BBC: Good news today, 'tough choices' ahead

Strictly Come Dancing is one of the BBC's most popular programmes and successful exports

"This is not an expansionist BBC" is perhaps the key political line in Monday's announcements from director general Tony Hall, as he set out the corporation's plans ahead of the BBC's charter renewal in 2016.

This is a response to the accusation that the corporation is "imperial in its ambitions" made by Chancellor George Osborne (along with several newspapers).

Partnerships with cultural bodies, sharing news with local newspapers, opening up the iPlayer to third party content - the mood music is all about co-operation rather than competition.

And with £650m being cut from the BBC's income by shifting the cost of free TV licences for the over-75s on to the corporation, there is little scope for any expansion.

However, one of the first pieces of information to emerge from this review is the plan to increase broadcasting to North Korea, the Middle East and Russian-speaking populations.

The global broadcasting landscape is changing fast. Russia and China have been rapidly expanding their international services.

The corporation has also seen its services jammed and blocked in a number of countries. The BBC says it needs to respond especially in countries without a free press and in places that are in turmoil.

The World Service has a global reputation - but what does that mean to the next generation? The speed of change in technology and competition could quickly erode any broadcaster's audience.

The problem is the BBC is going to have to change and that is going to cost money.

The BBC's former Top Gear team are now working for Amazon

The technological tidal wave of the digital revolution is impossible to predict. Ten years ago as the BBC bid for its current charter, there were no smartphones or tablets, YouTube was only a few months old, Amazon was essentially a bookseller.

Quite what any media organisation needs to do to stay relevant in such a shifting landscape is anyone's guess. As Armando Iannucci said in his recent speech in Edinburgh about media experts: "Their guess is as good as yours, only more expensive."

Apple is challenging Radio One, Amazon has Top Gear's team, Netflix is outbidding the BBC in drama.

In the BBC's "Blue Room" - a store of technology about to be released on to the marketplace - you can play with Amazon's voice-activated media player, Facebook's virtual reality system, Oculus Rift and Apple's carplay radio stations.

'Ride two horses'

The BBC's prediction is that over the next 10 years its income will shrink from 20% of UK TV revenues to 12%.

The plans for bigger and bolder drama and giving people the chance to "binge" watch is a recognition of the new competitive environment.

The BBC's problem is looking after its core audience and responding to a technological transformation. "Having to ride two horses" is the phrase used in Tony Hall's speech.

Take news for example.

Around five million people a night still watch the Six O'Clock News, but for a growing part of the audience the news is a phone-only service.

The future, Tony Hall says, is to move from "rolling" to "streaming" - the question is how long you keep the "rolling" part going when you need to fund new "streaming" services.

Older audiences still want services such as the News Channel and they are heavy consumers of the BBC and a growing part of the population. Younger, digital first consumers expect something different.

Serving two such radically different audiences will take money and the BBC has just taken a £650m cut. Those "tough choices" mentioned in the speech is the theme that has not yet been announced.

'Friendly' persona

"We will inevitably have to either close or reduce some services," said Lord Hall.

This speech was the BBC showing its friendly co-operative forward-facing persona. The question of which services it has to close or change radically is the topic that was left hanging in the air.

The language of the speech about the BBC being a "curator" or a "platform" for British content was aimed at organisations and politicians who see the broadcasting landscape being utterly transformed by largely American technology companies.

This, however, is far from the end of the debate about the future of the BBC. Expect more announcements in the weeks to come.

Today was the good news, trying to make the positive case for the BBC - the consequences of cuts and technological change will come later.