The BBC is the heart of the UK’s media system. Yet despite the BBC being publicly funded, the public have no control over how it works.
Politicians have too much power to pressure the BBC, and it is struggling to compete against global streaming services and social media companies. Without radical reform, the BBC faces a bleak future of dwindling audiences and the loss of public trust.
By the end of 2027 the government is required to renew the BBC’s Royal Charter, which will set the terms of how the BBC operates for the next decade. The Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy, has said she supports mutualising the BBC, with new structures for “genuine public representation and participation”.
This briefing explains how to transform the BBC into a new kind of institution: a public service mutual. Mutual organisations are run for the benefit of their members, and members are actively and directly involved in its operations.
As a public service mutual, the BBC will belong to all of us by right. We will all become BBC members — active and direct participants in its mission to inform, educate, entertain and connect.
Democratic mutualisation of the BBC requires that all members have two new powers, which together secure public representation and participation:
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