Broadcasting: Recent Developments

Lord Young of Old Windsor Excerpts

Thursday 8th January 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Young of Old Windsor (CB)]

My Lords, I have three connections with broadcasting. First, in my 20s, as a budding scriptwriter with the BBC, I wrote an audio drama for “Doctor Who”—it is still available online, although mercifully few people have found it. Secondly, in my 30s, as a suit at ITV in the early 2000s, I worked on the merger of Granada and Carlton to form ITV plc. Thirdly, during my 20 years at Buckingham Palace, I dealt closely with, among others, my noble friend Lord Hall, who spoke so wisely, and the outgoing Director-General, Tim Davie, who will be much missed at the BBC. Those experiences taught me that British broadcasting has the best creative ecosystem in the world, one that is strengthened by a public service ethos at its heart. ITV drama is stronger because it competes with BBC drama; Times Radio is stronger because it competes with BBC radio; Britain is stronger because it has the BBC.

When the late Queen addressed the nation at the start of Covid, telling the country, “We will meet again”, Buckingham Palace did not call Netflix; we called the BBC, and 24 million people tuned in. The same was true of the globally popular James Bond Olympic sketch in 2012 and her tea with Paddington Bear in 2022. With the late Queen’s funeral and the King’s Coronation, part of the reason the world looked on so admiringly was because of the way they were broadcast. Yes, it was commercial broadcasters too, but the point stands: their coverage was stronger because they were up against the BBC. It is an incredibly expensive and sophisticated business doing live event broadcasting. Where are the likes of Netflix or Apple TV in these moments of national togetherness? The answer is that they just do not do that sort of thing.

I am not saying that the BBC is perfect—far from it. Like the Gruffalo, the BBC can look fearsome and lumbering, but strip away the mythology and there is something more vulnerable underneath. Its cultural antennae can sometimes seem too poorly tuned, too metropolitan and self-satisfied. It should concentrate more on reporting straight news and leave the investigative stuff to others; these ventures too often end in tears. But the BBC’s biggest challenge is greater still: increasingly, younger people just do not watch it. Old-fashioned multichannel scheduling is looking dated. One in eight households are now not paying the licence fee—one in eight. In five years, it could be one in four. The stakes are high, because when the next crisis comes—and it will—we will want something to turn to; something we trust, something that makes Britain stronger. Let us make sure that it is still there.