BBC Trust chairman Rona Fairhead says she can imagine 'an-online only BBC'
The BBC Trust chairman, Rona Fairhead, has said she can foresee a future when the BBC is online-only.
In a speech to the Society of Editors conference in London, Fairhead also discussed the future of the regional press and addressed concerns that local media was suffering at the hands of the BBC.
While recounting the development of digital media and how it has affected the industry, Fairhead predicted the end of traditional TV and radio. She said “the BBC is starting to imagine a time when TV and radio channels will start to fade away as audiences increasingly turn to the web to find the information, entertainment and education they want, live or on demand”.
She added that this “may not happen tomorrow or even in the next 10 years. But it’s no longer impossible to imagine an online-only BBC”.
Fairhead, who was chief executive of the Financial Times Group from 2006 until 2013, went on to say that “in the meantime, online will continue to play an ever-increasing role in delivering the BBC’s mission, including its mission to inform”.
Her comments follow months of discussions surrounding the future of the licence fee which now holds an increasingly uncertain future due to the declining numbers of people consuming media through TV and radio.
Earlier this week the BBC Trust published a report which found that the public would prefer a 'modernised' version of the licence fee which would take into account iPlayer as the main recipient of the funding.