Outsourcing is the new normal

In coverage of the current furore at the BBC there is surprisingly little mention that the Panorama programme at the heart of the controversy was made by independent production company October Films, described on the company's website as "one of the most dynamic, imaginative and respected brands in the documentary sector". Similarly, another controversial BBC programme Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone was made by an independent production company, Hoyo Films.

Outsourcing is the new normal, not just in the broadcast sector but across the whole world of commerce: the global business process outsourcing market was valued at $261.9 billion in 2022. When I joined the BBC from university many, many years ago content was king, with the added value - in the BBC's case audience numbers - coming from content creation. A similar focus on adding value from content creation was found in the recorded music and print media sectors.

But today all that has changed dramatically. More added value now comes more from control of distribution than from content creation. This shift in value creation in the supply chain has resulted in the outsourcing - aka delegation - of content creation to independent production companies in the broadcast sector. And it has turned the music industry upside down as record labels involuntarily outsourced distribution and therefore revenue to intermediaries such as Spotify. It has also resulted in the death of quality journalism as news media has similarly surrendered content distribution to social media.

BBC Director General Tim Davie, who fell on his sword over the Panorama programme, has been with the BBC for 20 years, but he does not come from a creative background. He joined the BBC from PepsiCo where he was vice president of marketing and finance. Pepsi-Cola is supreme example of the primacy of distribution - more than one billion Pepsi products are consumed every day globally - over content - carbonated water plus additives. 

Allegations of systemic bias at the BBC may or not be true. Just as allegations of systemic bias at the Telegraph, which broke the Panorama controversy, or at, for instance GB News or Fox News, may or may not be true. It is undoubtedly true that the Trump speech edit in the Panorama programme was clumsy, unprofessional and unacceptable. And it looks very likely that a political agenda played its part in the downfall of Tim Davie and the BBC News CEO Deborah Turness. But a lack of quality management of outsourced content, together with an obsession with audience metrics which has resulted in click bait broadcast journalism - the sex-it-up Trump edit is a prime example - also played a not insignificant part. As well as other alleged problems, the current imbalance in the BBC between primacy of content distribution over quality of programme content needs to be addressed.

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