlet is facing an “existential threat”.

- ANDREW ANTHONY

Last year, the advisory group set up to look into the future of New Zealand broadcasting recommended that TVNZ and RNZ should be disestablished and merged. In their place the group recommended a new “globally recognised public media entity”.

At the time of writing, it appeared the Labour government had finally approved the plan. While there is still much work to do before the merger happens, it is almost inevitable that the BCC will come up in public discussions.

And indeed, in the Listener, industry stalwarts including Geoffrey Whitehead, the former chief executive of RNZ and Australia’s ABC, and broadcaster Tom Frewen, have already cited the BBC and its original mission to “inform, educate and entertain” as the prototype on which a merged public broadcaster should be founded in New Zealand.

The BBC is a truly global brand. It has more than 22,000 staff and boasts four TV channels, 40 local radio stations, the World Service, a streaming service, and a website that reaches 38 million people in the UK alone.

It has produced so many radio and TV programmes that no one knows the total figure, though it’s estimated to be somewhere between 10 and 20 million. That number includes, in this century alone, Fleabag, The Office, The Thick of It, Happy Valley, Planet Earth, Normal People and I May Destroy You. Throw in Fawlty Towers, Monty Python, The Singing Detective, Life on Earth and countless other classics from the 20th century, and you have an impressive roll call of some of the finest TV ever made.