Statement: Commissioning for the BBC’s Public Services

Statement published 11 February 2019

The BBC’s Mission is to inform, educate and entertain audiences and to promote its Public Purposes across a range of Public Services. To enable it to show the most creative, highest quality and distinctive output, it commissions programmes and other materials from both the BBC and external producers.

Over the course of the Charter period, the BBC has to commission an increasing amount of content following a competitive process, and to ensure that this process is fair, reasonable, non-discriminatory and transparent. It is Ofcom’s role to monitor the BBC’s compliance and enforce those requirements, and, if necessary, to impose additional requirements to protect fair and effective competition when the BBC commissions content for the Public Services.

This statement sets out Ofcom’s decision on whether additional regulation is needed in this area.

What we have decided – in brief

1. We are not imposing any new substantive requirements with respect to commissioning for the public services in the BBC’s Operating Framework, because the BBC is already subject to a requirement to ensure fair, reasonable, non-discriminatory and transparent (FRNDT) commissioning under the Agreement.
2. We are introducing guidance setting out the factors we would consider in assessing whether the BBC has met its obligations regarding FRNDT commissioning in the event of an investigation.
3. The BBC has agreed to publish and provide Ofcom with additional information which will allow us to undertake our monitoring role and we are therefore not imposing any new reporting requirements.