BBCGroup Annual Reportand Accounts 2019/20

BBCGroup Annual Reportand Accounts 2019/20

Presented to Parliament by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture,
Media and Sport by Command of Her Majesty

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About the BBC
02 Informing, educating andentertaining the UK in 2019/20
04 Coronavirus: informing,
educating, and entertaining in
lockdown
Strategic report
06 Statement from the Chairman
08 Director-General’s statement
09 Delivering our strategy in
2019/20
16 – Audience performance andmarket context
18 Delivering our public purposes
20 – Impartial news andinformation
22 – Learning for people of all ages
24 – Creative, quality anddistinctive output
30 – Reflecting the UK’s diverse
communities
40 – Reflecting the UK to the world
42 Finance and operations
51 Commercial operations
52 – BBC Studios
56 – BBC Global News
57 – BBC Studioworks
58 How we operate
59 – Our people
64 – Consultations
65 – Audience engagement report
66 – Environmental sustainability
67 – Charitable work
68 – Partnerships and collaboration

Contents

Contents
Governance report
70 BBC Board
71 Executive Committee
71 Next Generation Committee
72 Corporate Compliance Report
73 Remuneration Report
81 Pay disclosures
89 NAO opinion on pay
disclosures
90 Nominations Committee
Report91 Audit and Risk Committee
Report95 Risks and opportunities
103 Viability Statement
104 Commercial Holdings
Board Report
105 Editorial Guidelines andStandards Committee Report
107 Nations Committee Reports
109 Fair Trading Report
111 Independent Fair Trading
Assurance Report
112 Statement of Board
responsibilities
113 Performance against public
commitments
136 Performance data packs
157 NAO opinion on Nations’data packs

Financial statements
159 Certificate and Reportof the Comptroller and
Auditor General
171 Consolidated income statement
171 Consolidated statement ofcomprehensive income/(loss)
172 Consolidated balance sheet
173 Consolidated statement ofchanges in equity
173 Consolidated cash flow
statement
174 Key themes for the BBC
175 Notes to the accounts

06p

Strategic Report

Additional information
222 Equality Information Report
260 Index
261 Copyright and photographer
credits
262 Contact informationand feedback

69

p

Governance Report158p

Left: BBC One’s Seven Worlds, One Planet
Above: Ellie Bamber in BBC One’s The Trial of Christine Keeler

Financial Statements

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

1

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Informing, educatingand entertaining the
UK in 2019/20
It has been an exceptional and unprecedented year for BBC
News; record-breaking audiences have come to BBC iPlayer
and BBC Sounds; and BBC Studios has had an outstanding
year delivering British creativity to UK and international
audiences. These pages highlight just some of the key ways
the BBC delivered its mission – to inform, educate andentertain – in 2019/20.

38%

year-on-year increase inaverage weekly viewing
minutes on iPlayer.

3.6m

74%

iPlayer transformed

Boosting BBC Sounds

BBC iPlayer ended the year on a recordbreaking high, with 4.8 billion requests
to stream programmes in 2019/20.
Programmes are now available for at least
12 months (see pages 11-12 and 25 for moreon how iPlayer has transformed this year).

BBC Sounds has taken off this year, ending
significantly ahead of our all-audiencetargets for users. Users have taken
advantage of live stations, music mixes
and a surge in listening to top-quality BBC
podcasts, including hits such as The Missing
Cryptoqueen, That Peter Crouch Podcast and
Tunnel 29 (see pages 13 and 25 for more on
our distinctive programming this year).

Informing audiencesin complex times

User accounts using BBC Sounds
weekly at the end of 2019/20.

2

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

of UK adults say that the BBC iseffective at informing people in
the UK (ineffective 9%).

It has been an exceptional andunprecedented year for BBC News, covering
the last months of Theresa May’s period in
office, the election of Boris Johnson, a UK
General Election, the Brexit debate and ourdeparture from the EU. We ended the year
reporting on the flooding in February andthen the global outbreak of coronavirus.
The BBC is named most often by far whennews consumers cite the source they are
most likely to turn to for impartial news
coverage (see pages 13 and 20 for more onwhat audiences think of our news coverage).

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About the BBC

55:45

ratio of men to women reported in our
pay disclosures on page 81, from 76:24
in 2016/17.

A diverse andinclusive BBCThis year, our pioneering 50:50 projectto ensure equal representation of men
and women on screen has been adopted
by more than 60 organisations in 20
countries. We appointed June Sarpongas our first ever Director of Creative
Diversity and we committed to the biggest
financial investment to on-air inclusionin the industry – prioritising £100 millionof our existing commissioning budget
for new content over three years (from2021/22-2023/24) towards diverse andinclusive programming (see pages 30-39
and from page 59 for more on what wehave been doing to make our workplaces
as diverse and inclusive as they can be).

18.5m

Gavin & Stacey
The audience for the Gavin & Stacey 2019
Christmas special across all screens. It was
the biggest scripted show of the decade.

1

No.

for impartial news coverage
51% of news consumers name the BBC as
the source they are most likely to turn tofor impartial news coverage – up from 44%
in 2018/19 and far ahead of the next
nearest provider (Sky News, 7%).
Source: Ipsos MORI

9%

year-on-year growth in EBITDA
for BBC Commercial Holdings.

BBC Studios –the best of British
BBC Studios had its highest-ever level ofcontent investment and its best year forcontent sales. Along with the acquisition ofUKTV, this meant that Studios delivered
record sales and profit. In its second year
as a merged business, delivering the very
best of British creativity to audiencesin the UK and around the world, theseresults show success in transforming BBC
Studios’ culture and operations, achievinga strong position alongside other global
players. And following its success in North
America, we launched BritBox with ITV
in the UK in November – a new streaming
service, home to the largest collectionof British boxsets (see pages 51-57 formore on our commercial operations).

468

m

Global weekly reach
including BBC Newsand BBC Studios.

BBC Two’s Travelling Blind

Source: BBC Global Audience Measure.

07:30h:m
A global BBC
This year, our total global audience grewby 11% to reach 468 million across ournews, English language, foreign language
and commercial services. And ourbrand continues to grow internationally,
seen in the success of BritBox in North
America and the performance of hit
shows like Seven Worlds, One Planet
across the globe (see pages 34 and 40
for more on our global operations).

91%

UK adult reach
Percentage of UK adults who use BBC
television, radio or online per week on
average. 2018/19: 91%.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

UK 16-34s spent more media time with
the BBC’s services on average per week
in 2019/20 than any other brand.

1in 6

proportion of the Scottish population
tuning in per week on average to the
BBC Scotland channel.

Growing the BBC
Scotland channel
In its first full year of operation, the new
BBC Scotland channel has been a real
success. It reached more viewers in Scotland
than any channel outside BBC One, BBC
Two, ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 per
week on average (see pages 33 and 144 formore on our performance across the UK).

3

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Coronavirus:
informing,
educating andentertaining in
lockdown
As the national broadcaster, we have played a crucialrole during the coronavirus crisis. This special reportdemonstrates how at a time of national need, we
refocused all of our resources – channels, stations
and output – around the most pressing needs of ouraudiences. From trusted news and information toeducational support, from arts and culture to
distraction and escapism, the public came to us inhuge numbers in response.

94%

UK adults’ pan-BBC reach in theweek social distancing began
The public’s response to the BBC inthis period has been extraordinary.
As social distancing began in the UK
in the third week of March, pan-BBC
reach amongst UK adults peaked at
94% – and 86% of those aged 16-34.

1

No.

news source for trustworthy
coronavirus information
48% of news consumers namethe BBC as the most trustworthy
news source of information about
the pandemic, well ahead of thenext nearest (Sky News on 8%).
Source: Ipsos MORI

Global initiative to combat
disinformation during the crisis
An industry collaboration of major news
and tech organisations worked together
to put in place a shared alert system torapidly identify and stop the spread ofharmful coronavirus disinformation.

Keeping audiences informed
BBC News played a key role in providing
audiences with trusted and accurate
information, refocusing its output toprovide a continuous news service on
television, radio and online. In the firstweek of social distancing, nine in ten UK
adults consumed BBC News across all
platforms. The same was true for eight inten young adults (16-34 year olds).

The Queen broadcasts to the nation
The Queen’s televised address to thenation, on 5 April, was watched on the dayby 14.1 million on BBC One and a further
756,000 on the BBC News Channel.

 For more information on how we managed risks
associated with coronavirus please see page 95

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BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

81m

Record breaking UK browsers to
BBC News Online
A record-breaking 81 million UK
browsers came to BBC News
Online in the week of 16 March.

84%of UK adults came to the BBC the
day the lockdown was announced
by the Prime Minister, that’s closeto 45 million people
During lockdown across AprilJune, the BBC has seen around 24%of all UK video, audio and online
time spent by the average adult in a
week. By contrast, Netflix is around
4% of that time.

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About the BBC

1.1mcontacts to BBC local radio’s
coronavirus helpline by theend of June 2020.

Sir Lenny Henry presenting
The Big Night In on BBC One

Children in Need
and Comic Relief
come together for
The Big Night In

Bringing arts andculture into homes
with Culture in
Quarantine

The Big Night In on BBC One (and The
Big Day In across BBC network radio
stations and local radio) raised over £70
million at the end of April, including
the Government contribution to match
funding, which is being split between
BBC Children in Need, Comic Relief andthe newly formed National Emergencies
Trust. A special charity single, Times Like
These, featuring new music talent, wasreleased on the day, reaching No.1 in the
UK Singles Chart in April, with all UK net
profits going to The Big Night In appeal.

BBC Arts’ Culture in Quarantine wascreated in record time with the supportof Arts Council England and numerous
other funding and producing bodies
to create a vibrant showcase for arts
during the crisis. At a time when British
culture had to close its doors, Culture in
Quarantine helped keep the arts alive in
people’s homes and gave British culture an
audience that couldn’t be there in person.

Keeping communities connected
The Make a Difference campaign was
launched to link up those in need ofhelp with those who could provide it.
It is the biggest response the BBC hasever had to a local radio campaign.
Meanwhile, the 18:30 local evening
news programmes regularly topped theratings during the lockdown period on
any given weekday.

Helping people feel connected and positive
From the end of March to the middle ofMay, BBC One’s daytime programme
HealthCheck UK Live provided informationand company, to keep viewers upbeat
whilst in isolation. Over a million people
tuned in every day, on average.

55m

BBC iPlayer requests for Normal
People from the end of April toearly July
There were 16.2 million requests
in the first eight days alone, making
it the biggest drama launch on
BBC iPlayer ever.

Culture in Quarantine’s The Swan

2bn

37.7m

Record breaking figures
for iPlayer
BBC iPlayer had almost two billion
requests during lockdown from lateMarch to early July and has broken
records for best-ever days in quick
succession. The service has played
a vital role in these unprecedented
times, not only allowing people tocatch up on the latest news but also
giving them a place to escape into a
series of their choice.

Record number of weekly iPlayer
requests for CBeebies and CBBCOver the course of the first week ofschool closures (23-29 March),
CBBC programming was requested
a record 10.6 million times andCBeebies a staggering 27.1 million.
That’s 93% more requests than
CBBC has seen in an average week
in the last 12 months, and 49%
more for CBeebies.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Educating the nation’s
young people
The biggest push on educationin our history brought 14 weeks
of educational programmes andlessons to every household in the
country – whatever the child’s age.

5

Return to contentsStatement from the Chairman

Statement fromthe Chairman
These have been testingtimes, but this report once
again highlights the central
role of the BBC in British
national life.

This Annual Report and Accounts covers ayear which came to a close just as thecoronavirus health emergency took hold.
On behalf of the whole BBC Board, I wantto thank all of our staff for the
extraordinary flexibility, dedication, andresilience they have shown throughout
this period. They have overcome major
editorial and operational challenges tokeep BBC services up and running. They
have ensured that we continued to deliver
all aspects of our mission and to play anessential role for audiences during a timeof great national need. The contribution
made by the BBC during the coronavirus
crisis is summarised on pages 4-5.

well placed for success in the digitalage. His achievements serve as anotherreminder that the task of leading the
BBC requires a breadth of skills andattributes that few possess, as well as deep
commitment to public service principles.
That is why the Board is delighted tohave been able to appoint a successor, in
Tim Davie, who as CEO of BBC Studios
has demonstrated that he is more thancapable of taking up the baton.
The new Director-General inherits a BBC
whose priority remains serving the dayto-day needs of all audiences. What wehave achieved over the last six months
must continue; from providing essential,
trusted news and information, to helping
educate our nations’ children, to offering
audiences much-needed escapism.
Our education mission, in particular, hascome to the forefront. In just a few shortweeks, the BBC delivered the biggest
educational offering in our history: a Bitesize
Daily package of lessons and original
programmes to ensure that every household,whatever their child’s age, had access tocurriculum-supported learning. The numberof browsers coming to BBC Bitesize online
was over five million in the first week ofthe summer term alone, three times theequivalent figure from the previous year.

Meanwhile, BBC Sounds is now firmly
established as the home of all BBC radio andaudio, exceeding all targets in its first fullyear – including those for younger audiences.
And at the end of 2019, the Board approved
bold plans for BBC News to modernise ournews services in order to serve audiences
better. Events during the year – from the
UK General Election, to the February floods,
to the onset of the coronavirus crisis – allunderlined the vital importance of trusted,
impartial news and information, but theyalso showed just how quickly audiences
are making the shift to digital behaviours.
The next few years will define the long-term
future of the BBC. In part, this is becauseof the continued growth of well-funded
competitors in the global marketplace.
In part, it is because there are importantmilestones ahead: Ofcom’s review of PublicService Broadcasting; the setting of thelicence fee for the second half of the Charter,
effective from April 2022; the mid-term
review of governance and regulation; and,the Charter itself coming to an end in 2027.
There are also immediate issues to address,
particularly in respect of the licence fee.
In 2015 the Government made clear they
intended to stop funding the TV licenceconcession for over-75s. Responsibility
for determining the policy, and thenpaying for it, was passed to the BBC. At
the time this arrangement was agreed
between Government Ministers and theBBC, there was public recognition byboth parties that reform was likely.

But as well as boosting audiences for
BBC services, the crisis has accelerated
many of the global market trends andtechnological challenges we are facing.
Our response must accelerate in turn.

Following a wide public consultation inwhich the majority of respondents favoured
reform, we announced our proposed policy
in June 2019. The policy, introduced lastmonth, requires households to pay; but
provides a concession to those over 75 who
are on pension credit. We believe this policy
is fair: it helps those over 75 who are thepoorest in our community, and for whomsocial isolation is often a problem, whilst
avoiding the significant cuts to BBC services
which would have been necessary had we
extended the concession to all, whether they
could afford to pay or not. We will, of course,
implement this policy with the utmost care.

During his tenure, Tony has overseena reinvention of the BBC that leaves it

This report demonstrates the considerable
progress we have made in reinventing the
BBC and advancing our digital strategy.
Pages 9-15 show how we have continued
to improve our services for audiences. We
have, for example, transformed iPlayer,with changes approved by the Board thisyear meaning that programmes are now
available for at least 12 months. The result
has been a record-breaking year, with more
people than ever signed in and a total of 4.8
billion requests to stream programmes.

A second licence fee issue relates
to the Government consultation on
decriminalisation for non-payment. We
have drawn the Government’s attention
to the independent report commissioned
by Ministers in the run-up to the 2017
Charter, written by David Perry QC, inwhich he looked at a full range of options
and ultimately found the current system
to be the fairest and most effective,
and so recommended that it should bemaintained. Perry also calculated that the6

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

This Annual Report also covers a period
for the entirety of which Tony Hall was the
Director-General. I would like to express
the Board’s great thanks to Tony for his
outstanding leadership throughout his
seven years at the helm, and at no time morethan during the last few months of national
crisis. He arrived to an organisation in greatneed of stability and reform, and he leaves
with the BBC having demonstrated theessential role it can play at the heart of ournational life. Tony personifies the integrity,
decency and creativity that makes the
BBC special and he will be much missed.

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Strategic Report

The BBC must always remain
open to a debate on its future, but
it must be part of a proper
conversation with audiences.

cost of decriminalisation to the BBC was
likely to be at least £200 million a year.
The BBC must always remain open to adebate on its future, but it must be partof a proper conversation with audiences.
Any debate must start by asking whatkind of BBC our audiences want, and thenask how best to deliver and fund it.
All this takes place against the backdropof major financial pressures on the BBC.
Going into the coronavirus crisis, theBBC already had 31% less to spend on
UK public services than if the licence fee
had risen with inflation since 2010.
Now the severe impact of the coronavirus
crisis on our commercial operations, alongwith the delayed introduction of our new
over-75s’ scheme and hit to our licence fee
income, has led to a substantial shortfall. It
means we have had to set a new, additional,
savings target for the current year of £125
million, with more to come next year. Thatis on top of the challenge of reaching thesignificant savings we had long factored
into our financial plans for 2020/21, in a
tougher than ever market environment.
In this context, the question of how the BBC
can maximise its commercial revenues
becomes even more pressing. BBC Studios
will have an increasingly important roleto play. This year it had its highest level ofcontent investment and its best year forcontent sales. Along with the acquisition ofUKTV, this meant that Studios delivered
record sales and profit. Meanwhile, thelaunch, with ITV, of a new subscription
streaming service – BritBox – was anotherlandmark moment for the BBC.
Another major priority in the months ahead
will be to support the creative industries’
recovery across the UK following a periodof unprecedented disruption and challenge.
The BBC has always been the cornerstone ofBritain’s creative strength – the lead investor
in, and platform for, British voices and talentacross the UK. We acted quickly to support
the sector with an extensive packageof measures during lockdown. We willcontinue to do our utmost to help maintainthe health and viability of our worldleading producers in all parts of the UK.
These have been testing times, but thisreport once again highlights the central roleof the BBC in British national life. We remain
the most-used UK media organisation,
reaching over 90% of adults and over
80% of children in the UK on average per
week. We remain by far the most trusted
source of news and information. Our
response to the coronavirus crisis has
strengthened still further our relationship

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

with audiences, including young people,
who come to us for everything frominformation, to education, to entertainment.
Abroad, meanwhile, our audience hasgrown to a record 468 million people
outside the UK every week. The reach of
the BBC World Service is up 11% on 2019,and overall our international news services
rank amongst the very first for trust andreliability. It’s a reminder that the BBC is
without question one of Britain’s strongest
and best-known brands, synonymouswith quality and accuracy worldwide.
This Annual Report tells the story of a
BBC that faces considerable challenges
but remains of huge value for theUK, at home and abroad, and wellplaced to succeed in the future.

Sir David Clementi
Chairman
2 September 20207

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Director-General’s Statement

DirectorGeneral’sStatement

I am delighted to be taking up
the role of Director-General of
the BBC. It’s a great honour tobe leading an organisation
which commands such
admiration and respect all
around the world, and plays
such a central role in British
culture and democracy.

The past few months have served as a
powerful reminder of just how muchthe BBC matters to all of us, and ourfamilies. The programmes and services
we provide for audiences have never been
more relevant, important or necessary.

dedication, flexibility and resourcefulness
in reshaping them around the mosturgent requirements of our audiences.
Looking ahead, it is clear that the BBC willneed to focus even more sharply on how tocontinue to serve all audiences in this fastmoving world. This report demonstrates
how much great work has been done, but it
also highlights that we will need to keep up
the momentum of reform. In an increasingly
tough financial environment, we know
we need to set ourselves the objective of
being as efficient an organisation as we
can be. This work has already started
and it will mean some tough decisions
to come. But I am very confident we will
deliver, not least because of the amazing
teams of people that work here and theworld-leading quality of the work they do.

I am proud of how quickly and effectively
the BBC rallied around the needs ofthe nation when the coronavirus crisis
struck. Our teams not only kept services
up and running at a uniquely testingtime, they also showed remarkable

I want to pay tribute to what our outgoing
Director-General, Tony Hall, has achieved
over the past seven years. He has led theorganisation through an ambitious periodof reinvention, inside and out. The following
pages set out some of the most significant
achievements, along with detail on our
performance in the final year of Tony’s
leadership. As the report demonstrates,
today’s BBC is fitter, more representative

8

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

of the country it serves and well-placed
for success in the digital age as a result.
The next few years will be crucial todetermining the future of the BBC. There
are many challenges ahead, and the market
around us grows ever tougher, but I havegreat confidence in our success. Trusted,
impartial news and information have neverbeen more needed. Great British content
that supports and reflects every part of the
UK has never been more valued. The ability
to carry Britain’s voice and influence to theworld has never been more highly prized.
I am convinced that the BBC can do evenmore for the UK at home and abroad in theyears ahead.

Tim Davie CBE
Director-General
2 September 2020

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Strategic Report

Delivering
our strategy
in 2019/20
This has been a year when the BBC
has demonstrated its unique value
as the world’s foremost public
service broadcaster.
Through a year of political change, rapid
shifts in markets and technologies, andthen the all-encompassing global crisisof the coronavirus pandemic, the BBC’s
mission to inform, educate and entertain
all audiences has proved enduringly vital.
Last year, we set out our four core priorities
in our Annual Plan for 2019/20. We said we
would continue to put brilliant creativity
at the heart of the BBC, delivering thegreat programmes and services thataudiences love. We said we would focus
on growing BBC iPlayer and BBC Sounds
as audience behaviours and expectations
evolve. We said we would keep focusing
on providing trusted, impartial news at
a critical time for the UK and the world.
And we said we would keep working hardto modernise our organisation and makethe BBC the very best place to work.
The following pages set out more detailon how we have delivered successfullyon these goals during the course of
the year, and responded nimbly andeffectively as the world around us haschanged in extraordinary ways.

It shows how, across 2019, the BBC was
the most-used UK media brand; used by 41
million people in the UK on average per day.
We reach the most people: 91% of UK adults
on average per week, and 81% of children.
We are consumed for the most media
time, including among young audiences:well over 17 hours on average a week for
adults, and over seven hours a week foryoung adults in 2019/20. We continue
to be the most trusted source of news.
Back in 2013, we set the challenge of
doubling the BBC’s global audience toreach 500 million people by our centenary
in 2022. Today we reach a record 468
million people outside the UK every week,meaning that we are more than on trackto achieve that goal. We now have plansin place, which depend on funding fromthe Government, to redouble our ambition
and to carry the UK’s voice, values andcultural influence to a global audience of
one billion people by the end of the decade.
BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

41m

Across 2019, the BBC
was the most-used UK
media organisation: usedby 41 million people in
the UK per day on
average.

BBC
correspondent
Emma Simpson
conducting a
distanced
interview

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Delivering our strategy in 2019/20

In 2017, we mobilised the whole of the BBC
behind a clear strategic goal: to reinvent
public service broadcasting for a newgeneration. It is thanks to this work thattoday we have secured a strong positionin the online world. BBC Online reaches
almost 29 million UK adults a week on
average. BBC iPlayer is the second biggest
TV-on-demand service in the UK, withviewing up 38% year-on-year in 2019/20
and up further again since lockdown.
BBC News Online was used by 15 million
adults per week on average and at theheight of lockdown by 22 million weekly.
As the reporting year drew to a close, thecoronavirus health emergency struck.
The country was plunged into one ofits biggest crises since World War II.
The role of the BBC is never clearer thanat times of national crisis. We provide
the public – in great numbers, locally,nationally and internationally – withtrusted, impartial news and information
they can rely on. We help bring the country
together, to share, to understand andto commemorate. We examine the big
decisions taken by those with responsibility
over our lives, explaining the choices
and making sense of the challenges. We
connect people who are isolated, bringing
companionship and a link to the world.

In May, we published our Annual Plan
which laid out our plans for the months
and years ahead. It builds on what wehave achieved over the past year byidentifying four major strategic priorities,
designed to create a BBC that is fit for the
future. These pages discuss each of thosepriorities in turn, whilst more detail on
our ongoing plans to make the BBC thebest place to work can be found in the
Our People section on pages 59-63.

1. The power of the portfolio
One of the unique strengths of the BBC is
our ability to bring together the worlds oflive and on-demand, broadcast and internetdelivered, across video, audio and text.

Our live channels are one of our greatest
advantages. In a global video-on-demand(VOD) landscape, they are what set the BBCapart, the envy of the streaming world.
They reach tens of millions every week,
and are critical to our success. Throughour channels, we have the ability to talk to
people live and in the moment with content
that feels utterly relevant to them. They are
our best marketing showcase for iPlayer.
The coronavirus crisis has highlighted
again the value of both broadcast andonline. Usage of TV news and online
news were both up sharply, with overall
TV viewing and iPlayer usage up also.

This report underlines how brilliantly
broadcast and online work together. On
television, for instance, our channels andiPlayer are inextricably linked. We are notcommissioning for one slot, one channel,
one night, but for a far larger ecosystem,
where programmes will be seen in a
number of ways and in a number of places.

As the crisis hit, we did everything in our
power to reconfigure BBC services aroundthe national need. Audiences came to us
in their millions as a result – on screen,on air and online. However, whilst theimportance of the BBC’s public service
mission could hardly have been clearer,
the longer-term trends of global andtechnology-led disruption have not let up.
In reality, the crisis looks set to acceleratethem. We must ensure that our strategy
to respond will accelerate in turn.

BBC One’s Line of Duty

10

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Series five of Line of Duty
was unmissable,
appointment-to-view
television, with anaudience of 13.2 million
for the first episode.

Over the next two years we have set theambition of doing even more to bring ouroverall portfolio to life and communicate
its value. We will continue to drive sign-in
towards 100% across BBC Online. Sign-in
is a key enabler of the BBC portfolio, giving
us the data we need to make our online
products feel like they are part of a single,
consistent and personalised whole. We will
also take a big step forward on making the
BBC more personal and more engaging.
This means improved recommendations
across our online products that surface
new programmes and stories, based notjust on activity on one app but on multiple
apps. We will continue to improve thepromotion of BBC content and services
across platforms to make linear andon-demand products work together.

2. Viewing
In television, this has been another yearof outstanding creative success for theBBC. It has once again seen us deliverfor our viewers what we have always
done best: world-class, distinctive
content that takes risks, supports homegrown talent, and can bring the wholecountry together and get it talking.
This year our adaptation of Philip Pullman’s
His Dark Materials became the biggest
launch for a new series of any genre in 2019.
It gained an average audience of 11.4 million
across all screens. The Gavin & Stacey
Christmas Special in 2019 was watched byan astonishing average audience of 18.5
million. It was the biggest BBC programmeoutside sporting and national events sincecurrent measurement began in 2010.
Series five of Line of Duty was also
unmissable, appointment-to-view television,
with an average audience of 13.2 million
for the first episode across all screens.
Seven Worlds, One Planet, presented by
Sir David Attenborough, had an average
audience of 9 million tuning in per episodeacross all screens. It was the BBC’s mostwatched factual programme of 2019.
A key priority for this year was our new
BBC Scotland channel. In its first fullyear of operation, it has continued to bea real success. It reached more viewers
in Scotland than any channel outside
BBC One, BBC Two, ITV, Channel 4 andChannel 5, with one in six of the population
tuning in each week. iPlayer requests
BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Strategic Report

13.2

m

Looking forward, the first of our strategic
priorities is to make the whole of ourportfolio work even harder as one BBC.
That means drawing on every part of the
BBC to encourage audiences to use us
more often and for longer, and help makeus a valued daily habit for everyone.

to view BBC Scotland-commissioned
and co-commissioned content havemore than doubled since launch.
Our commitment to risk-taking andoriginality on BBC Three has also been
rewarded again this year. Viewers flocked
to RuPaul’s Drag Race on iPlayer, with 15
million requests for the series, almost
two-thirds from 16-34s. Meanwhile ThisCountry was requested over 52 million
times overall by the end of March,putting it on a par with the Emmy andGolden Globe winning Fleabag as one
of BBC Three’s biggest comedies.
iPlayer itself was one of the BBC’s toppriorities this year, right at the heartof our strategy. We have been working
hard to transform it into a primary video
destination service. For many, especially
younger viewers, it is now becoming themain place that they view BBC programmes.
For the first time, the growth of iPlayer
has almost made up for the falls in linear
TV viewing for audiences overall. It
was a record-breaking year, with more
people than ever signed-in – signed-in
accounts in 2019/20 were up 42% on
2018/19 – and a total of 4.8 billion requests
for our programmes across 2018/19.
There are now 36% more hours available
to view. Both the marketing of iPlayer
and curation within it have taken a step
forward. This year we also launched a new
iPlayer experience for children so families
and children can easily discover a wide
range of entertaining and educational
programmes. The impact of these changes
has been to widen iPlayer’s reach and,in a challenging market, to increasesignificantly the viewing that it generates.
The impact of the coronavirus crisis has
turbo-charged this trend. During lockdown,
BBC iPlayer had nearly two billion requests– 60% higher than the same period last year.
During that period iPlayer broke records forbest-ever days in quick succession. The day
the Prime Minister announced lockdown
was the first time iPlayer had seen over
20 million programmes requested in aday. This record was then swiftly beaten
on 13 April – the return of Killing Eve andthe conclusion of The Nest – with 22.1
million programme requests, and thenagain on 28 April – 23.2 million – aided
by the release of Normal People, showing
the demand for world-class drama as well
as news. And this was broken again by
10 May – 24.1 million – the day of the Prime
Minister’s second statement to the nation.

11

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Delivering our strategy in 2019/20

The importance of the BBC’s ‘entertain’
mission during lockdown was also verymuch in evidence across our TV channels
as the public sought out laughter, escapism,and shared experiences. In the first weekof lockdown, viewing of BBC TV was up
almost 50% on the year, with particularly
sharp rises for children and young adults.

3.6m

BBC Sounds accounts
active weekly at the end ofits first full year.

Looking ahead, the priority will be to pull
all possible levers to improve and grow
iPlayer, including content availability
and exclusivity, product developments,
marketing and distribution. That will
mean more programmes available forlonger, more developed personalisationand curation to make it even easier foreach person to discover what’s relevantto them, and a continually evolving user
experience. We will release more of ourseries as boxsets in one go to let audiences
decide how they want to watch.
A crucial part of implementing this strategy
has been putting in place arrangements withall our rights-holders, the final element being
the new deal between the BBC and PACT,
the trade organisation which represents
the independent production supply
sector in the UK. These arrangements
mean that the BBC can transform what
it shows on BBC iPlayer. There will be an
automatic 12-month BBC iPlayer windowon all content the BBC commissions, anda framework for how programmes canbe made available beyond 12 months.
The past year has also seen us make huge
improvements to the live experience in
iPlayer, reinventing our coverage of major
events such as Glastonbury and Wimbledon
by offering audiences a choice of multiple
live streams. This will take another leap
forward over the next two years as we offer
even more personalised live coverage ofthese events and more, including the Euros,
the Tokyo Olympic Games, the Six Nations,
the FA Cup, and new cricket competition
The Hundred – as and when they happen.

3. Listening
This year the BBC has once again brought anincredible range of world-class speech andmusic programming to all our audiences.
In 2019, audiences could experience
Glastonbury like never before, with BBC
Radio Glastonbury on BBC Sounds and live
broadcasts across Radio 1, 1Xtra, Radio2, 6 Music and 5 live. They could discover
the works that redefined classical andorchestral music when Ten Pieces returned
with a ‘Trailblazers’ theme. And they could
explore the BBC’s Year of Beliefs acrossall our output, shining a light on faith,belief and values in modern society.

12

4.8bn
Award-winning drama Killing Eve

The quality and breadth of our output wasrecognised at this year’s Audio and Radio
Industry Awards, where the BBC won 17
out of 23 awards. Radio 2 was named best
national station whilst BBC Radio Hereford& Worcester won best local station following
its remarkable coverage of February’s
floods. There were also awards for Emma
Barnett on 5 live, Dotty and MistaJam on
1Xtra and Greg James on Radio 1, whilst
Radio 3’s This Classical Life – launchedin April and presented by former BBC
Young Musician finalist, Jess Gillam – wasnamed Best Specialist Music Show.
Our commitment to fostering newtalent continued, whether through BBC
Introducing, New Generation Artists or
New Generation Thinkers. Meanwhile,

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

It was a record-breaking
year for BBC iPlayer with a
total of 4.8 billion requests
for our programmes.

Radio 1 offered new and emerging talenta once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to takeover the airwaves during the festive
period, with 35 up-and-coming presentersselected from over 1,100 entries.
The BBC’s role in audio is the same as it
has always been: to showcase the best
UK talent, bringing world-class news andstorytelling to the UK and the world; tocreate opportunities for new British artists;
and to help fans discover new music andbuild relationships with those artists.
Today, BBC Sounds is right at the heartof our audio offer. Our goal at the startof the year was to firmly establish
Sounds as the best place to listen to all
BBC audio – music, podcasts, and radio.
We wanted to add new content, further

Return to contents

available, and providing a strong UK routeto market that can showcase British talent.

Now available across mobile, web, smart
speaker and smart TV, BBC Sounds ended
its first full year with a record 3.6 million
accounts active weekly, significantly
ahead of our all-audience targets whilst
also meeting those for younger audiences.
In this time we successfully managed
the migration from iPlayer Radio, with
Sounds now attracting significantly
more users than our previous service.

Second, we plan to make BBC Sounds aplace that loves music and helps listeners
love music. We will do this in the way wealways have done: curated by music lovers
and focused on artists – an experiencethat listeners tell us is distinct from,and will complement, the all-catalogue
offers of music streaming services.

Crucial to this has been how the BBC hascome of age over the past year as a worldbeating podcast commissioner, with hits like
Tunnel 29, That Peter Crouch Podcast, You’re
Dead to Me and The Missing Cryptoqueen.
News and the World Service have alsodelivered successes like 13 Minutes to theMoon and the ever-evolving Brexitcast,
Newscast, and The Coronavirus Newscast.
As the coronavirus struck, Sounds saw
a surge in live listening, with users thengoing on to discover its world-class ondemand speech and evolving music mix
offer. Increasingly, however, we know live
listening is just one element of a suite oflistening options audiences expect to haveavailable. The way audiences, especially
young audiences, listen to speech andmusic is changing. The rise of musicstreaming, of podcasts, and the explosionof radio stations on DAB and online means
there is more choice than ever before. As
listeners learn new habits and develop new
behaviours and expectations, the BBC needs
to be at the forefront of these changes tokeep delivering value for all audiences.

This content will include themedcompilations which will allow audiences
to find the very best curated BBC content
in topics such as artist, event or mood,and enhanced music mixes with a focus
on British and emerging talent. Now morethan ever, audiences are discovering thequality and breadth of music the BBC canoffer through an on-demand platform,and building on this is essential todelivering our role in audio for the future.
Third, we want Sounds to have thebest radio listening experience online.
We will put radio and, in particular,
live radio at the heart of BBC Sounds,
amplifying live moments by promoting
them from the front page and supportingthem with on-demand content.
As well as making BBC Sounds readyfor the future, we need to ensure ourradio portfolio can serve all audiences

Strategic Report

improve the user experience, and growreach and time spent with the service.

even better. Despite declines, linear
radio still has significant reach amongst
young audiences and will remain a vital
way to reach them for years to come.
We will continue to evolve our portfolio,
reflecting changing habits around music
discovery and ensuring we have the rightoffers to serve audiences more equally.
We will take the lessons from BBC online
content popular with young audiences,and how we have operated through thecrisis, working even more closely as aportfolio to deliver the best value foraudiences, and protecting the high-qualityand distinctive output that millions love.

4. News – UK, global
and local
The BBC is the UK’s number one news
service. We provide an unrivalled level of
local, regional, national and international
news and current affairs. Last year we
promised to respond to the changing needsof the public in difficult, uncertain times
by standing up for trust and accuracy innews, re-committing to our core valueof impartiality, and doing even more to
make sure all different views and voices
are heard in the national debate.

BBC Sounds’ Brexitcast

To compete in a global tech-dominatedmarketplace, BBC Sounds must find a
distinct space in the lives of our listeners.
We believe it can do that by combining
the best on-demand audio content withworld-class live listening. Our plan is to
evolve the user experience in Sounds tomake it easier to use and more personally
relevant to each user, innovate around newlistening formats within Sounds, develop
new exciting content, and also incorporate
discovery of the best third-party content.
We believe there is a huge opportunity to
set Sounds apart and make it outstanding.
First, through a feast of on-demand speech,
attractive to both regular podcast listeners
and also the majority of UK listeners who
have never listened, or do not regularly
listen, to podcasts. The BBC is not the only
producer of great podcast material. We haveannounced that we will open up Sounds
to be a home for the highest quality nonBBC podcasts, helping audiences familiar
with podcasting and those new to it to
discover the best and most relevant content
BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

13

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Delivering our strategy in 2019/20

Today, the BBC remains by far the mosttrusted news source in the UK (see pages
20-21). When asked to pick the one source
audiences are most likely to turn to for
impartial, trusted and accurate news in
general, the BBC is more than 40 percentage
points ahead of anyone else. The factthat 87% of UK adults overall and 83%
of young adults came to BBC News forcoverage of the results of the UK General
Election in December 2019 showed
once again that we are the place people
come to at the moments that matter.

As a result, viewing figures for TV news hit
their highest levels since 2003. Our 18:30
regional news programme was often themost watched programme on television
on any given weekday. In the first weekof social distancing in March, nine in ten
adults consumed BBC News across all
platforms. The same was true for eight inten young adults. A record-breaking 81
million UK browsers came to BBC News
Online in the week of 16 March, up 58%
on the previous record in the week of the
UK General Election in December 2019.

Our aim with the UK General Election
coverage was simple: to be on the side of
the audience. That meant making surethey had everything they needed tomake up their own minds. It’s why we
put Reality Check right at the heart ofour coverage, helping audiences sort factfrom half-truth and disinformation.

The crisis could not have demonstrated any
more clearly the immense public appetite
for the values of trusted, impartial, accurate
news. But it also highlighted the extent towhich news audiences rely increasingly
on online services. Reflecting this shift,
we have set out our plans to move to a‘story-led’ approach in news – putting theaudience at the heart of decisions on whatstories we cover and how we cover them. We
will select stories not according to what isrequired for a specific programme, channelor platform, but instead with the needs ofall our audiences and platforms in mind.

We shone a spotlight on our politicalleaders like never before, with a rangeof great debates and a compelling series
of interviews. We did more to serve
audiences whether via Newsbeat orNewsnight, Electioncast or BBC Breakfast,
the News at Ten or Instagram. We got
closer to audiences than ever, crossing all
four nations with programmes from BBC
Breakfast and 5 live to News At Ten andbringing the specific insights of our regional
reporters into our UK-wide programmes.

Our traditional and biggest audiences’
brands are vital parts of this revolution,
but we know we need to discover new
ways of storytelling across our digitalplatforms to connect with all audiencesthat use BBC content. We want our best

Throughout the year our news teams
demonstrated the same commitment
to audiences – from Newsnight’s special
interview with Prince Andrew toPanorama’s undercover investigation into
hospital abuse to Crossing Divides (seepages 20-21). And when the coronavirus
crisis struck we reorganised all our output
around the need for essential news,
information and analysis at a critical time.
As well as keeping our core services
running, we launched specific programmingto help audiences understand the issues,
including coronavirus specials in peaktime on BBC One, and Your Questions
Answered on the News Channel. We madeadvice guides, in-depth features, andexplainers available on BBC News Online.

468m

The BBC now reaches
468 million people
outside the UK every
week, up 11% fromlast year.

14

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

journalism to travel further and reach more
people, more regularly, in more ways. We
also know we need to modernise our local
and regional services by making digital acentral part of everything we do. That’s
why we’re taking forward the lessons of
the Covid crisis to make what we offer
audiences in England more agile and morein touch with communities while also
ensuring we’re as efficient as we can be.
When it comes to the BBC’s global news
services, this year has demonstrated
that our value to democracy and liberty
around the world is higher than ever.
News provision has become a key
weapon in the battle for global influence.
The well-funded, state-backed actorsof Russia and China increasingly see
news as an extension of state influence
and a tool for democratic disruption.
In this context, the BBC World Service isvalued across the globe as a beacon for
independent, trusted news. Its contribution
Newsreader George Alagiah

Return to contents

Strategic ReportElection 2019 coverage

to enhancing Britain’s reputation andinfluence abroad was recognised by theGovernment three years ago when it
decided to make its largest-ever increasein World Service investment. Thanks tothat investment of £86 million a year, werecently completed the World Service’s
biggest expansion since the Second World
War and now operate in 42 languages.
The result is that the BBC now reaches 468
million people outside the UK every week,
up 11% from last year. We know that people
all around the world turn to the BBC fornews they can trust, and the BBC’s strength
in the world is one of the UK’s strengths
in the world. We believe there is now an
opportunity for the BBC to build on thisstrength by doubling its audience reachand deepening its impact, and to carry
the UK’s voice, values and influence to a
global community of one billion by 2030.
At a local level, we provide a strong voice
for towns, cities and areas that havesuffered a decline in media and journalistic
coverage in recent years. We helped tobind communities together, particularly
in times of emergency and stress, forinstance during the floods in early2020. More than 1.1 million people had
contacted BBC local radio’s coronavirus
Make a Difference helpline by the end ofJune, launched to link up those in needof help with those who could provide it.
We also play an important role in supporting
other local media – for example, throughour Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Here we invest up to £8 million a year
in a pioneering partnership with 120
local news publishers, funding 150 local
reporters across the UK. The journalism
from this initiative is now publishedin over 5,000 places every week.

87%of UK adults overall and
83% of young adults
came to BBC News forcoverage of the results of
the UK General Election.

***
Nearly 100 years after the BBC was founded,
its mission to inform, educate and entertain
all audiences remains as timelessly relevant
and valuable as it was in the 1920s. What it
does cannot be substituted for programmes
and services that are behind paywalls
and subscriptions that depend on where
people live and their ability to pay. At a
moment of national crisis, the BBC has
responded quickly and with agility, bothto meet rapid changes in audience needs,
and in the way we work and the way wemake programmes. In turn, the British
public have come to the BBC in enormous
numbers because they use it and they trust
it. The enduring value of public service
broadcasting has never been more clear.
BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

15

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Delivering our strategy in 2019/20

Audience performance and market context

At the start of 2020, 15 million UK
households had subscription video-ondemand (SVOD) services – up 1.7 million on
2019 – with Netflix in 13 million of thesehomes. Multiple new entrants have launchedin the UK over the year, including AppleTV+ and Disney+. Linked to this, there wasa further drop in the amount of broadcast
television watched in the UK – though it was
down less in 2019/20 than the previous year.
Young adults watched 11 hours a week on
average – decreasing around 75 minutes
year-on-year. In contrast, the timethey spent using the TV set for SVOD,
gaming, YouTube and other purposes
increased – up c.40 minutes per week tojust over nine hours weekly on average.
Driven by Spotify, music streaming by
young adults also rose, by almost an hour
per week to over six-and-a-half hours
weekly on average. YouTube was used by
85% of under 16s a week and they spentaround five hours per week there on average.
TikTok has become a global phenomenon– passing two billion global downloads
in January – March and generating themost downloads for any app ever in aquarter, with over 315 million installs.
As these challenges are most intenseamongst younger adults, the BBC set
targets for 2019/20 focused on thisaudience in particular, and recognisingthese broader shifts in the media market.

Plan. 80% of 16-34s used the BBC eachweek on average in 2019/20, in line withthe target of 80%+, though reach on linear
platforms continues downward. 16-34s
adults spent over seven hours per week on
average consuming BBC services, above
the target range of 6-7 hours. This meansthat the BBC – across all its portfolio –was the brand with which young adults
spent most media time in 2019/20.
BBC TV across linear TV and iPlayer
combined had a steadier year among thisage group. Their time increased with therest of BBC Online. There was a reduction
in time spent with BBC Radio, down
more than Commercial Radio, which was
helped by its expanded UK-wide offer.
Young adults rated the BBC at seven out often, on average, in terms of their general
impression, also in line with the target set.
They are very positive about the BBC’sdelivery of the mission – 68% rated the
BBC as effective at informing, educatingand entertaining in 2019/20, steady on
the previous two years, with 12% saying
ineffective.* The majority of 16-34s alsofeel that the BBC is effective at delivering
each element of the public purposes. And
they name the BBC as the media provider
that does most to provide high quality anddistinctive content, to reflect people in
the UK, and to help people to understandthe world and to learn new things.

CapitalChannel 4 portfolio

ITV portfolio

NetﬂixFacebook

SpotifyYouTube

BBC

Heart

Channel 5 portfolio

NetﬂixSpotify

Sky portfolio

Channel 4 portfolio

YouTubeFacebook

07:30

16

ITV portfolio

16-34 time per head per week(hours:minutes)

BBC

All adults (16+) time per head per week(hours:minutes)
17:45

The performance achieved during the yearwith this age group was within the target
range set out in the 2019/20 BBC Annual

Sky portfolio

That said, competition for the time, attention
and good opinion of this age group remains
fierce. Whilst 16-34s spent more media
time with the BBC than with any otherbrand in 2019/20 and usage was within
the target range, the amount of time spent
was lower than the previous year given theincreasing strength of competition, andwas down proportionately more than older

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

age groups. So whilst the majority thinkthat the BBC delivers the public purposes
effectively, the scores that they gave in
2019/20 tended to be lower than thosefrom over 55s across a range of measures.
For these reasons, as the most recent
BBC Annual Plan set out, the BBC
has a two-year plan to increase
engagement with young people.
Amongst under 16s, the BBC was used by
81% of this age group per week in 2019/20.
This has stayed steady year-on-year, thoughpressure remains intense for public service
broadcasting overall to stay relevant toolder children and teenagers especially, asYouTube and Netflix continue to grow.
In addition to the targets set for 16-34s in
2019/20, there were targets focused on
adults overall, aimed at maintaining thenumbers that use the BBC weekly, andperceived value for money scores. 91%
of adults used the BBC each week during
2019/20, on a par with the previous year
and in line with the target of 90%. Theiraverage rating of value for money was also
within the target range of five/six out of ten.
Adults overall spent more media time with
the BBC than with any other brand, using
BBC services for more than 17 hours aweek on average. While marginally down,
this was much steadier year on year than
2018/19 had been compared with 2017/18.
In terms of fulfilling the mission and public
purposes, 70% of adults continue to thinkthat the BBC is effective at informing,
educating and entertaining in 2019/20(whilst 13% say ineffective).* Across all
audience groups regardless of age, gender,* Ipsos MORI, 2,341 UK adults 16+, February-March 2020.
Average score across informing, educating andentertaining people in the UK and them.

Instagram

Last year continued to see rapid andprofound changes in how people consume
media, especially so amongst younger
audiences.

Top brands that adults and 16-34s spend mostmedia time with 2019/20
Source: BARB (28-days), BARB Establishment
Survey, ONS, RAJAR, MIDAS (15+, 15-34), AT
Internet, Ipsos MORI. Estimated on-platform time.
Heart and Capital live listening.

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Overall scores for most mission andpurposes measures are steady statisticallycompared with the previous two years. This
year there has been an increase in levelsof trust and in perceptions of the accuracy
and impartiality of BBC News, with a higher

91%

Target:90%

UK Adult pan-BBC reach% of UK adults who use BBC TV, radio or
online each week on average.

80%

Target:80+%

UK 16-34 pan-BBC reach% of UK 16-34s who use BBC TV, radio or
online each week on average.

07:30h:mTarget:6-7 hours

UK 16-34 pan-BBC time spent
Length of time UK 16-34s spend with the
BBC each week on average.

7/10

Target:

5/10

Target:proportion of people choosing BBC Newsas the source they trust most, turn to for
impartial news coverage, and for accurate
news coverage in 2019/20. There have beensome small drops in the ratings for thecreativity purpose. In each case though,the majority of UK adults overall havecontinued to rate the BBC as effective, wellahead of a small minority saying ineffective.
Despite these outcomes overall, there
are significant differences in the
consumption and impact of BBC output
between different audience groups.
The largest number of people continue tofeel that the BBC has delivered its mission
and purposes. But some of those withlower levels of usage of the BBC comparedwith their comparative groups – C2DE
groups, black, Asian and minority ethnic
audiences, those in Northern Ireland,
Scotland and the North of England, andyounger people – are amongst those who
tended to give lower effectiveness scores.
As well as reflecting the relative appeal of
the BBC’s offer, the absolute level of usage
can vary, in part, owing to the extent ofcompetition aimed at different groups,
and different generations and life stages.
In each age band, gender, social grade, andarea of the UK, and amongst white andblack, Asian and minority ethnic audiences,the proportion rating the BBC as effectiveat delivering the mission and each purposein 2019/20 outnumbers most frequently
those saying ineffective. Effectivenessscores were still lower though amongst
C2DE than ABC1 groups, and amongst
black, Asian and minority ethnic audiencescompared with white audiences in 2019/20.

Strategic Reportsocial grade, ethnic origin or geography,
the majority rated the BBC as effective
for delivery of the mission. The majorityof UK adults overall also think that the
BBC has delivered each element of the
purposes effectively, with the highest
scores for helping people understand what
is going on in the UK and world today, andfor the quality of content and services – aswas the case in the previous two years.

To represent the public better, the BBC has
set out a Creative Diversity Commitment
to prioritise £100 million of the existingcommissioning budget over three years
from 2021/22 towards diverse andinclusive content, and a new mandatory
20% diverse-talent target in all new
network commissions from April 2021.
Looking at the results by area of theUK, in 2019/20 effectiveness ratings
in Scotland and Northern Ireland
were positive but lower than the UK
average across a range of measures.
Similarly, adults in the North of Englandgave positive but lower effectivenessscores for most elements across the
purposes than the England average.
By age, effectiveness scores from 35-54s
were steady in 2019/20 after having moved
downwards the previous year. They score
the news and representation purposes
positively though lower than 55+.
Looking to the year ahead, audiences of
all ages have turned to the BBC during
the coronavirus pandemic lockdown,
demonstrating the value of public service
broadcasting. Some of the biggest ofthese uplifts have been amongst younger
audiences. Lockdown has been a turning
point for video on-demand. iPlayer viewing
has reached record levels, receiving almost
two billion programme requests from lateMarch to early July. At the same time,
SVOD viewing has been supercharged.
To help maintain the unique impact of
UK content and PSB – as the 2020/21
Annual Plan set out – the BBC will aim
to harness the breadth and range of
the BBC portfolio to stay a key part ofaudiences’ lives for years to come.

7/10

General impression amongst UK 16-34s
UK 16-34 year olds’ general impression of
the BBC (mean score out of 10).

5-6/10How UK adults rate the BBC on
providing value for money(mean score out of 10).
Sources: Ipsos MORI, BARB, BARB Establishment
Survey, ONS, RAJAR, AT Internet, Kantar Media.

RuPaul’s Drag Race UK on BBC Three
BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

17

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Delivering our public purposes

Delivering our
public purposes
The BBC’s public purposes are enshrinedin the Royal Charter and Agreement andare at the core of everything we do.

Our mission in full, as set out in ourRoyal Charter, is “to act in the public
interest, serving all audiences throughthe provision of impartial, high-qualityand distinctive output and services
which inform, educate and entertain.”Also enshrined in our Royal Charter are theBBC’s five public purposes. These outline thevalues we hold when striving to achieve our
mission and they provide a clear framework
through which we are held to account.
They are at the core of everything we do.
The coronavirus health emergency has
brought the clarity of the BBC’s public
service mission into even sharper focus.
That mission has guided our response at
every step.

49

ITV/Sky 5

h

ITV

g

ITV

7

9

Today, the BBC provides an unrivalled levelof local, regional, national and international
news and current affairs. We remain
the most trusted source of news in thiscountry, and we play an important role inhelping to counter the misinformation andconfusion that now so often proliferate.

f= ITV/Sky/YouTube 6eYouTube 9

d

7
ITV

c

YouTube 11

37

42
b

Google 7a

BBC (%)

Next nearest provider (%)

a. Help people in the UK understand and engage with the world around themb. Help people in the UK learn new thingsc. High quality content and services for people in the UK
d. Creative content and services for people in the UK
e. Distinctive content and services for people in the UK
f. Content and services relevant to people in the UK
g. Reﬂect life in diﬀerent parts of the UK
h. Reﬂect the UK around the world
Source: Ipsos MORI for the BBC, 2,341 UK adults 16+, February-March 2020.

18

As the crisis struck, we reconfigured
our output around the most pressing
needs of our audiences – from trusted
news and information to educational
support to arts and culture, distractionand escapism. The public came to
us in huge numbers in response.
The first purpose of the BBC is to provide
impartial news and information to
help people understand and engage
with the world around them.

43

48

49

51

57

Of all the media providers (TV, radio, newspaper, magazine, website,
app or social media), which one does the most to/has the most…

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

BBC News continues to come out way
ahead of any other news provider
when audiences are asked to pick theone source they are most likely to turnto for impartial, trusted and accurate
news in general (see pages 20 -21).
The importance of what we do to ensurethat everyone has access to news andinformation they can trust was highlighted
in the first week of social distancing inMarch, when nine in ten adults consumed
BBC News across all platforms, as wellReturn to contents

The BBC’s second public purpose is tosupport learning for people of all ages.
Education has always been in the DNAof the BBC. Perhaps nothing better
illustrates our commitment than how we
responded to school closures by delivering
the biggest education offer in our history.
By the end of the summer term, we had
published nearly 2,000 curriculumled ‘Bitesize Daily Lessons’ online.
Our children’s output helps our youngest
audiences to develop their reading,learning and social skills in ways that are
exciting, playful and fun. As they growand change, BBC Children’s content grows
and changes with them. It fires their
enthusiasms, allows them to discover their
passions and inspires them to learn – alldone in an environment that is definedby values of quality, safety and trust.
We continue to transform what we do ineducation to support learning for peopleof all ages. Our goal is to help people,
whatever their stage of life, to achieve theirfull potential through educational content,
services and participative experiences fromthe BBC, from partners and from each other.
Our third public purpose is to show
the most creative, highest quality anddistinctive output and services.
The BBC is here to make great programmes
and services. It is why audiences come tous and value us. What we have produced
this year – across factual, arts, drama,
entertainment, comedy, sport andmusic – once again demonstrates ourcommitment to maintaining the highest
production and editorial standards
across the broadest range of output.
The BBC’s commitment to home-grown
British content is now more important thanever. It is our duty to make programmes
about British people and British culture.
UK audiences enjoy the breadth of choice
the global players bring, but we know theyalso want local content that speaks tothem directly about their day-to-day lives
and what matters to their communities.
That is why we continue to put British
creativity, quality and risk-taking at theheart of the BBC. In today’s global market,
this is what helps to set the BBC apart:high-quality output on TV and radio that is
unique in its distinctiveness and its focus
on British content from across the UK.
The BBC’s fourth public purpose is toreflect, represent and serve the diverse
communities of all of the United Kingdom’s
nations and regions and, in doing so,
support the creative economy acrossthe UK.

We have a fundamental duty to reflect
the whole country to itself and makesure all its views and voices are heard. In
times of division and fragmentation, this
responsibility is increasingly important.
Today, over half our spending – and half ourteams – are out of London. We have morethan doubled the proportion of network
TV programmes produced in Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland in a decade.
In this regard, no one does more than theBBC, but we have to work even harder toreach out into all the UK’s communities.
We have to do even more to make suredifferent perspectives and voices are
represented, on air and on screen. Our
local and nations services need to be truly
relevant to audiences in each place. And
we must continue to work to address theaudience perception and usage challenges
we face across the UK’s nations, regions
and diverse communities, which aresummarised in the following pages.
We continue to transform what we offer
audiences in Wales, Scotland, Northern
Ireland and in the English Regions. We
continue to shift resources, staff andservices out of London and support thecreative industries across the UK. And
we continue to work hard to be a truly
inclusive workplace, with a workforce thatreflects the whole of the UK it serves.
Our fifth public purpose is to reflect theUK, its culture and values to the world.
The BBC’s global services are a pricelessasset for the UK. They now carry thedistinctive culture, voice and values ofthis country to a weekly audience of
468 million people around the world.
The BBC’s position as the world’s mosttrusted international news brand isparticularly significant in an era when,in many parts of the world, the media
is less free than it was ten years ago.
Disinformation and ‘fake news’ havebecome the weapon of choice for repressive
regimes everywhere. The well-funded,state-backed actors of Russia and China
see news as an extension of state influence
and a tool for democratic disruption.
The result is that the value to democracy
and liberty of BBC News around the worldis higher than ever. And as Britain seeks
to reshape its international identity andforge new relationships with the world,
the role the BBC plays for the UK and our
influence abroad could hardly be more vital.
The case studies and highlights includedin the following pages demonstratesome of the ways in which we have
met the requirements of these five
public purposes over the past year.

Strategic Reportas eight in ten young adults. In difficult
and uncertain times, our mission to
inform is more important than ever.

1

To provide impartial news
and information to help
people understand andengage with the world
around them
Read more on pages 20-21

2

To support learning forpeople of all ages
Read more on pages 22-23

3

To show the mostcreative, highest qualityand distinctive output
and services
Read more on pages 24-29

4

To reflect, represent andserve the diverse
communities of all of theUnited Kingdom’s nations
and regions and, in doingso, support the creative
economy across theUnited Kingdom
Read more on pages 30-39

5

To reflect the United
Kingdom, its culture andvalues to the world
Read more on pages 40-41

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

19Return to contents

Delivering our public purposes

1. To provide impartial news and information to help
people understand and engage with the world
around them
These pages demonstrate ways in which
the BBC met its obligation to provide
impartial news and information overthe last year

UK Election
BBC News had one overriding aim in
its coverage of the snap UK General
Election – to be on the side of the audience.
And despite noisy debates on social
media, audience research showed the
BBC was the most highly rated, as wellas the most widely used, news brandamongst audiences during the election.
This was echoed by further research,
in which over half of respondents
found the BBC to be ‘best for campaign
coverage’ – a score five times higher
than the nearest competitor.
Along with the ‘set piece’ coverage – debates,
a Question Time special, leader interviews –the BBC focused on reporting from aroundthe UK, with special coverage broadcast
from ten constituencies around the country.
We did more than ever to serve allaudiences – whether they wanted theirinformation via Newsbeat or Newsnight,
Electioncast or BBC Breakfast, the News at
Ten or Instagram. That included simple
manifesto guides and an iPlayer-first
digital explainer offering straightforward
analysis of the issues that mattered.

Panorama – undercoverhospital abuse scandal
An undercover investigation for Panorama
revealed shocking abuse at Whorlton Hall,
an NHS-funded, privately run hospital forvulnerable adults with autism and learning
difficulties. Secret filming by reporter Olivia
Davies showed patients being bullied andbelittled by the staff who were supposed tocare for them. One 20-year-old female patient
was psychologically tortured, according
to experts who viewed the footage.
The programme’s impact was immediate.
The hospital was closed. The care ministerand national regulator, the CQC, apologised.
Ten staff were arrested. There was a debate
in Parliament, a petition for change online,
and there are ongoing investigations into the
CQC and the hospital’s private provider.
This programme was made eight years
after Panorama exposed the terrible abuseof patients at another specialist hospitalfor vulnerable adults, Winterbourne View.
In the wake of that investigation, reform20

was promised, but this investigation
showed a system that was still letting
down the most vulnerable.

Coronavirus
Trusted and accurate information is vital ina public health emergency, and BBC Newshas never had a more important role toplay than in its coverage of the coronavirus
outbreak. Shortly after the scale of the crisis
became evident, BBC News announced its
plans to maintain a continuous news service
throughout by streamlining content andreducing the number of studios used. Thiswas designed to address anticipated staff
shortages and lessen the number of staff
who needed to work from our buildings.
Those staff who could, worked from home,and programmes soon looked rather
different as social distancing rules cameinto force, with boom microphones muchin evidence, remote interviews becoming
the norm, and no studio audience for
Question Time. Travel was cut down andlocal reporters played a far greater role.
BBC News put a major focus on explaining
the virus and its consequences to its
audience, with regular ‘Your Questions
Answered’ slots and online explainerswhich were viewed over 60 million times.
The Government’s daily press briefings
were broadcast live on BBC News Special
programmes. The popular podcast
Newscast became The Coronavirus
Newscast, mixing analysis from someof BBC News’s biggest names withinterviews about life in isolation.
It immediately became clear thataudiences were turning to BBC News intheir millions, with a third of the adult
population watching the Six O’ClockNews each week in the early days of thecrisis, the biggest online audiences ever,and record figures for BBC Sounds.

Crossing Divides
Crossing Divides Live was a ground-breaking
experiment for BBC Radio 5 live news
coverage, with the aim of creating greater
understanding of all views and opinions.
At a time when it’s increasingly hard to findcommon ground, 5 live brought together
people who disagree and might nevernormally meet, to have training in deep
listening and discuss one-to-one and face-toface the big issues like climate change, class,lifestyle, equality, immigration and Brexit.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

8 /10

2018/19

8/10

Pan-BBC News reach
Number of UK adults (16+) who use
BBC News services each week.
Source: Kantar MediaBBC News reach by platform
BBC TV Network
News and Current
Affairs59%

2018/1960%% of UK adults (16+) who watch BBC TV Network
News and Current Affairs each week.
Source: BARB, reach based on 3+mins(For the % of adults who watch dedicated BBC TV news forthe nations and regions of the UK, see pages 32-36)

BBC Network
Radio News andCurrent Affairs
programmes

36%

2018/1938%% of UK adults (16+) who listen to news andcurrent affairs programmes on BBC Network
Radio each week.
Source: RAJAR, reach based on 15+mins, excludes
bulletins that are not part of a news or current affairs
programme (For the % of adults who listen to BBC Radiostations dedicated to the nations and regions of the UK,
see pages 32-36)

BBC News Online

42m

2018/1933m

Average number of unique UK browsers
accessing BBC News Online each week.

29%% of UK adults (16+) who use
BBC News Online each week.

Source: browser reach: AT Internet (Adobe DAx in
2018/19); 16+ people reach: Compass by Ipsos MORIBBC News sets a high standard for quality
BBC TV

76%

2018/1983%

2018/1979%

2018/1975%

weekly users saying effective(ineffective 9%. 2018/19: 8%).
BBC Radio

78%

weekly users saying effective(ineffective 6%. 2018/19: 8%).
BBC Online

weekly users saying effective(ineffective 7%. 2018/19: 8%).
Source: Ipsos MORI

80%

Return to contents

Newsnight: Prince
Andrew interview
In November, Emily Maitlis recorded
an unusual Newsnight special from
Buckingham Palace – an interview with
Prince Andrew, whose friendship withthe convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein
was under increasing scrutiny. Theinterview had taken months to secure.
It had far-reaching consequences.
The interview made headlines
worldwide and dominated the UK
news agenda, even in the midst of the
UK General Election campaign.
Days after the interview, the Princeannounced he would be steppingback from his public duties.
The interview won the RTS awards for
Scoop of the Year and Interview of theYear, with Emily Maitlis named Network
Presenter of the Year and Newsnight the
Daily News Programme of the Year.
A fortnight later, one of Epstein’s
victims, Virginia Roberts Guiffre,
spoke on BBC’s Panorama, in her firstinterview on British television.

71

% 70%

2018/19% of UK adults who think
BBC News & Current Affairs is
effective at helping themunderstand what is happening in
the UK/world today (ineffective
14%. 2018/19: 15%).

Of all the news sources (TV, radio, newspaper,magazine, website, app or social media) which one
source are you most likely to turn to…
… if you want impartial news coverage

Source: Ipsos MORI

63%

BBC

62%

Source: Ipsos MORI

66

51%

2018/19% of UK adults who think
BBC News & Current Affairs is
effective at helping themunderstand what is happening intheir part of the UK (ineffective
16%. 2018/19: 18%).

2018/19: 44%

BBC
Sky News
ITV
Facebook
Other
None
Don’t know

51%
7%
5%
3%
21%
6%
7%

BBC
Sky News
ITV
Guardian
Other
None
Don’t know

62%
8%
5%
3%
15%
4%
3%

… for news you trust the most

% 62%

2018/19% of UK adults who think
BBC News & Current Affairs is
effective at informing them about
the day’s issues so they can makeup their minds (ineffective 15%.
2018/19: 17%).

BBC

62%
2018/19: 51%

Source: Ipsos MORI

54%

2018/1952%… if you want accurate news coverage% of UK adults who think the
BBC is effective at providing news
and current affairs that is
impartial (ineffective 25%.
2018/19: 28%
BBC

Source: Ipsos MORI

62%

69%
HRH The Duke of York being interviewed
by Emily Maitlis for Newsnight

Strategic Report

People from all backgrounds from acrossthe UK took part in a day of debate,broadcast across 5 live, the BBC News
channel, on the BBC World Service and
BBC News Online. Crossing Divides Live wasambitious, distinctive and compelling.

2018/19: 53%

BBC
Sky News
ITV
Guardian
Other
None
Don’t know

62%
9%
5%
4%
14%
3%
3%

% of UK adults who think the BBC
is effective at providing accurate
news and current affairs(ineffective 15%).
Source: Ipsos MORI
Source: Ipsos MORI for the BBC, 1,013 UK adults 18+ who follow the news,
March 2020

Hours of current aﬀairs (BBC One and BBC Two)
Total hours

450

569

106 127
In peak

Quota

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Total hours delivered21

Return to contents

Delivering our public purposes

2. To support learning for people of all ages
The following case studies show thebreadth of content that the BBC provides
for children and young people

A Week to Beat
the World

Newsround

Last year CBBC launched an innovative
and ambitious format promoting physicalactivity, adventure and culture andimmersing the audience in different
lifestyles around the globe. A Week to
Beat the World took six high-achieving
sporty kids from the UK and challenged
them to compete against locals insome of the toughest environments
and most unusual games on earth.

Newsround continues to be a strong
centrepiece of our offer to children, who arelooking increasingly online for their news.
In response, the Newsround team havemade further steps in creating content fora digital-first audience, with two special
features looking at how kids live in the
shadow of the US/Mexico border wall,and the unique challenges for children
in South Korea. Newsround continues todevelop its online service, and TV remains
strong too. A special on the Holocaust won
Best Factual Programme at the Children’s
BAFTAs, and we have seen an increaseduring the last year in teachers showing
the morning bulletin in classrooms, withsome particular peaks on important news
days such the UK General Election.

999

kNewsround website average weekly uniquebrowsers (2018/19: 604k)

Consistently during the year children cited
climate change as their number one topic
of interest, and another significant piecefor Newsround this year was a survey on
young peoples’ climate anxiety, along withrelated stories. It was another example ofagenda-setting journalism from Newsround,being picked up across other BBC outlets
and in the wider press. It illustrates how
Newsround still executes its core purpose;
putting children at the heart of the story.

81%

2018/1981%

Under 16s pan-BBC reach% of under 16s who use BBC TV/iPlayer,
radio or online each week.
Source: Ipsos MORI

84

% 85%

2018/19

0-6s pan-BBC reach% of 0-6s who use BBC TV/iPlayer,
radio or online each week.

2018/19

7/10

Perception of BBC by under 16s:
mean score out of 10.
Source: Ipsos MORI

60%

2018/1961%% of parents who think the BBC is effective at
supporting children and teenagers with theirlearning (ineffective 15%. 2018/19: 14%).
Source: Ipsos MORI

64%

2018/1965%% of UK adults who think the BBC iseffective at helping them learn new things(ineffective 17%. 2018/19: 16%).

2018/19

58%

Average weekly reach of BBC Children’scontent across TV, iPlayer and online
among under 16s.
Source: Ipsos MORI

2018/19

79%

Average weekly reach of BBC Children’scontent across TV, iPlayer and online
among 0-6s.
Source: Ipsos MORI

2018/19

52%

Average weekly reach of BBC Children’scontent across TV, iPlayer and online
among 6-12s.
Source: Ipsos MORI

2018/1978%

6-12s pan-BBC reach% of 6-12s who use BBC TV/iPlayer,
radio or online each week.
Source: Ipsos MORI

22

7/10

Source: Ipsos MORI

58%

05:01

Source: Ipsos MORI

60%

79%

2018/19

Length of time under 16s spend with the
BBC each week

Travelling to six different countries acrossthe series, the contributors had to master
sports ranging from the ancient Mayanball game of pitz in Guatemala and sumo inJapan, to lion-dancing in Malaysia and theMaasai games in Kenya. As well as training
hard in these disciplines, the British children
lived alongside their coaches and hosts andbefriended local kids, whether from theBrazilian favelas or the nomadic horse-ridersof Mongolia. Through their experiences
our audience were able to appreciate thedifferences between our cultures and,crucially, the similarities that unite us.

Source: Ipsos MORI

79%

04:55

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

CBBC’s A Week to Beat the World

Return to contents

Strategic Report

38%

15

2018/1940%

Bitesize: reach % primary pupils% of primary school pupils who
use Bitesize.

British AcademyChildren’s Awards

Source: YouGov, DJS

73%

We won 15 out of the
19 categories we were
eligible to enter.

2018/1975%

Bitesize: reach % secondary pupils% of secondary school pupils who
use Bitesize.
Source: YouGov, DJS

62%

2018/1958%

Bitesize: % of secondary school users who
say Bitesize has helped them to achieve
better grades.

Super Movers on BBC Teach

Source: YouGov, DJS

BBC Education and the Premier League
continue to work together on Super Movers
with all the existing content now available
on the BBC Teach platform, developing
new resources to help enrich the lives ofprimary age children across the UK.

94%% of children who have used Super Movers
say they either love it or like it
Source: EdComs

95%

2018/1987%% of parents who use Super Movers agree:‘Super Movers videos have had a positive
impact on my child’s learning’
Source: EdComs

CBBC

Quota

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

2018/19

1,483

The Premier League support included
involvement from Premier League players
and mascots, as well as donated kit packs
to schools which supported uptake of
the BBC-led content. The campaign wasfeatured in other parts of our output
too, such as BBC Breakfast, The One
Show and via BBC Sport ambassadors
Gabby Logan and Alex Scott.

94%

675

Source: YouGov, DJS

Super Movers is an innovative partnership
between BBC Education and the Premier
League, designed to help primary school
teachers inspire children to become more
physically active throughout their schoolday – based on evidence that this canpositively impact educational outcomeswith improvements in pupils’ concentration,
motivation and enjoyment of learning.
Teachers were able to draw on free content
from the Super Movers website which
offered simple solutions to help children
learn whilst they move, including exercises
to support numeracy and literacy.

Hours of factual programmes

Bitesize: % of under-16 users who say
Bitesize has helped them understand theirstudies/learning more.

Super Movers

1,961

82%

1,000

2018/19

Hours of drama

83%

Total hours delivered23

Return to contents

Delivering our public purposes

3. To show the most creative, highest quality anddistinctive output and services
These pages provide examples of therange of creativity and quality, distinctive
content produced across the BBC last year

This Country
In 2016, BBC Comedy took a chance on
siblings Daisy May and Charlie Cooper,
brand new writing and acting talent witha unique comic voice that has gone on
to win them numerous plaudits. Their
multi award-winning show is full of heart
and a deep personal understanding andappreciation of the community in which
it is based. This Country portrays a sectionof our society not regularly represented
on screen, and has gained cult-like status
with audiences. Across the three series
and a The Aftermath special episode in2017, This Country was requested over 52
million times on iPlayer by the end of March,making it one of the biggest BBC Three
comedies since the channel went online
in 2016 – this figure puts it on par with theEmmy and Golden Globe winning Fleabag,
and illustrates how strong programme
brands can grow online and the long-termvalue to iPlayer of scripted content.

His Dark Materials
BBC One’s much-anticipated adaptationof Philip Pullman’s classic fantasy novels
opened to five-star reviews and huge ratings,
with an average audience of 11.4 million
tuning in across all screens. It was thebiggest launch for a new series of any genre
across all channels in 2019. With an all-star
cast, His Dark Materials was praised for its
performances, family-viewing credentials,
sumptuous visual effects and intelligent
writing. The series proved to be a hit with
16-34 year olds, skewing younger than any
other new drama on BBC One last year.

78%

Cricket coverage

98
94

61%

2018/1963%% of UK adults (16+) who listen to
BBC Radio each week.
75

75

70 74

81
72

75

Source: RAJAR

09:04

60

75

07:46

Source: BARB (now includes 28 days)

90 97

98
90

86

88

90 95

90

85

90

99

% of hours that were originations

2018/19

09:33

Quota

BBC Scotland

BBC ALBA

CBeebies

CBBC

BBC Parliament

BBC News

in peak

BBC Fourin peak

Length of time UK adults (16+)
spend with BBC Radio each week
(hh:mm).

Total hours delivered

Originations include all BBC-commissioned programmes including repeatsmeasured across the 2019 calendar year24

2018/19

Length of time UK adults (16+) inTV homes spend with BBC TV eachweek (hh:mm).

BBC One’s His Dark Materials

BBC Two

The CWC was followed by the Ashes – andthe Headingley Test match, won thrillingly
by Stokes in August, proved outstanding
as well, attracting 3.3 million uniquebrowsers to BBC Sport’s live coverage,
3.1 million requests for video clips, and1.3 million requests to TMS audio.

07:39

in peak

Over the course of the CWC there were
30.6 million browsers to the Sport cricket
section online; 10.6 million online listening
requests to the TMS coverage; and over
33 million video clip plays – making it
the biggest event for video outside theOlympics and men’s football World Cups.

Source: BARB (now includes 28 days)

75

The CWC final online page had a staggering
40.1 million page views with the total
time spent in it by the audience totalling
524,213 hours. There were 1.3 million
listening requests to the Test Match Special(TMS) commentary digitally on that day.

79%

% of UK adults (16+) in TV homes
who watch BBC TV each week.

BBC One

The summer of 2019 was a time for cricket
to shine on the BBC Sport website and app,thanks to a rich mix of audio commentary,
video clips and live blogging. England’s
win in the Cricket World Cup (CWC) final
was the stand-out moment of the sporting
year and it brought in over 4.8 million
unique browsers to the site. Meanwhile,a single clip of Ben Stokes from theAshes was played over 965,000 times.

2018/19

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Source: RAJAR

54%% of UK adults (16+) who use BBC
Online each week.
Source: Ipsos MORI

Return to contents

Strategic Report

World-class podcasts
Podcasts are at the heart of how we reachaudiences with innovative BBC audio,
particularly younger people who
increasingly choose to listen on-demandand on mobile. This year we significantly
increased our creative ambition on BBC
Sounds, commissioning more series
specifically for the podcasting medium.
We’ve brought emerging voices to a wider
audience through podcasts such as Have
You Heard George’s Podcast?, Jacob Hawley
on Drugs, After: Surviving Sexual Assault,
United Zingdom and Fashion Fix. News andinvestigative podcasts have given listeners
in-depth storytelling and analysis in a newway, from Brexitcast/Electioncast, The Next
Episode, Manhunt to The Missing Cryptoqueen.
Podcasts can educate and entertain in aunique way, whether they’re audio dramas
such as Forest 404, hit factual series such
as Tunnel 29, 13 Minutes to the Moon and
You’re Dead To Me, or titles that allow
listeners to spend time with well-known
presenters, such as Match of the Day: Top
10 and The Gemma Collins Podcast as wellas That Peter Crouch Podcast, Fortunately
with Fi and Jane and Tailenders, which havecontinued to be very popular this year.

BBC iPlayer
BBC iPlayer had a record-breaking
year, with 4.8 billion requests to stream
programmes in 2019/20. Programmes
are now available to watch for at least 12
months, the selection of series boxsets
has been widened, and all episodes
for many new series have been madeavailable at the same time, putting
viewers in control of when they watch.
The live offer was enhanced throughnational events such as Wimbledon
and Glastonbury, and in March, welaunched a new BBC iPlayer children’s
experience for internet-connected
TVs – bringing together the best from
CBeebies, CBBC and other suitable
BBC programming, all in one place.

9.1m 2.9m
Accounts overall

Under 35 year olds’
accounts
Signed-in reach of iPlayer
Average weekly accounts signing in to iPlayer(2018/19: 6.4 million overall; 2.0 million under 35).
Source: AT Internet/BBC Account data

32.6m

Average weekly hours played through iPlayer(18/19: 25.5 million).
Source: AT Internet/Sky catch-up data

12%

% of all BBC TV viewing that is deliveredby iPlayer (18/19: 9%) .

83% 84%

16+

16-34

% of weekly users rating iPlayer as effective at
helping the BBC to deliver the mission overall(9% of 16+ and 9% of 16-34 users say ineffective).

8 /10 8 /10
16+

16-34

Weekly users’ rating of iPlayer (mean score)(2018/19: 16+: 8/10: 16-34: 8/10).
Source: YouGov

Source: Ipsos MORI

83% 84%16+

Source: BARB/AT Internet/Sky catch-up data

16-34

% of weekly users rating iPlayer as effectiveat helping the BBC to deliver the public purposes
overall ( 8% of 16+ and 8% of 16-34 users say
ineffective).
Source: Ipsos MORINews purpose

82% 84%16+

16-34

Learning purpose

82% 82%16+

16-34

Creativity/quality purpose

84% 82%16+

16-34

Reflect/represent/serve purpose

Award-winning Have You Heard
George’s Podcast? on BBC Sounds

76% 78%16+

16-34% of weekly users rating iPlayer as effective at
helping the BBC to deliver each public purpose(Under 10% of 16+ and 16-34 users say ineffective
per purpose).
Source: Ipsos MORIBBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

25

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Delivering our public purposes
3. To show the most creative, highest quality anddistinctive output and services continued

Year of Beliefs

Next year, the BBC will be the only
destination for the UEFA Women’s
Euro 2021 after securing rights to thetournament. Our coverage of the FIFA World
Cup 2019 in France reached more than
28.1 million people on TV alone. England’s
World Cup semi-final with the USA had apeak audience of 11.7 million and 1.7 million
requests on iPlayer and on the sports site.

Throughout 2019, the Year of Beliefs shone
a light on faith, belief and values in modern
Britain with programming that reflected thecomplexities of life in the 21st century andoffered a place to celebrate and mark key
moments in the religious calendar. There
were major series on TV and radio, special
reports on News and content for younger
audiences on CBeebies, CBBC and online,
alongside a wider representation of faiths
and festivals across all our networks.

26

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Ofcom quota

Peak

2,200

218

2,749

300

354

Hours of comedy
programmes, somein peak

BBC One and BBC Two

The first ever UK version of RuPaul’s Drag
Race was a hit on BBC Three, with audiences
flocking to it in droves and an RTS award
for Entertainment. Michelle Visage, Graham
Norton and Alan Carr joined RuPaul
as judges to crown The Vivienne as thewinner. In a first for BBC Three, the channel
experimented by dropping new episodes at
8pm every Thursday, which made iPlayer
a destination for appointment to view
television, resulting in 15 million requests
for the series, with almost two-thirds ofthem from 16-34s. Many enjoyed the showas ‘live’ or joined viewing parties acrossthe country for a hit entertainment showthat brought something new to the BBC.

BBC TwoDrag Race UK

The BBC made the biggest ever commitment
to women’s sport in its history. The
aim was to celebrate sportswomen andelevate women’s sport to the mainstream,
bringing more sport to more people whilst
challenging and changing preconceived
ideas around women’s sport. In May,
we launched Change the Game, a multiaward-winning campaign that would put
women’s sport and female athletes front andcentre across the BBC. The FIFA Women’sWorld Cup and Netball World Cup formed
the core of the campaign, which also
included Wimbledon, the World Athletics
Championships, the Women’s Ashes, theWomen’s FA Cup final and the Solheim Cup.
Unprecedented marketing commitment
and specially commissioned programming
across TV, radio and digital platforms added
to a season of content that not only raised
the profile and positioning of women’s
sport, but created new heroes and got thenation talking about our female sport stars.

Hours of ﬁrst-run
originations acrossdaytime and peak
4,000 4,258

Presented by Sir David Attenborough andfeaturing extraordinary wildlife stories andunseen wilderness, this standout series
on BBC One used cutting edge technology,
and celebrated the diversity of life on eachcontinent, showcasing remarkable animal
behaviour and new species. An average
audience of nine million tuned in per episodeacross all screens. It has been the BBC’s
most watched factual programme of 2019.

Change the GameBBC OneSeven Worlds,
One Planet

Total hours
deliveredAchieved
Quota

Measured across the 2019 calendar year. First-run
originations do not include repeats.

BBC Two’s Race Across the World

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Strategic Report

This Classical Life
This Classical Life is hosted by saxophonist
Jess Gillam, a former BBC Young Musician
finalist, and – at 21 – the station’s youngest
ever presenter. Jess is joined by upand-coming musicians – classical andbeyond – to share new discoveries acrossall genres, and reveal how music shapes
their lives. The programme won BestSpecialist Music Show at the 2020 ARIAs
and is also available as a podcast, as partof the station’s drive to reach younger
audiences seeking stimulating new
musical entertainment across all genres.

Jess Gillam presenting BBC Radio 3’s This Classical Life

Race Across the World

BBC quality and distinctiveness by platform

Epic and ambitious new global travelcompetition format, Race Across the World,
captured the imagination of millionsof viewers and was a huge critical andword-of-mouth hit for BBC Two. The firstseries followed five pairs of travellers
as they raced over 12,000 miles, twocontinents, 21 countries and four seas,from London to Singapore, without theuse of air travel, smartphones, credit cards
or any trappings of modern day life. Race
Across the World was the highest launching
factual entertainment show on BBC Two
in 2019, with the final episode gaining
an average audience of 3.5 million acrossall screens, and the series particularly
resonated with younger viewers. Series
two started in March 2020 with five newpairs battling to race the length of Latin
America, from Mexico City to the world’s
most southerly city, Ushuaia, in Argentina.

BBC TV

Sets a high standard for quality

72%

2018/1977%

2018/1970%

2018/1972%

weekly users saying effective(ineffective 9%. 2018/19: 9%).
BBC Radio

75%

weekly users saying effective(ineffective 8%. 2018/19: 7%).
BBC Online

69%

weekly users saying effective(ineffective 9%. 2018/19: 8%).

Distinctive

70%

2018/1976%

2018/1966%

2018/1969%

weekly users saying effective(ineffective 9%. 2018/19: 10%).

73%

weekly users saying effective(ineffective 8%. 2018/19: 8%).

64%

weekly users saying effective(ineffective 10%. 2018/19: 9%).

Source: Ipsos MORIBBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

27

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Delivering our public purposes
3. To show the most creative, highest quality anddistinctive output and services continued

Radio 1’s Christmas
guest presenters
Radio 1 gave new and emerging talent
the opportunity to broadcast on the UK’s
biggest youth radio station over the festive
period in 2019, selecting submissions fromanyone with previous radio experience,
be it in community, hospital, student or
local radio. Amongst those selected were
YouTuber and activist Lucy Edwards, whobecame Radio 1’s first blind presenter,and presenter and podcaster Jacob
Edward, who became the first non-binary
person to host a show on the station.

The Novels That Shaped
Our World
A year-long season of programming across
BBC TV and radio launched in autumn
2019, marking the 300th anniversary of
the English language novel. At the heartof the season, a BBC Two series examined
the influence of three major historical andsocial elements on the creation of novels:
the British Empire and slavery, women’svoices, and working class experience. The
episodes highlighted the role of books
as agents of social change, spearheading
shifts in attitudes and perceptions.

26

40

45

51

52

% of music in
daytime from UK acts

RTS Award-winning drama
Gentleman Jack, BBC One

Ofcom quota

Radio 2

Radio 1

20
Radio 1BAFTA-winning screenwriter Sally
Wainwright’s passion project had an LGBT
love story at its heart, telling the littleknown true story of the revolutionary
landowner Anne Lister, played by Suranne
Jones. Filmed on location in and around
Halifax – including at Lister’s real home,
Shibden Hall – the ‘Gentleman Jack effect’
was credited for a 20% rise in local hotel
bookings and a threefold increase in visitor
numbers to Shibden Hall in the second
half of 2019. The eight-part BBC One series
launched to an average audience of 7.9
million across all screens, making it one of
the BBC’s top five new dramas for 2019.

Radio 2

Gentleman Jack% of new musicin daytime, withsigniﬁcant proportion
from new andemerging UK artists
50 52

The series was accompanied by acollaborative festival, involving the BBC,libraries and reading groups, which
focused on identifying the top 100 novels
which have had an impact on our cultural
world over the last three centuries.

100 Novels That Shaped Our World judging panel

Total hours delivered

41% of additions to the Radio 1 playlist and 20% ofadditions to the Radio 2 playlist during 2019 came from‘new and emerging UK artists’.

28

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Strategic Report62%

2018/1963%% of UK adults who think the BBC iseffective at providing content/services that
set a high standard for originality(ineffective: 16%. 2018/19: 14%).
Source: Ipsos MORI

61%

2018/1964%% of UK adults who think the BBC iseffective at providing content/services
that are distinctive (ineffective: 15%.
2018/19: 13%).
Source: Ipsos MORI

61%

2018/1965%% of UK adults who think the BBC iseffective at providing content/services that
set a high standard for creativity(ineffective: 16%. 2018/19: 14%).
Source: Ipsos MORI

68%

2018/1970%% of UK adults who think the BBC iseffective at providing content/services that
set a high standard for quality (ineffective:
13%. 2018/19: 12%).
Source: Ipsos MORI

64%

2018/1967%% of UK adults who think the BBC iseffective at providing content/services thatcater for a wide range of tastes (ineffective:
15%. 2018/19: 14%).
Source: Ipsos MORIBBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

29

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Delivering our public purposes

4. T o reflect, represent and serve the diverse
communities of all of the United Kingdom’s nations
and regions and support the creative economy
The BBC is committed to serving its
audiences across the UK, providing highquality, distinctive and relevant content forlicence fee payers, helping to maintain reachand providing an effective vehicle to reflect
the range of cultures and communities.
Dedicated services
The BBC also provides a range of dedicated,cross-genre output for Scotland, Wales,
Northern Ireland and the English Regions
across television, radio and online.
Each area makes television and radio
programmes and online content for theirlocal audience and for the network.
We have major production centres
in Glasgow, Cardiff, Belfast, Salford,
Bristol, Birmingham and London.
Hours of proceedings of the Scottish
Parliament, Northern Ireland Assemblyand Welsh Parliament
BBC Parliament

300

Quota

Total hours delivered

518

7/10

2018/19

7/10

The average general
impression score adults
in the UK give the BBC.
Source: Kantar Media30

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Strategic Report

Network supply
Over half of network television production is in the nations
and regions, with 50.7% from outside London and 20.8% from
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Network television programming spend by region as a percentage of
eligible spend
2019

2018

London

49.3%

49.3%

Scotland
Wales
Northern Ireland

9.1%
8.2%
3.5%

10.4%
6.3%
3.1%

Total nations

20.8%

19.8%

Midlands
North of EnglandSouth of EnglandMulti-region*

2.8%
14.0%
9.8%
3.3%

2.2%
17.6%
8.6%
2.5%

Total regions excl. London

30.0%

30.9%

Total nations and regions

50.7%

50.7%

Grand total

100%

100%

BBC Local Radio** and nations radio hours of output

England (excl. London)
LondonScotland
Wales
Northern Ireland

2019

2018

250,281
8,784
11,844
14,7918,221

236,870
8,679
11,888
14,9608,283

Network television spend based on Ofcom definitions by calendar year.
* Multi-region covers programmes made outside London but which cannot be
attributed to any one region or nation.
** The BBC Local Radio and nations radio hours of output only includes
BBC original programmes and excludes any repeat programmes.

We also remain committed to locating at least 50% of ouremployees outside of London and some 52% are currently
based outside of the M25.
UK PSB staff by nation (equivalent full time) % (excl. BBC Studios in 2019)

England (excl. London)
LondonScotland
Wales
Northern Ireland
Behind the scenesof BBC Two drama
Trigonometry

2018/1955%% of UK adults who think the BBC iseffective at reflecting the part of the UK
they live in (ineffective 20%. 2018/19: 20%).
Source: Ipsos MORI

56%

2018/1956%% of UK adults who think the BBC iseffective at catering for the part of the UK
they live in (ineffective 20%. 2018/19: 20%).
Source: Ipsos MORI

56%

2018/1956%% of UK adults who think the BBC iseffective at reflecting people like them(ineffective 21%. 2018/19: 21%).
Source: Ipsos MORI

61%

2018/1961%% of UK adults who think the
BBC is effective at providing content/
services relevant to them (ineffective
19%. 2018/19: 18%).
Source: Ipsos MORI

64%

UK PSB staff by nation

Nation57%

31 March
2020

31 March
2019

34
48
7
7
4

34
48
7
7
4

% of UK adults who think the BBC has
programmes, content and services thatraise awareness of the different waysof life and perspectives in UK society(ineffective 16%).
Source: Ipsos MORI

The pages that follow set out examples of activity that the
BBC is undertaking in each nation of the UK to help fulfil
the purposes. There are differences in usage andperceptions of the BBC in different areas of the UK that the
BBC is seeking to reduce. For example, the BBC Scotland
channel is already contributing to delivery of the purposesin Scotland, and this July new plans were announced totransform local services in England. Meanwhile, schedulechanges on radio in both Wales and Northern Ireland havehelped to address audience declines to BBC Radio Wales
and BBC Radio Ulster.
BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

31

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Delivering our public purposes
4. T o reflect, represent and serve the diverse
communities of all of the United Kingdom’s nations
and regions and support the creative economy continued

Hidden (Craith) on BBC One Wales and S4C

The BBC in Wales
It was a year dominated by Brexit and a Christmas UK General Election– and BBC Wales offered comprehensive coverage of both across its
services and on S4C. Led by Political Editor Felicity Evans, and Welsh
Affairs Editor Vaughan Roderick, round-the-clock coverage explored
every aspect of the economic, political and social outlook.
Away from news, drama from Wales continued apace. The RTS Best
Single Drama Award winner The Left Behind was an unflinching accountof the roots of the far right in Wales – and the role socio-economic factors
can play in drawing people towards xenophobia and hate crime. Keeping
Faith returned for a second series – this time on BBC One across the UK– and continued to attract millions of requests on BBC iPlayer. And thealtogether darker Hidden returned for a second series on BBC One Wales
and BBC Four. His Dark Materials, produced in Wales, also attracted
international acclaim for its adaptation of Philip Pullman’s novels.
Comedy was front and centre this year. A second series of The Tourist Trap
saw the return of the all-star cast to poke some gentle fun at Welsh tropes
and preoccupations. And The Tuckers, written by and starring Steve Spiers,
made its mark instantly as it returned for a first full series following a pilot
episode a year earlier.
There were also opportunities to explore Wales’ landscape and history.
The natural history series, Wales: Land of the Wild, narrated by Michael
Sheen, gave us a remarkable window onto Wales’ wildlife and countryside,whilst The 1900 Island was a unique insight into life in a fishing village at
the turn of the last century. The prestigious BBC Cardiff Singer of the World
also returned – drawing competitors from across the globe.
In our audio services, BBC Radio Cymru commissioned 12 new Welsh
language podcasts for BBC Sounds, focusing heavily on younger
audiences, whilst Shreds, the innovative collaboration between BBC Wales’
newsroom and audio drama teams, had more than 450,000 plays on
BBC Sounds.
This year we launched a new schedule on BBC Radio Wales which has
helped to increase both the number of listeners and how long they listenedfor, and the numbers listening to BBC Radio Cymru were steady. While
down year-on-year, BBC network radio listening and BBC TV viewing in
Wales is higher than in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
Around half of BBC Wales’ staff relocated to its new broadcast centre inCentral Square in Cardiff before the coronavirus outbreak paused themove. Once completed, the move will open a new chapter in the story ofbroadcasting in Wales.
In mid-March, BBC Wales started to deal with the effects of thecoronavirus pandemic. The initial editorial response focused on providing
vital public information relating to Wales as well as entertainment onRadio Wales and Radio Cymru during the first weeks of lockdown.

66%

2018/1974%

2018/1978%

2018/1970%% of adults in Wales who think the BBC is effective at informing,
educating and entertaining people in the UK/them (ineffective: 14%.
2018/19: 12%).

66%% of adults in Wales who think
the BBC is effective at providing
content/services that set a highstandard for quality (ineffective
11%. 2018/19: 11%).

2018/1948%% of adults in Wales who think
the BBC is effective at reflecting
people like them (ineffective 29%.
2018/19: 23%).

2018/19

BBC Television reach% of adults in Wales in TV
homes who watch BBC Televisioneach week.

08:28

BBC Television time per headTime spent watching BBC TV in
TV homes per head, per week in
Wales (hh:mm).

69%

2018/19

10:55

2018/1938%

2018/19

81%

69%

BBC Radio reach% of adults in Wales who listen to
BBC Radio each week.

39%

Dedicated Welsh news services
on television% of adults in Wales in TV homes
who view this content on
BBC Television each week.

08:53

11:49

BBC Radio time per headTime spent listening to BBC Radioper head, per week in Wales(hh:mm).

60%

BBC Online reach% of adults in Wales who use
BBC Online each week.

Sources: Ipsos MORI, BARB (28 days), RAJAR. All reach and time per head figures
are based on adults 16+. BBC TV and BBC Radio reach based on 15+ minutes. BBC
TV dedicated news services reach based on 3+ minutes. BARB figures for 2018/19
are restated to include viewing within 28 days of the linear broadcast.

To read more about how the BBC Board has monitored and reviewed
performance in Wales, see the report on page 140.
32

56%

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Strategic ReportAward-winning drama Elizabeth is Missing

The BBC in Scotland
In its first year of operation, the BBC Scotland channel reached moreviewers in Scotland than any other digital channel, with one in six ofthe population tuning in each week. iPlayer requests to view BBC
Scotland-commissioned and co-commissioned content have morethan doubled since launch.
The BBC Scotland channel will be an important part of how we do more
for audiences in Scotland and help to improve overall perceptions of the
BBC in the nation. So far, the channel has helped minimise drops in TV
viewing: the time Scots spent watching BBC TV was down in 2019/20 (aswas their viewing of broadcast TV overall) but the drop was less than lastyear. Its rich mix of news, factual, entertainment, comedy, drama andsports has brought programmes as varied as Murder Trial, Inside Central
Station, Jamie Genevieve #Unfiltered and the gripping comedy drama,
Guilt, co-commissioned with BBC Two and which The Herald called “anappointment to view”.
Friday evening live football proved very popular with audiences,complemented by the irreverent sideways look at Scottish footballoffered by A View from the Terrace. The channel also featured the firstlinear transmission of the second series of the student drama series,
Clique. Other drama highlights across the year included the four-partlegal thriller, The Victim, and the return to the small screen after 25 years
of Glenda Jackson in the poignant and compelling Elizabeth is Missing.
The landmark documentary series for BBC One, Sacred Wonders,travelled the globe to offer insight to the world’s holiest sites; theever-popular Trust Me, I’m a Doctor returned; and a new series of This
Farming Life followed the working lives of Scotland’s farming community.
It was a busy year for our news teams, with extensive coverage of a snap
UK General Election in December, Brexit and the coronavirus crisis.
There was a welcome return for Debate Night on the BBC Scotland
channel and the conversations on the week’s hot topics continued onRadio Scotland’s Debate Night Extra.
Changes were made to the Radio Scotland schedules as the station
looked to refresh its news offering. Radio nan Gàidheal developed
programmes for learners and reflected community and music events.
And sport – particularly women’s football – featured prominently on
BBC ALBA.
The award-winning The Social continued to connect with younger
audiences and its work on pick-up artists made the transition to
television, with Disclosure and Panorama specials.
To read more about how the BBC Board has monitored and reviewed
performance in Scotland, see the report on page 144.
Sources: Ipsos MORI, BARB (28 days), RAJAR. All reach and time per head figures are based on
adults 16+. BBC TV and BBC Radio reach based on 15+ minutes. BBC TV dedicated news
services reach based on 3+ minutes. BARB figures for 2018/19 are restated to include viewing
within 28 days of the linear broadcast.

64%

2018/1961%

2018/1979%

2018/1953%

2018/1944%

2018/1973%

Ineffective

70%% of adults in Scotland who think the BBC is effective at informing,
educating and entertaining people in the UK/them (ineffective: 17%.
2018/19: 12%).

69%% of adults in Scotland who think
the BBC is effective at providing
content/services that set a highstandard for quality (ineffective
16%. 2018/19: 13%).

81%

BBC Television reach% of adults in Scotland in TV
homes who watch BBC Televisioneach week.

54%

BBC Radio reach% of adults in Scotland who listen
to BBC Radio each week.

45%

Dedicated Scotland news
services on television% of adults in Scotland in TV
homes who view this content on
BBC Television each week.

12%% of adult weekly users rating the
BBC Scotland channel as effectiveat helping the BBC to deliver the
mission overall in Scotland.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

51%

2018/1954%% of adults in Scotland who think
the BBC is effective at reflecting
people like them (ineffective 22%.
2018/19: 24%).

08:16

2018/1906:53

2018/19

08:45

BBC Television time per headTime spent watching BBC TV in
TV homes per head, per week in
Scotland (hh:mm)

07:14

BBC Radio time per headTime spent listening to BBC Radioper head, per week in Scotland(hh:mm).

58%

BBC Online reach% of adults in Scotland who use
BBC Online each week.

75%

Ineffective

16%% of adult weekly users rating the
BBC Scotland channel as effectiveat helping the BBC to deliver
the public purposes overall
in Scotland.

33

Return to contents

Delivering our public purposes
4. T o reflect, represent and serve the diverse
communities of all of the United Kingdom’s nations
and regions and support the creative economy continued

BBC Two’s Mountain Vets

The BBC in Northern Ireland
We reflected community and cultural life in its many different
aspects across the BBC’s services in Northern Ireland.
We reported issues linked to Brexit, elections and the return of devolved
government at Stormont. And we explored the events and legacies of
The Troubles with landmark programmes and series, and madeeffective use of BBC iPlayer to make this content more easily accessible.
We also refreshed the schedule on BBC Radio Ulster/Foyle and made anumber of changes to programme formats, presentation and durations,seeking to maintain its distinctiveness and broad popular appeal.
2019/20 saw Radio Ulster/Foyle’s reach stabilise following a decline theprevious year.
BBC Radio Foyle celebrated its 40th birthday with a series ofoutside broadcasts and a special concert of music and readings fromthe Guildhall.
We showcased the excitement and spectacle of The Open at RoyalPortrush and delivered critically acclaimed network output with areturning series of Line of Duty and an Arena profile of Seamus Heaney.
We brought the Ulster Orchestra’s work to listeners at home and aroundthe UK and our local television output blended comedy with topicalstudio discussions, musical performances including School Choir of theYear, and documentaries. We profiled life and work in ruralcommunities in Home Ground and Mountain Vets and captured thebeauty of the Fermanagh Lakelands in The Chronicles of Erne.
We renewed our successful partnership with Libraries NI anddeveloped an ambitious, youth-focused initiative in association with
BBC Three and Northern Ireland Screen. We supported the region’s
linguistic diversity through programmes in Irish and Ulster-Scots andcommissioned a broad range of content from the independent sector –underscoring our role in helping to sustain the wider creative industries
and economy in Northern Ireland.
Our local services also played a critical role in keeping audiences
informed about the coronavirus pandemic. And programmes such as
The Nolan Show and Talkback provided a vital forum for people’s issues
and concerns. All of this was complemented by music, entertainment
and educational output and new content about coronavirus’ effects on
everyday life.
To read more about how the BBC Board has monitored and reviewed
performance in Northern Ireland, see the report on page 149.

34

62%

2018/1960%

2018/1979%

2018/1958%

2018/19

BBC Radio reach% of adults in Northern Ireland
who listen to BBC Radio eachweek.

BBC Radio time per headTime spent listening to BBC Radioper head, per week in Northern
Ireland (hh:mm).

48%

2018/1945%

65%% of adults in Northern Ireland who think the BBC is effective at
informing, educating and entertaining people in the UK/them(ineffective: 15%. 2018/19: 14%).

60%% of adults in Northern Ireland
who think the BBC is effective at
providing content/services that
set a high standard for quality(ineffective 17%. 2018/19: 16%).

81%

BBC Television reach% of adults in Northern Ireland in
TV homes who watch
BBC Television each week.

60%

50%

Dedicated Northern Irelandnews services on television% of adults in Northern Ireland in
TV homes who view this content
on BBC Television each week.

52%

2018/1950%% of adults in Northern Ireland
who think the BBC is effective atreflecting people like them(ineffective 23%. 2018/19: 25%).

06:45

2018/1906:53

2018/19

06:53

BBC Television time per headTime spent watching BBC TV in
TV homes per head, per week inNorthern Ireland (hh:mm).

07:26

BBC Online reach% of adults in Northern Ireland
who use BBC Online each week.

Sources: Ipsos MORI, BARB (28 days), RAJAR. All reach and time per head figures
are based on adults 16+. BBC TV and BBC Radio reach based on 15+ minutes. BBC
TV dedicated news services reach based on 3+ minutes. BARB figures for 2018/19
are restated to include viewing within 28 days of the linear broadcast.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Strategic Report
BBC Local Radio New Voices team

The BBC in England
During the year we developed exciting plans to transform BBC
services in England and to do more to refocus resources across thewhole nation, with a particular focus on the Midlands and the North.
The plans were approved by the Board and announced in July 2020.
They are intended as a significant step towards addressing thechallenges and differences in perception and usage of the BBC acrossthe regions of England that the data on these pages shows.
And we continue to seek other new ways to engage with audiences
across our services. In September, BBC Local Radio launched ‘New
Voices’ – the biggest talent search in its 50-year history. All 39 local
radio stations held open auditions in their areas. Anyone over 18 was
welcome to audition, with no broadcast experience required. Everystation found at least one new voice to develop but most found many
more. In total, more than 421 new voices were discovered and have beenfeatured on stations as presenters, reporters or contributors. The
movement brought in voices from diverse, underserved and underrepresented communities and was particularly successful at engaging
with younger age groups, in Nottingham, for example, where 43% of
hopefuls entering were aged 18-25.
Upload was rolled out across BBC Local Radio at the beginning of 2020.
The platform is designed to launch the careers of writers, comediansand creators in the same way BBC Introducing Music has done forartists like Lewis Capaldi. Upload, first launched at BBC Bristol, enables
anyone to share content to a hub where it is picked up by teams from thelocal radio station. Content is selected to contribute to a weekly
programme for broadcast on local radio. It has brought in new voicesfrom younger groups and underserved communities.
BBC England appointed a Head of TV Commissioning in 2019 with abrief to develop and deliver a broader offer for the audience in Englandand to reflect their lives in new and positive ways. In partnership with
BBC Three, BBC England TV Commissioning now co-funds the
successful series Angels of the North from Gateshead and the series
Models: Street to Catwalk from Manchester and launched the talentinitiative Northern Voices aimed at promoting young documentarytalent in the North of England. BBC England TV Commissioning also
partnered with other channels including BBC Two and BBC Four,delivering immersive walking series Yorkshire Walks and A Very British
History, which reflects the lives of minority communities acrossEngland. We continue to build partnerships and work with otherparts of the BBC to make new exciting programmes for the audiencein England.
To read more about how the BBC Board has monitored and reviewed
performance in England, see the report on page 153.

71%

2018/1969%

2018/1978%

2018/1962%

2018/1938%

2018/1972%% of adults in England who think the BBC is effective at informing,
educating and entertaining people in the UK/them (ineffective: 12%.
2018/19: 12%).

71%% of adults in England who think
the BBC is effective at providing
content/services that set a highstandard for quality (ineffective
13%. 2018/19: 12%).

79%

BBC Television reach% of adults in England in TV
homes who watch BBC Televisioneach week.

63%

BBC Radio reach% of adults in England who listen
to BBC Radio each week.

39%

Dedicated English Regions news
services on television% of adults in England in TV
homes who view this content on
BBC Television each week.

57%

2018/1957%% of adults in England who think
the BBC is effective at reflecting
people like them (ineffective 21%.
2018/19: 21%).

07:35

2018/19

09:15

2018/19

07:38

BBC Television time per headTime spent watching BBC TV in
TV homes per head, per week in
England (hh:mm).

09:44

BBC Radio time per headTime spent listening to BBC Radioper head, per week in England(hh:mm).

53%

BBC Online reach% of adults in England who use
BBC Online each week.

Sources: Ipsos MORI, BARB (28 days), RAJAR. All reach and time per head figures
are based on adults 16+. BBC TV and BBC Radio reach based on 15+ minutes. BBC
TV dedicated news services reach based on 3+ minutes. BARB figures for 2018/19
are restated to include viewing within 28 days of the linear broadcast.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

35

Return to contents

Delivering our public purposes
4. T o reflect, represent and serve the diverse
communities of all of the United Kingdom’s nations
and regions and support the creative economy continued
The tables on this page set out the perceptions of people in different areas of England in terms of how effective they feel the BBC is atdelivering the mission, reflecting people like them and setting a high standard for quality. It also shows how they use the BBC across TV,
radio and online.
% of adults in different areas of England who think the BBC informs, educatesand entertains people in the UK/themNorth ofEngland 16+

Midlands 16+

South ofEngland 16+

London 16+

Effective

69%

74%

73%

67%

Ineffective

15%

10%

12%

2018/19:
Effective/
Ineffective

72%/14%69%/12%

76%/11%

North ofEngland 16+

Midlands 16+

South ofEngland 16+

London 16+

2019/20

59%

67%

73%

50%

13%

2018/19

61%

68%

73%

51%

72%/11%

Dedicated English Regions news services: % of adults in England in TV
homes who view this content on BBC Television each week

% of adults in different areas of England who think the BBC is effective atreflecting people like them
North ofEngland 16+

Midlands 16+

South ofEngland 16+

London 16+

Effective

52%

58%

59%

59%

Ineffective

24%

17%

22%

21%

2018/19:
Effective/
Ineffective

56%/23%58%/20%57%/19%54%/20%% of adults in different areas of England who think the BBC is effective at
providing content/services that set a high standard for quality
North ofEngland 16+

Midlands 16+

South ofEngland 16+

London 16+

Effective

65%

71%

70%

69%

Ineffective

15%

13%

12%

10%

2018/19:
Effective/
Ineffective

69%/13%

71%/12%

74%/12%

69%/12%

BBC Television reach: % of adults in TV homes in different areas of England
who watch BBC Television each week36

BBC Radio reach: % of adults in different areas of England who listen to
BBC Radio each week

North ofEngland 16+

Midlands 16+

South ofEngland 16+

London 16+

2019/20

78%

78%

81%

74%

2018/19

80%

80%

81%

75%

North ofEngland 16+

Midlands 16+

South ofEngland 16+

London 16+

2019/20

40%

37%

43%

32%

2018/19

42%

39%

43%

32%

BBC Television: Time spent watching BBC TV in TV homes per head, perweek (hh:mm)
North ofEngland 16+

Midlands 16+

South ofEngland 16+

London 16+

2019/20

07:44

07:23

08:47

06:24

2018/19

07:56

07:36

08:25

06:32

BBC Radio: Time spent listening to BBC Radio per head, per week (hh:mm)
North ofEngland 16+

Midlands 16+

South ofEngland 16+

London 16+

2019/20

08:34

10:12

11:42

06:48

2018/19

09:03

10:50

12:11

07:08

BBC Online reach: % of adults in different areas of England who use BBC
Online each week 2019/20

2019/20

North ofEngland 16+

Midlands 16+

South ofEngland 16+

London 16+

51%

50%

54%

58%

Sources: Ipsos MORI, BARB (28 days), RAJAR. All reach and time per head figures are
based on adults 16+. BBC TV and BBC Radio reach based on 15+ minutes. BBC TV
dedicated news services reach based on 3+ minutes. BARB figures for 2018/19
are restated to include viewing within 28 days of the linear broadcast.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Strategic Report

Delivering representationand portrayal
The BBC remains committed toensuring our audiences in the United
Kingdom’s nations and regions seethemselves authentically reflected
and their stories told through all of ourcontent on-air, online and on-screen.
This helps us to respond to differencesin usage and perceptions of the BBC
among different audience groups
and in different parts of the UK.
On-screen/on-air representation
Our Diversity Commissioning Code ofPractice sets out our framework for greater
on-air, on-screen and online representation,
against which we measure progress in anannual report. These principles are built
into how we operate: across all platforms,
on- and off-screen, we actively search
for new, diverse voices to enrich ourstorytelling, nurture emerging talent tomake their mark, and work with establishedtalent to showcase their best work.
This year we have collaborated withMichaela Coel on her ground-breaking
series I May Destroy You, based on her reallife experience of sexual abuse, as well as
exploring issues of consent, gender identity
and sexuality, and with a predominantly
black cast. We have developed Small
Axe with Oscar winning director Steve
McQueen – five compelling films focusing
on London’s West Indian community across
20 years – which provided 14 BBC funded
black, Asian and minority ethnic trainees
the opportunity to work on the production.
We’ve adapted Malorie Blackman’s awardwinning novel Noughts + Crosses, with
newcomer Masali Baduza in one of the leadroles, and we’ve put real-life stories like
Sitting in Limbo and Anthony at the heart ofour BBC One schedule. Glenda Jackson won
a BAFTA for her performance portraying
issues of old age and dementia in Elizabeth isMissing, and we have built diverse storylines
around racism, gay romance, deafness,disability and mental health into continuing
dramas EastEnders, Casualty and Holby City.
Reflecting and representing our audiences
is central to what we do. Our AssistantCommissioner scheme helps to provide morediversity of thought, ideas and creativity
to shape our editorial decision-making todeliver a wider variety of content both onscreen and online. This year we have told
stories from across the UK which resonate
with a range of communities; Mobeen Azhar
won RTS Best Presenter for his compelling
documentary series HomeTown: A Killing
set in Huddersfield, which was in the top

BBC One dramaYears and Years

20 factual shows for young audienceson iPlayer; David Olusoga told the storyof the Windrush generation and theirtreatment by the British government in The
Unwanted: The Secret Windrush Files, andBirmingham-born poet Sue Brown looked at
the experience of the Caribbean community
in BBC Four’s The First Black Brummies. The
Asian Network has hosted comedy nights
in Birmingham and Edinburgh to develop
relationships and identify emerging talent,
while Radio 4 has commissioned Doorstep
Daughter, a remarkable look at the crosscultural experience of child-raising. BBCSounds has commissioned podcasts that
represent diverse audience groups in anauthentic, relatable and entertaining way,
including The Reality Tea, Comic Sanskrit
and Brown Girls Do It Too. The BBC’s 50:50
Project is a voluntary self-monitoring
system to increase women’s representation.
During the second 50:50 Challenge inMarch 2020, two-thirds of datasets
reached 50% of women contributors.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Authentically reflecting people
As a broadcaster we seek to lead byexample. Principle two of our Diversity
Commissioning Code of Practicehighlights the importance of portrayal
and authenticity to truly reflect ouraudiences. To this end, we have madesignificant investments in a number ofprojects that support opportunities fordiverse creators who can authenticallytell stories that portray the true depth andvariety of all the audiences we serve.
Talent development schemes like BBC
Writersroom have led to authentic new
dramas and comedies including: The
Left Behind, which centres on white
working class experience in Wales, andMy Left Nut from Belfast. Sophie Willan,
a winner of the Caroline Aherne bursary
has been commissioned to write a series
Alma’s not Normal set in her hometown of
Bolton. And we have continued to reflectdisability authentically across our output,
including casting Ruth Madeley, who
was born with spina bifida, as Rosie theyoungest Lyons sibling in Years and Years.
37

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Delivering our public purposes
4. T o reflect, represent and serve the diverse
communities of all of the United Kingdom’s nations
and regions and support the creative economy continued
We support producers and the wider sector
through our £2 million Diversity Fund,and our diversity partnership with PACT.
Our recent commitment to invest £100
million to diverse representation, talent andcompanies builds on this foundation and isa game-changer for the industry, motivating
our programme-makers to be increasingly
diverse both on- and off-screen. Our new
diversity target of 20% representation
off-screen for new commissions – witha focus on social mobility, disability
and ethnicity – underpins the financial
commitments and ensures production
teams better reflect the audiences we serve.
Our commercial arm, BBC Studios, iscommitted to greater inclusion across allof its content. Harnessing the diversityof thought and ideas from its teams has
been a key component to their success.
Across all of our genres additional efforts
have been made to ensure our output isauthentic and draws on the diverse talentsfrom within the organisation. This has
led to shows like Brain in Gear, Famalamand Muzlamic making their way to TV.
Local representation
We continue to reflect community life inall of its changing aspects and give voice tostories as they unfold. Our local radio stations
connect audiences to local community eventsand engage people in different ways andin different places to deliver services thatare innovative, relevant and distinctive.
In February 2019, we launched the BBC
Scotland channel which has grownthroughout 2019/20 and now reaches
more viewers on average each week
than any other TV channel in Scotland
except for BBC One, BBC Two, ITV,
Channel 4 and Channel 5. We have built
on this success, continuing to reflectmodern Scotland through high-quality,
distinctive and innovative programming.
Network portrayal – nations and regions
Over half the BBC’s spend and half ourteams are out of London. We have morethan doubled the proportion of network
TV programmes produced in Scotland,
Wales and Northern Ireland in a decade.
We have told stories that resonate locally,
but showcase the nations globally. The
biggest TV audience of 2019 celebrated an
intimate family Christmas with Gavin andStacey in Barry, South Wales and viewers
were gripped by surrogacy thriller The
Nest, set in Glasgow, and laughed alongwith BBC Two’s dark comedy, Guilt.
We told innovative new stories from thenorth of England, like Manchester-set
Years and Years and Gentleman Jack in

38

Actual on and off-screen diversity: 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020
Data provided from contributions by individuals who have a role in eligible programmes.

FemaleBlack, Asian and minority ethnic
Disabled
LGB
Transgender
Number of contributions*

Actualoff-screen

Actualon-screen

54.7%
9.8%
5.8%
12.1%
0.2%
220,358

55.7%
26.8%
8.4%
11.5%
0.4%
78,576* An individual may make multiple contributions to a programme or programmes

Perceived on-screen diversity: 1 April 2019 to 31 March 2020
Data input by production companies taking a viewer’s perspective of what they see and hear.
Perceived
on-screen

FemaleBlack, Asian and minority ethnic
Disabled
LGB
Transgender
Number of contributions*% for whom diversity characteristics were determined

46.2%
23.0%
5.2%
6.1%
0.1%
480,696
89.3%* An individual may make multiple contributions to a programme or programmes.

Halifax, as well as refreshing the voices
on long-running series Top Gear. Angels of
the North is based in a Gateshead beautysalon and gives viewers a window into
local entrepreneurship and an honest
exploration of mental health issues. And
our award-winning Northern Irelandseries Spotlight on the Troubles has won
plaudits at home and abroad. In radio,
Salford is the proud home of podcast
hits including That Peter Crouch Podcast,End of Days and You, Me and the Big C.

from Londonderry-based Alleycats and anintergenerational cooking show from RareTV. We are extending this approach to thenorth of England, Scotland and Wales.
The data we report on these pages gives
more detail on how we measure andmonitor our progress with representationand portrayal. This report underlines thevital role that we play in contributing toreflecting and representing the United
Kingdom’s nations and regions andsupporting the creative economy.

Sector support
Alongside our production successes,
the BBC continues to contribute to theeconomic growth of our nations and regions,
supporting the development of talent, skills
and companies in all four nations. This
year we launched our Small Indie Fund,with two thirds of companies supported
coming from the nations and regions,and a quarter with diverse leadership.
As part of our coronavirus pandemic
response, we doubled the scale of ourring-fenced investment. As a result we are
now providing strategic support to nearlya hundred companies. We have worked
in partnership with local screen agencies
and training bodies to support businessdevelopment, diversity and content foryoung audiences. For example, BBC Threeand Northern Ireland Screen worked
together on a scheme to stimulate ideas
for the channel which has a guaranteedcommission at the end of the process. This
has already led to two pilots – one exploring
young farmers’ competitive tractor racing

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

BBC Three’s My Left Nut

Return to contents

Strategic Report

The tables on these pages sets out audience groups’ perceptions of how effective the BBC is at delivering the mission, reflecting people likethem and setting a high standard for quality. It also shows how these audience groups use the BBC across TV, radio and online.
% of each audience group who think the BBC informs, educates and entertains people in the UK/themMale 16+

Female 16+

ABC1 16+

C2DE 16+

16-34

35-54

55+

White 16+

BAME 16+

Effective

69%

71%

79%

60%

68%

69%

73%

72%

57%

Ineffective

14%

11%

10%

16%

12%

14%

12%

12%

15%

2018/19: Effective

70%

73%

79%

63%

69%

70%

74%

72%

69%

2018/19: Ineffective

14%

11%

9%

16%

11%

13%

12%

12%

13%

% of each audience group who think the BBC is effective at reflecting people like them
Male 16+

Female 16+

ABC1 16+

C2DE 16+

16-34

35-54

55+

White 16+

BAME 16+

Effective

54%

58%

61%

50%

53%

53%

61%

58%

43%

Ineffective

23%

20%

19%

24%

23%

22%

20%

21%

26%

2018/19: Effective

55%

56%

62%

48%

51%

57%

59%

57%

48%

2018/19: Effective

23%

19%

19%

24%

20%

22%

21%

21%

26%

% of each audience group who think the BBC is effective at providing content/services that set a high standard for quality
Male 16+

Female 16+

ABC1 16+

C2DE 16+

16-34

35-54

55+

White 16+

BAME 16+

Effective

68%

69%

75%

60%

66%

67%

71%

70%

54%

Ineffective

15%

11%

11%

16%

11%

16%

12%

13%

15%

2018/19: Effective

70%

71%

77%

61%

69%

68%

74%

71%

66%

2018/19: Ineffective

13%

11%

9%

16%

11%

13%

12%

12%

10%

BBC Television reach: % of each audience group in TV homes that watch BBC Television each week
Male 16+

Female 16+

ABC1 16+

C2DE 16+

16-34

35-54

55+

White 16+

BAME 16+2019/20

72%

75%

75%

72%

55%

79%

92%

77%

60%

2018/19

73%

77%

77%

74%

58%

81%

93%

78%

63%

BBC Radio reach: % of each audience group that listen to BBC Radio each week
Male 16+

Female 16+

ABC1 16+

C2DE 16+

16-34

35-54

55+

White 16+

BAME 16+2019/20

64%

59%

69%

52%

49%

60%

72%

64%

43%

2018/19

66%

59%

70%

53%

51%

62%

72%

66%

45%

BBC Online reach: % of each audience group that use BBC Online each week

2019/20

Male 16+

Female 16+

ABC1 16+

C2DE 16+

16-34

35-54

55+

White 16+

BAME 16+

60%

47%

63%

42%

55%

62%

45%

54%

53%

BBC Television: Time spent watching BBC TV in TV homes per head, per week (hh:mm)
Male 16+

Female 16+

ABC1 16+

C2DE 16+

16-34

35-54

55+

White 16+

BAME 16+2019/20

06:28

07:07

06:44

06:52

02:28

05:48

12:55

07:28

03:30

2018/19

06:32

07:19

06:54

06:58

02:39

05:55

13:07

07:34

03:44

BBC Radio: Time spent listening to BBC Radio per head, per week (hh:mm)
Male 16+

Female 16+

ABC1 16+

C2DE 16+

16-34

35-54

55+

White 16+

BAME 16+2019/20

09:28

08:41

10:01

07:55

03:57

08:05

13:55

09:54

03:46

2018/19

10:04

09:04

10:29

08:27

04:20

08:40

14:31

10:38

04:26

Sources: Ipsos MORI, BARB (28 days), RAJAR. BBC TV and BBC Radio reach here and on page 137 based on 15+ minutes. This BARB data measures TV set viewing only within 28 daysof the linear broadcast, meaning that on-demand viewing on other devices or pre-broadcast or post-28 days is not included in the figures. BARB figures for 2018/19 are restated toinclude viewing within 28 days of the linear broadcast.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

39

Return to contents

Delivering our public purposes

5. To reflect the United Kingdom, its culture
and values to the world
The following page demonstrates how the BBC works to inform, educate andentertain people across the globe. This year the BBC reached a new record global
reach of 468 million weekly users – up 11% on last year. We have bureaux in 58
countries and 74 cities. These include Newsgathering, BBC World Service,
BBC Monitoring, BBC Global News and Media Action.

468m

116m

351m

Global weekly reach
Including BBC News and
BBC Studios.

BBC World Service
total digital reachEnglish and other languages.

Source: BBC Global Audience
Measure.

Source: BBC Global Audience
Measure.

BBC World Service
weekly reach
Includes TV, radio, online andsocial media in English andother languages.

up 11%

up 96.2%

up 11.2%

Source: BBC Global Audience
Measure.

438m

137m
down 0.4%

down 1.5%

BBC News
Total international weekly
audience.

BBC World Service television
weekly reach
Non-English languages.

BBC World Service radio
weekly reachEnglish and other languages.

Source: BBC Global Audience
Measure.

Source: BBC Global Audience
Measure.

Source: BBC Global Audience
Measure.

up 12.5%

66%

160m

65%

Reporting on a climatechange demonstration

Source: Ipsos MORI

RankedNo.1

Sex for Grades, a devastating undercoverinvestigation which exposed sexual
harassment in West African universities,
had a huge impact both socially andpolitically. The film led to widespread
media coverage and social media
activity after its broadcast.
Four lecturers exposed in the documentary
were suspended – and suspensions followedin Malawi, Zambia and Kenya after students
reported professors in the wake of the film.
In Nigeria, prominent political figures– including the President and First
Lady – spoke out about the issue. The
long-overdue Sexual Offenders Register
was introduced and the Nigerian Senate
drafted and submitted a bill which
will criminalise sexual harassment inuniversities, backed by 120 senators.

During the year the BBC joined forces withAngelina Jolie and Microsoft Education
to produce a weekly half-hour news
programme for younger audiences. My
World, broadcast on BBC World News and
BBC iPlayer, with multi-lingual distribution
around the world, draws on the global
reporting of the BBC World Service tomake a programme for teenagers – who areoften poorly served by the news content
available to them. The BBC retains full
editorial control over this co-production.
The BBC World Service has also beenreaching younger audiences, with a thirdof the audience for the BBC World Service’s
non-English language services aged 15-24.

for Trust, Independence,
Reliability amongst
international news providers.
Source: BBC Brand Tracker 2019 (ex UK)

The GAM process and methodology has been improved this year, like every year. Among other improvements, from thisyear survey data is no longer being used for direct digital audio – ie consumed on the World Service website. Instead, thisdata now comes from digital analytics. Related, but separately, all digital audio and digital TV consumption is being
reported in digital from this year rather than within a broader radio/audio and TV category. The radio category this year
refers to content consumed through SW/MW, FM, satellite radio, DAB and radio on TV only. In order to understandaccurately performance this year, last year’s reach numbers have been ‘adjusted’ where necessary and increases ordecreases have been shown against those adjusted figures rather than the figures reported last year.

40

Investment in the World Service has
enabled the BBC to produce an awardwinning investigative documentary strand,
Africa Eye, which went from strength tostrength this year, reaching 7.8 million
people weekly. This is a type of journalismthat local news providers are sometimes
unwilling – or unable – to carry out.

Reaching new
audiences

2018/19% of UK adults who thinkthat the BBC is effective atreflecting the UK to theworld (ineffective 12%.
2018/19: 13%).

Africa Eye

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

BBC Minute is an hourly 60-second audio
newscast broadcast on more than 40
music stations around the world, as wellas on digital platforms such as Spotify,
Google, Apple and Amazon Alexa. A
Spanish-language version broadcasts
across South America, with a further
English-language bulletin produced in
Delhi. Younger audiences can also engage
with BBC Minute’s journalism throughexplainers on its Instagram account.

Return to contents

Strategic Report

Coronavirus
Coronavirus is a global health crisis,
and the BBC’s global news operations
have been playing a crucial role bringing
factual information to millions of people
around the world, particularly in countries
where disinformation is common.
Correspondents operated in increasingly
challenging conditions as coronavirus
spread around the world.
Extensive coverage and live updates ofkey developments featured on all of the
BBC World Service’s 42 non-English
language sites as well as in English.
Coronavirus Global Update, a new daily
podcast featuring a round-up of reports andmedical information, was broadcast on radio
each day, made available on World Service
websites, and also given free of charge topartner radio stations around the world.
BBC Persian saw its digital reach morethan treble as the outbreak took hold in
Iran. We introduced a new daily television
programme putting viewers’ questions
directly to a different expert each day – avital service in a country lacking any realpublic health information campaigns.
The BBC’s international English language
website saw its biggest audience of alltime in March, with just under 180
million unique browsers – a year-on-yearincrease of 84%. The BBC’s commercial
international news channel, World News,saw a surge of requests from partners forinclusion in their subscription packages
and increased its weekly global audienceby 12.1% to 112 million in 2020.
BBC Global News, which operates
the BBC’s commercial news outlets,
made advertising inventory available
free of charge to international andgovernmental organisations aroundthe world to communicate publichealth messages to viewers.
My World produced extra digital content
about the pandemic. This was also
shared with UNESCO’s Global Education
Coalition, a website providing remotelearning for children around the world.
And it was not just in developing media
markets that there was appetite for accurate,
independent news. BBC World News saw its
US audiences increase by 50% over the year.

BBC World Service weekly reach across all platforms, by service
2019/20
Millions

Year-on-yearchange%

2019/20
Millions

Year-on-yearchange%World Service English

96.7

7.6%

Pidgin6.0-2.5%

Afaan Oromoo

0.3

143.2%

Punjabi0.9

110.6%

Afrique

13.5

10.4%

Russian

5.4

31.8%

Amharic

0.3

67.1%

Serbian

0.6

326.9%

Arabic

42.2

-3.6%

Sinhala

0.9

-5.5%

Azeri

0.3

75.5%

Somali6.0

1.2%

Bengali

12.6

4.5%

Swahili

22.4

17.0 %

Brasil

6.9

5.0%

Tamil

12.8

9.0%

Burmese

6.4

20.2%

Telugu8.8

10.5%

Chinese2.7

140.2%

Thai

1.7

0.1%

Dari*

4.4

2.0%

Tigrinya

0.2

64.0%

Gahuza**

1.7

28.5%

Turkish

2.9

51.5%

Gujarati

3.7

19.9%

UK China

0.1

37.0 %

Hausa

20.1

-15.0%

Ukrainian

4.4

16.0%

Hindi

24.9

33.6%

Urdu

8.6

14.2%

Igbo

1.9

62.3%

Uzbek

2.6

17.2%

Indonesian

5.2

13.6%

Vietnamese

2.7

104.4%

Korean0.9

3.1%

Yoruba4.3

165.9%

Kyrgyz3.1

1.1%

Learning English***

2.3

1.0%

Marathi

4.0

104.1%

Mundo

10.7

40.2%

Nepali

5.6

6.5%

Pashto10.4

2.2%

Persian

18.3

-0.1%

45

m

up 6.8%bbc.com and social media
weekly reachInternational English language
digital.
Source: BBC Global Audience
Measure.
bbc.com is commercially funded.

The Global Audience Measure is an annual update of how
many people are consuming the BBC weekly for all services
in all countries across all platforms (television, radio, website
and social media). Key to this is de-duplication i.e. ensuringthat a person who consumes multiple BBC services orplatforms or on multiple devices is not counted many times
in the top level totals. For example, BBC World Service
television, radio and online audience is less than the sum of
its parts to ensure we do not count people more than once
when looking at the total World Service audience.
* Dari is reported separately from Persian in GAM
2019/20.
** Service in Kinyarwanda and Kirundi languages for theGreat Lakes region of Sub Saharan Africa.
***BBC Learning English teaches English to global audiences.

RankedNo.1

international news provider
for helping to gain a morein-depth understanding of
the news.
Source: BBC Brand Tracker 2019 (ex UK)

112m
up 12.1%

BBC World News TV channel
weekly reachEnglish language global news
channel.
Source: BBC Global Audience
Measure.
BBC World News TV channel iscommercially funded.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

BBC News editing room41

Return to contents

Finance andoperations
Our goal is to ensure that the organisation is run as
efficiently and effectively as possible and to redirectspending and simplify procedures in a way that
supports a more creative and sustainable BBC.
Non-Financial Reporting
Information (NRI) Statement
We acknowledge the non-financial reporting
requirements of the Companies Act 2006
and have disclosed relevant associatedinformation throughout the strategic report.
For ease of reference, information relating to
the five matters covered by the regulation
can be found on the following pages:
environmental sustainability (page 66); ourpeople (pages 59 to 63); human rights,
modern slavery, anti-bribery (page 58).
Further information can also be found inour business model (page 70), our principal
risks (page 95) and our non-financial
performance (throughout the strategic
report, pages 6 to 68).

David Mitchell in BBC
Two’s Upstart Crow

Sandra Oh in Killing Eve

42

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

We end the financial year
in uncertain times, withthe global coronavirus
pandemic increasing thedemand for BBC content
and services whilst giving
us many operational andfinancial challenges.

Our focus this year has been on continuing
to reinvent the BBC for our audiences,
ensuring that we offer value for money
to our licence fee payers.
Due to the timing of its development, thecoronavirus pandemic has had limited
impact on our financial results for 2019/20.
However, we face significant challenges in
2020/21, and beyond. Along with the wider
media industry, our operations have been
severely affected. Production activity has
been put on hold, sporting and cultural
events have been cancelled or postponed
and the organisation has had to evolveto accommodate new ways of working.
In response to the pandemic we havedeveloped plans to mitigate the impact on
our financial position and have identified£125 million of additional savings requiredin 2020/21, with further savings challenges
to follow in the years ahead on top ofsignificant underlying efficiency targets. As
an organisation our focus continues to beon ensuring the licence fee remains value
for money, offering compelling content andvital services during this time of national
emergency. The BBC will emerge different
from the national crisis, but will continue
to deliver great output for audiences.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Strategic Report

Chief Financial Officer’s Review

A year of focused investment incontent, including investments incritically-acclaimed drama and indigital priorities including iPlayer and
BBC Sounds.
£199 million of annual savings
delivered in 2019/20.
Continued strong commercial
performance from our subsidiaries with
year-on-year EBITDA (earnings before
interest, tax, depreciation andamortisation) growth of 9%.
Overheads remain at industry-leadinglevels, at only 5% of our total costs, with
95% directed to audience-facing
content and services.
Net debt of £1,613 million includes anoperating cash balance of £401 million
which is required to help mitigate theimpact of coronavirus and thetransition to collecting the licence fee
from eligible over-75s.

43

Return to contents

Finance and operations

Summary
The BBC continues to focus on building
resilience to face the challenges presented
to us in the year ahead. Our goal is to run
the organisation efficiently and effectively,
directing as much money as possible tocontent and our audiences whilst ensuring
a sustainable and more creative BBC.
We have accomplished a vast amount tomake the BBC simpler, leaner, and more
efficient and will continue to do so in the
future. Since 2016/17, we have delivered£618 million of cumulative savings andin 2020/21 we are projecting our savings
total to rise above £800 million – beating
our target a year earlier than planned.
As expected, and with the phased reductionin the Government funding of over-75s’licence fee income, this year’s results showa group operating deficit of £122 million,
compared to an operating deficit of £52
million last year. The reduction in licence
fee income is partially offset by reduced
Public Service expenditure and improved
performance in our commercial subsidiaries.
The planned changes to licence fee funding
and the timing of content spend causes
fluctuation in our annual results. The BBC’s
financial objective is to maintain a medium
term breakeven income and expenditure
position, whilst ensuring adequate liquidity
to manage cash flow timing differences
and provide some limited contingency
in the form of financial reserves.

Careful cash management and planningover the next year is essential as we
manage the transition to collecting
the licence fee from eligible over75s and respond to the coronavirus
pandemic and other uncertainties
facing the BBC in the near future.
This report sets out detail on our income
and expenditure across the year, as well as
our commercial performance and specificareas such as pension contributions andtax issues. It also includes detail on ourcontinued performance in delivering
efficiencies, with a further £199 millionof annual savings delivered this year.
IncomeThe phased reduction in Government
funding for over-75s’ licences, and a small
reduction in the number of paid licences,
has resulted in a 5% decline in overall
licence fee income to £3,520 million
compared to £3,690 million last year. Thisis a result of underlying drivers of licence
fee income including household growth,evasion and economic growth. This year
we received £253 million of Government
funding for over-75s, compared to £468
million in 2018/19. This reduction waspartially offset by the CPI inflation increase
applied to the licence fee, increasing theannual fee from £150.50 to £154.50.
Other income includes the contribution of
our commercial operations and third party

sales income. Income of £1,423 million
was recognised in year, an increase of£224 million from last year. This increaseis due to growth in BBC Studios and theacquisition of the UKTV group in June 2019,with results now consolidated within the
BBC group, previously included in share of
results of associates and joint ventures.
Spend
We have continued to invest in highquality content and our digital services
by expanding the availability of
programmes on iPlayer and BBC Sounds.
This investment is funded by ongoingsavings plans. This year, our Public Service
content spend decreased by 3% to £2,777
million due to major sporting eventsin the prior year. Content spend and its
delivery represented 95% of total spend,maintaining our industry leading overheadrates at just 5% of the total cost base.
Cash and net debt
Our borrowing limits, set by the Department
for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport(DCMS), were increased from 1 April 2019
due to mandatory accounting changes(IFRS 16: Leases) resulting in additional
leases reported on the balance sheet. The
Public Service net borrowing limit wasincreased to £2,200 million, of which£2,000 million is specifically for leases.
The BBC Commercial Group borrowing
limit increased to £500 million, of which

Summary consolidated income statement
For year ended 31 March 2020
2020
£m

2019
£m

The total of licence fees collected

3,520

3,690

Commercial income and grant income

1,423

1,199

4,943

4,889

Operating costs

The cost of producing all content and of
running the BBC(5,093)(4,977)

Share of results of associates and joint
venturesOur share of the profit of businesses
where we control 50% or less

28

36

(122)

(52)

Income statement classification

What is it?

Licence fee income

Other income
Total income

Operating deficit
Gains on disposal

Profit on disposal of operations andfixed assets

118

36

Other gains and losses

Net gain on movements in financial
instruments
The net interest on the BBC’s pension
assets and liabilities, interest on loans
and fair value movements onderivatives
The net tax liability of the BBC on its
taxable profits

(6)

7

(100)

(65)

(9)

5

(119)

(69)

Net financing costs

TaxationGroup deficit for the year

44

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

What has happened?

5% decrease due to planned reductionin Government funding of free TV
licences to over-75 population.
Increase in income due to BBC Studios
revenue growth.

Increased spend due to BBC Studios
growth partially offset by savings andreduced Public Service spend.
Reduction compared to 2019 following
the full consolidation of UKTV.

2019/20 includes a one-off gain
recognised on the acquisition of UKTV.
Prior year includes the sale of the Good
Food business.
Change in value of derivative financial
instruments.
Increase due to the additional financecharges arising from leases, pensions
and financial instrument valuations.
Increased tax charge and reduction inHigh End Television tax credits.

Return to contents

Strategic Report

Licence fee spend—— Increase in licence fee has funded
additional content in television, radio
and online.
—— 5p in every £1 is spent distributing ourservices to audiences.
—— The cost of collecting the licence fee is
3p per £1 collected.

£150 million is specifically for leases. The
impact of the changing environment andcoronavirus will be closely monitored toensure borrowing limits remain appropriate.
Loans of £204 million in the commercial
subsidiaries and finance leases of £1,842
million offset the group cash position toreach group net debt of £1,613 million,
well within our borrowing limits. The
BBC Commercial Group is in a £65
million net debt position compared to £17
million net funds position in 2018/19.

How your monthly licence fee is spent
2019/20 £12.88 per household (2018/19: £12.54)
Total

Television
2018/19Radio
2018/19
BBC World Service
2018/19
Other services andproduction costs
2018/19
BBC Online
2018/19
Licence fee collection
and pension deﬁcit cost
2018/19

our commercial subsidiaries achieved thecommercial rates of return set by the BBC
Board. These rates are based on benchmarks
against similar commercial competitors
and we publish these commercial targets
in line with our Charter requirements.
Building on the success of the integrated
production and distribution entities,
BBC Studios achieved a 14% growth
in EBITDA to £181 million, throughcreating and owning high quality British
content. In addition, the UKTV group

£6.83
£6.92
£2.22
£2.17
£1.24
£1.24
£0.88
£0.80
£1.24
£1.08
£0.47
£0.33

performed ahead of our investment
expectations. The acquisition of UKTV
was completed in June 2019 after reaching
agreement with Discovery on the futureof its channel business within the UK,
and will provide further content creation
opportunities within BBC Studios. BBC
Studios is receiving a strong reception for
its creative work, including commissions
secured from third parties from both UK
broadcasters and global brands such as
Amazon, Apple and Netflix. The success

The BBC retains cash for day-to-day
operations and to manage the timingof cash flow. Our group cash balance atthe end of 2019/20 is £401 million, a £67
million decrease on the prior year. This
reduction is partly due to the decline infunding for free licences for over-75s.
The immediate financial impact of thecoronavirus pandemic is being actively
managed. The mitigations identified
in Public Service will help offset theimmediate impact of the Board’s decision
to delay the introduction of licence feecollection from over-75s by two months
to 1 August and timing of dividends fromthe commercial group. However, it is too
early to fully understand the long-term
impact on both the licence fee collection
and on our commercial businesses.
We are therefore adopting a prudent
approach towards financial planningto sustain critical audience services
whilst ensuring our financial health.
Commercial subsidiaries
Our commercial subsidiaries have yet again
delivered an encouraging performancedespite facing challenging competition in
the market. The BBC Commercial Group has
achieved EBITDA (earnings before interest,
tax, depreciation and amortisation) of £189
million, a year-on year increase of 9%. All ofCentral Square Cardiff
Broadcast Centre

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

45

Return to contents

Finance and operationsof BBC Studios is pivotal in offering value
for money to licence fee payers throughhigh quality programme production andits financial contribution to the BBC.
BBC Global News faced a challenging
international news market; thiswas compounded by the impact ofcoronavirus with reduced sales in
the APAC region causing a decline in
EBITDA from £8 million to £2 million.
BBC Studioworks delivered EBITDA of£8 million through providing studio andedit facilities to both the BBC and a large
number of external clients. The company
paid a second dividend to the commercialgroup after its first ever dividend last year.
In November 2019 we contributed to thelaunch of BritBox UK, a joint venturewith ITV offering subscription video-ondemand. The competitively priced service
offers access to the largest collection of
British content available on any streaming
platform, from recently broadcast shows
to the nation’s favourite programmes
from the archives. We hold a 10% stakein the business and so far we havecontributed over 2,000 hours of content
to the platform. More content has been
added during the year and the service
and subscriptions continue to grow.
Dividends
In response to the coronavirus outbreak,
we have been careful to retain financial
headroom within the commercial groupto ensure that our commercial companies
can mitigate the impact of an economic
downturn and likely loss of business.
As a result, a reduced BBC Commercial
Group dividend of £3 million has been
declared and paid to the BBC Group thisyear, a significant decrease on last year(2018/19: £73 million). This will provide
some flexibility to deal with the financial

consequences of coronavirus and allow
time to make the necessary changes tothe business in response to the changing
market. Within the Commercial Group,
BBC Studios overall return to the BBC
was £276 million including investment inprogramming and dividend declared.

amounts collected and paid over to HM
Government during the year. Alongside
their audit work, the NAO examines ourcollection arrangements and reports onthem to Parliament. More on the licencefee revenue statement can be found on
the NAO website: www.nao.org.uk.

Licence fee collection
Effective financial management is a key
part of the BBC’s unique relationship with
our audiences. This includes spending
the licence fee efficiently and collecting a
television licence fee from everyone who
is required to buy one. The collection of
the licence fee is underpinned by a legal
requirement to buy a licence if watchingor recording programmes as they’re being
shown on TV; viewing live streams via
an online TV service; or by downloadingor watching BBC programmes on iPlayer(live, catch up or on demand). The current
collection method remains fair, effective
and good value for money and we continue
to work with the poorest in society byextending a flexible payment scheme forthe over-75s to those on lower incomes.

Pension costs
At 31 March 2020, the accounting pension
surplus (as defined by IAS 19 Employee
Benefits) was revalued to £247 million,
compared to a deficit of £530 million a year
ago. The movement during the current year
is due to a net gain of £862 million as a resultof changes to the valuation assumptions andcontributions paid of £159 million. Theseare partially offset by an annual operating
charge of £234 million and net finance costsof £10 million. The gain from changes invaluation assumptions is a result of gains
in scheme assets, changes in demographic
assumptions and actuarial gains driven
by changes in financial assumptions.

The BBC has a number of contractual
arrangements covering collection,
administration and enforcement of thelicence fee, marketing, payment channel
management and retail networks. The
majority of the administration is contracted
to Capita Business Services Ltd. We are now
in the eighth year of the current collection
contract, which has delivered £200 millionof savings to date. Total cost savings of £215
million are expected to be delivered over theten-year contract, releasing more funding to
be spent on our programmes and services.
Licence fee statement
As in previous years, we have prepareda licence fee revenue statement which
is audited by the National Audit Office(NAO). This statement sets out theCommercial performance—— Continued strong commercial
performance from our subsidiaries
with year-on-year EBITDA growthof 9%.
—— A challenging year ahead with thesignificant impact of coronavirus,
weaker economy and changing market.

46

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

This accounting valuation presentsa ‘snapshot’ at a particular date, andis therefore sensitive to short-term
fluctuations within the market. Thereis no impact on the actual cash cost of
recovering the actuarial pension scheme
deficit, which is reviewed at triennial
actuarial valuations as required by law.
The most recent triennial actuarial
valuation was completed in June 2020
resulting in a funding shortfall of £1,138
million as at 1 April 2019 (previously £1,769
million at 1 April 2016). A new repayment
plan has been agreed between the BBC andthe Pension Scheme Trustees. The agreed
repayment plan runs until 31 December
2028, ensuring the scheme delivers security
for members’ accrued benefits and value
for licence fee payers. The defined benefit
scheme closed to new employees in 2010.

2019/20
EBITDA

2018/19
EBITDA% year-on-year
growth£181 million£159 million

14%£2 million£8 million(75%)£8 million£6 million

33%

Return to contents

Cumulative savings (£m)—— £712 million of sustainable savings
achieved during Delivering Quality
First programme, which finished in
April 2017.
—— £618 million of savings achieved todate to address our future financial
challenges.

327

1012

618

235

873

2019/20

2018/192017/18

254

419

Savings delivered in
2019/20—— Efficiency savings through content
pricing and multi-year deals.
—— Focus on production savings andefficiencies.
—— Simplification of platforms,
infrastructure and operations.
—— Renegotiation of contract pricing andbusiness outsourcing.

Delivering efficiencies
This year we delivered £199 million of
additional savings to help mitigate the lossof licence fee income and enable investment
in services. Savings have been delivered
across all areas, with a focus on maintaining
our industry-leading overheads and support
costs, at 5% of our total cost base. Savings
have been achieved through production
efficiencies, removing duplication andthrough careful management of contracts.

685

Efficiency savings

Our annual accounts include a provisionof £12 million (2018/19: £12 million) tocover the settlement of these tax liabilities.
Progress is being made with HMRC andpresenters to settle the liabilities that havearisen as a result of the misclassificationof presenters’ status for tax.

2021/22Since the coronavirus outbreak, we haveidentified a number of savings plans, someof which impact our employees. We have

We manage our tax affairs within theframework of the taxes legislation for
the UK and the other jurisdictions inwhich we operate. The BBC has a low
tolerance to tax risk, as demonstrated
by our attitude to tax planning andgovernance. Our assessment of tax risktakes into account not only the financial
amount at stake, but also the reputational
consequences of the matter in question.

In 2017, the Government introduced newlegislation relating to the tax accountability
for payments to intermediaries in the
public sector. We are committed toresolving the historic tax issues in cases
where presenters who have been engaged
through personal service companies(PSCs) now find their tax employment
status being questioned by HMRC.

638

Payroll wages and salaries currently
contribute to around 20% of the group
operating costs. Earlier in the year weannounced savings plans to modernise
our newsroom in response to changing
audience needs. This initiative will see
a reduction in headcount in 2020/21 aspart of plans to deliver £80 million ofrecurring savings within BBC News. In
addition, restructuring announcements
were made in June 2020 in the nations
and regions in response to the ongoingsavings challenge across the organisation.

Tax strategy
At the BBC, we are committed to paying
the right amount of tax at the right time inall the jurisdictions in which we operate,
including, but not limited to, employment
tax, VAT and corporation tax. We
recognise the importance of paying theright amount of tax for the communities
in which we operate, and take our tax
compliance obligations seriously.

We publish our tax strategy in accordancewith the Finance Act 2016, which can befound on our website: http://downloads.
bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/reports/
reports/bbc-tax-strategy-1920.pdf

2020/21People costs
When comparing persons employedat 31 March, Public Service headcounthas reduced year-on-year by 48 fulltime equivalents to 19,430. Our average
headcount for the year was 19,572 fulltime equivalents. More detail about ourpeople and headcount can be found in
the Our People section on page 59.

announced a pay freeze for senior managers.
We have also put in place a recruitment
pause for all non-business critical roles andoffered staff the opportunity to change
working patterns through reduced hours
and unpaid leave. We have initiated a
voluntary redundancy programme with
the intention that this will allow us todeliver savings quickly in the face of thegrowing financial challenge and also tominimise any compulsory redundancies
within restructuring programmes. In
addition, voluntary redundancy willoffer us an opportunity to reshape andsimplify the structure of the BBC.

Strategic Report

The IAS 19 accounting valuation differsfrom the actuarial valuation due to thedifference in the discount rate used to value
the liabilities. Whilst the actuarial valuation
uses discount rates based on gilts, theaccounting valuation uses discount rates
based on high credit corporate bonds – thisleads to accounting valuations that generally
present a more favourable funding position
than that required on an actuarial basis.

At risk and requiring service or content changes
New programme

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

47

Return to contents

Finance and operations

As a result of changes in the licence fee
charging mechanism, particularly whenheld flat between 2010 and 2017, licence
fee income is now 31% less than had thelicence fee consistently risen with inflation.
Concurrently, the BBC has taken on anumber of new commitments including
funding the World Service, S4C and BBC
Monitoring. Throughout this period, we
have balanced the need to maintain quality
and reach with maintaining an efficient costbase via a number of comprehensive panBBC cost management programmes. We are
addressing our future financial challenges
to meet the reductions in underlying
income and invest in modernising ourservices by delivering £1 billion of recurringsavings over the period from 2016/17 to
2021/22. This enhances our original targetof £800 million. We are making good
progress against the target, delivering £618
million of cumulative savings to date.
Our work on efficiencies and making the
BBC simpler, leaner, and more efficient
continues. We commissioned Deloitte to
update the 2017/18 analysis of the efficiencyof our overheads, ‘Benchmarking theBBC’s overhead rate’. Applying a consistentmethodology, Deloitte assessed the BBC’s
overheads and indirect costs to be 5% and
17% respectively as percentages of our
total 2019/20 cost base. This reconfirmed
our position in the top quartile of ourcomparable peer group, respectively
regulated and non-profit organisationsin the UK (overheads) and international
telecommunications and media companies(indirect costs). Furthermore, in termsof the overhead rate, Deloitte concluded
that we had closed the gap on the mostefficient comparator in 2020 as comparedto the most efficient comparator in2017, and had improved our relative
positioning within our comparator group.

48

Content
We have focused on reviewing our
production pipeline to deliver savings
within content delivery. This has beenachieved through organisational design
efficiencies and increased third-party
income. We have remixed our pipeline toensure value for money, making savings
across the sport, factual and drama slates.
This has allowed us to absorb inflationary
increases in production costs, reinvest
in programme production and increase
delivery of content for younger audiences.
Property
A key part of our business strategy is to
reduce our property estate and create
modern and efficient working environmentsfor our staff. Since 2017 we have closed
a number of satellite London properties
and focused on making core London
properties more efficient. In January
2020, the Director-General outlined an
BBC Sounds at Leeds and Reading festivals 2019

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

ambition to increase the proportion of
the workforce working outside London. A
number of projects are already in progress
to help deliver on this plan, including a
new technology hub in Newcastle; a moveof the curations team of BBC Sounds to
Salford; and an expansion of the Natural
History Unit in Bristol. We will continue toinvestigate ways in which we can increase
the balance of our non-London/London
staff to deliver against this ambition.
In 2020, we will see the final BBC Wales
teams relocating to Cardiff Central Square,
reducing the property footprint in Cardiff
by nearly 50%. Whilst plans are impacted
by the social distancing restrictions
currently in place, revised timetables
will ensure progress continues safely. We
are seeking to exit some smaller satellite
offices across England in 2020/21 and, asa result of coronavirus, we are revisiting
our planned investment in BroadcastingReturn to contents

Procurement
We perform regular reviews of our major
outsourced service suppliers, which includes
analysing reports from external commercial
credit agencies. Contractual arrangementswith these suppliers include open bookaudit provisions as well as comprehensive
business continuity and exit obligations.
Outsourced services include IT, facilities
management, licence fee collection andterrestrial transmission. Dedicatedsupplier contract managers ensure strong
contract management and performancetracking against business requirements.
Through careful management of theportfolio, including astute sourcing andprocurement decisions, in 2019/20 we
made savings of £99 million on major
strategic contracts and further savings of£66 million on the purchase of goods andservices. Working closely with suppliers
to improve performance, automation andtransforming the procurement process has
been instrumental in reducing spend.
Technology
Another area where the BBC is making
significant savings is in technology.
Across the technology portfolio, savings
initiatives outperformed targets, withkey enterprise-related benefits delivering£41 million of savings in 2019/20.
Throughout the year we secured additional
contractual benefits and efficiencies
through additional renegotiations which,over the next five years, will realise anadditional £10 million of savings.
We have also re-prioritised funding andworkloads to support the digital strategyof the BBC, focusing on the developmentof iPlayer, BBC Sounds and News.

Looking ahead
The UK media landscape continues tochange rapidly, with increasing competition
from new and existing online streaming
services. We also face funding challenges
due to high inflation in areas such as drama
and comedy, as well as competition in
factual programming. We want to ensure
we are well positioned to continue to deliver
the output demanded by our audiences.
When coupled with the severe impact ofcoronavirus, careful planning is essential.
Whilst the situation is not unique to theBBC, we face our own challenges anddifficult decisions to ensure financial
stability and the necessary investment
in our services. In 2020/21, we haveidentified that £125 million of additionalsavings are required to offset the impactof lost income and additional expenditure
due to the coronavirus. We will continue
to monitor the situation and how it
affects the BBC financially and will
review and update plans accordingly.
The licence fee settlement phasing out
Government funding for free licences
to over-75s ceased entirely in March
2020. In response to the coronavirus
outbreak, the BBC Board announced
the decision to delay over-75s licence fee
implementation to August 2020, resulting
in a £70 million loss of income. Whilst we
have been preparing for the transition
through savings to build cash reserves, theadditional delay has significantly impacted
anticipated income at a time when thecollection of the licence fee is challenged
by the impact of the UK-wide lockdown.
Coronavirus has impacted both content
delivery and operations. These impacts
have happened at scale and at speed. Social
distancing measures have caused delays
to production and postponement of major
sporting events such as the Tokyo 2020

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Strategic Report

House in Northern Ireland from a financial
perspective, but also to reflect on learnings
from working during the pandemic.

Summer Olympics. Whilst some events andproductions have been delayed to 2021/22
and costs deferred, additional content
is required in the place of these events,
incurring additional spend in 2020/21.
Coronavirus is expected to have a significant
impact on the BBC Commercial Group’s
revenue in 2020/21, due to reduced
production activity, lost sales and an
unprecedented fall in UK and global
advertising markets. The commercialgroup have reacted swiftly, identifying
and implementing mitigations to reducethe cost base and re-phase planned
investment. This will conserve cash in
the short term and maximise our ability
to provide a meaningful and sustainable
contribution to the Public Service.
It is clear that 2020/21 will be achallenging year for both the BBC andthe wider economy. Given the scale andcomplexity of the impact of coronavirus
we will review and update our plans in
response to unfolding events. We willcontinue to simplify the organisation,changing our size, shape and working
practices. We will use insights from ouremergency measures, combined withexisting work on business efficiencies, toeffect practical and accelerated change.
Our focus continues to be to fulfil our
strategic ambitions, whilst deliveringvalue for money to the licence fee payer.

Glyn Isherwood
Chief Financial Officer
2 September 2020

49

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Finance and operations

Public Service Broadcasting expenditure
The table below illustrates how licence fee funds have been spent during the current and prior year, including the Charter requirement for
the BBC to report on expenditure on the UK Public Television Services by genre (as defined in accordance with industry standards). Total
content spend represents the cost of making content across the BBC’s services. The total service spend represents the full cost of producing,supporting and delivering BBC content to audiences.
World Service operating licence
The BBC committed to protect its annual spend on the World Service for a period of five years from 1 April 2017 to ensure it remains avalued public broadcaster for the future. In order to deliver this commitment, the BBC must spend at least £254 million per annum on thisservice over this period. Including content, distribution and general support costs, £261 million (2019: £278 million) was spent on the
BBC World Service operating licence.
World Service grant funding
In 2016/17 the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) awarded a grant to the BBC of £291 million, to be spent over the following four years,
to assist in the expansion of the World Service. Negotiations with government on their investment in the World Service have led to an
extension of FCO funding to the end of September 2021.
PSB expenditure
2020
£m

2019
£m

News and Current Affairs
Factual and Learning
Arts and Music
Film and Drama
Entertainment and Comedy
Sport Production
Children’s
Other television content spend

348
239
41
356
196
58
83
288

355
259
52
333
175
76
83
366

Television services by genre

1,609

1,699

494

504

Radio

238

214

Content spend on services by platform

2,341

2,417

Orchestras and performing groups
S4C (service spend)
Development spend
BBC World Service grant
BBC World Service operating licence*

29
22
70
92
223

29
22
67
93
234

BBC Online

Other service spend

436

445

Total content spend

2,777

2,862

192
436
173

194
490
185

3,578

3,731

119
83
5
22
205
37

103
94
6
–
165
25

4,049

4,124

Distribution costs
Content and distribution support
General support
Total service spend
Licence fee collection costs
Other obligations (S4C, Broadband roll-out)**
Monitoring
PSB pension deficit reduction payment
Costs incurred by PSB to generate non-licence fee income
Restructuring costs
Total PSB expenditure
Lease reclassification***
PSB expenditure****

(54)

(48)

3,995

4,076

* The BBC World Service operating licence includes distribution spend of £31 million (2019: £33 million).
** Under the terms of the 2015 licence fee agreement, the BBC has committed to contribute funding towards broadband roll-out across the UK.
*** In order to reflect the full cost of PSB expenditure by service, finance lease interest is included, although it is not included in the Group operating expenditure.
**** Includes over-75s consultation costs of £1.5 million (2019: nil) which was the BBC’s largest ever consultation exercise.

50

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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The BBC’s commercial
subsidiaries support the
BBC public service mission
and generate income for the
BBC Group. These companies
maximise the value of theBBC’s intellectual property,
providing income to fundhigh quality, distinctive
content for the licence fee
payer, whilst supporting the
UK’s television industry on
the world stage.

The commercial criteria:
The BBC’s commercial subsidiaries deliver
quality creative content for audiences
and increase the value of BBC intellectual
property (IP), as well as providing criticalsupport for the wider creative industry,both in the UK and around the world. They
do this whilst promoting and protecting
the BBC brand and reputation worldwide,
according to the commercial criteria as
set out in the Charter and Agreement:

Strategic Report

Commercial
operations
1. the activities must fit with the Mission
and the Public Purposes;
2. the activities must exhibit commercial
efficiency;
3. the activities must not jeopardise thegood reputation of the BBC or the value ofthe BBC brand; and4. the activities must not, as a result of therelationship of the activity with the UK
Public Services, trading activities or
non-service activities, distort the market
or create an unfair competitive
advantage.
The BBC’s commercial subsidiaries areoverseen by the Commercial Holdings
Board, which is tasked with setting strategy
in line with overall BBC Group company
goals, agreeing business plans and ensuring
compliance in regulatory and legal matters.
A report from the Chair of the Commercial
Holdings Board is on page 104.

Commercial activities
BBC One’s Seven
Worlds, One Planet

The BBC has three wholly owned commercial subsidiaries
which complement the BBC’s public service remit:
BBC Studios – the BBC’s production and distribution
business. It creates, invests, develops, produces,commercialises and distributes content which sits at theheart of the BBC schedule, as well as across multiple
platforms and around the world, delivering better value
back to the licence fee payer through support for
programme funding and cash dividends. For more on
BBC Studios activities see page 52.

BBC Global News operates the BBC’s international
24-hour TV channel BBC World News and bbc.com, bothof which are funded by advertising and sponsorship, as
well as income from pay TV operators carrying thechannel. Read more on page 56.

BBC Studioworks provides TV studio facilities,
equipment, crew and post-production services fromlocations in the UK. It supports UK public service
broadcasting through annual cash dividends. See more onwhat Studioworks delivers for the BBC on page 57.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

51

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Commercial operations

BBC Studios

Overview
At the close of the financial year, thecoronavirus pandemic began to causesignificant social and economic issues
around the world, with a sudden impact
on the global media industry in which
BBC Studios operates. The over-riding
priority is to protect the health andwellbeing of its people, and this has
guided the business’ response. Although,as this overview shows, BBC Studios
enters the year in a position of financial
strength, looking forward this crisis will
significantly affect its ability to deliver
revenue in 2020/21, requiring preservationof cash and a tight rein on costs.
BBC Studios had its highest-ever level ofcontent investment and its best year forcontent sales. Along with the acquisition ofUKTV, this meant that Studios delivered
record sales and profit (EBITDA).
In its second year as a merged business,delivering the very best of British creativity
to audiences in the UK and around theworld, these results show success intransforming BBC Studios’ culture andoperations, achieving a strong position

alongside other global players. BBC Studios
Production was the most commissioned
creator of new content in the UK in 2019.
Sales were £1,388 million (2018/19: £1,189
million), up 17%. EBITDA (earnings
before interest, taxes, depreciation andamortisation: the preferred measure of
profit) increased to £181 million (2018/19:£159 million). For the sixth year running,
returns to the BBC, which included
dividends and investment in programming,
were above £200 million, at a record£276 million (2018/19: £243 million).
Investments in programming increased
19% on the previous year, partly asa result of increased contributions to
BBC commissions enjoyed by UK audiences.
In the year, those transmitted included
Seven Worlds, One Planet, from BBC Studios’award-winning Natural History Unit,
and indie-made His Dark Materials.
A number of significant content deals wereagreed, which either deepened existing
partnerships or marked the beginning ofnew, high growth potential relationships.
With culture a major area of focus,
BBC Studios brought in new creative talent,continued to realise the organisational
benefits of the merger, and focused on
the commercial and audience rewardsof reflecting all audiences during theyear, as well as working actively to
improve the diversity of its workforce.
Efforts within the business to reduce
environmental impact were increased, withBBC Studios ending the year with 100%
Albert Sustainable Certification across its
UK productions from the new financial
year, and carbon neutrality for all UK
operations, backdated to April 2018 througha combination of reduction and offsetting.
The business committed to a long-term
reduction in travel that will reflect the dropachieved by global lockdown measures.
BBC One’s Our Girl

Strategic approach
Alongside shorter-term measures to mitigate
the effects of the coronavirus pandemic,
BBC Studios’ strategy is a long-term plan
to grow revenue and EBITDA. Guided byits purpose to be Bold, British, Creative,
BBC Studios’ ambition is to bring to life
brilliant, inspiring stories with a unique
British flavour. By putting people at theheart of the business, and backed up by
ongoing transformation and investments,
it will focus on three key areas.
First, generating sustainable creative
hits through early investment in new
intellectual property and growing
exploitation of successful formats
and programmes. Second, throughstrengthening services – building on the
success of BritBox internationally and
UKTV – and evolving global channel
brands like BBC Earth and CBeebies.
Third, targeting new, and growing existing,major customer partnerships, whichtake a long-term and strategic approach
to financing and developing high quality
content for audiences around the world.

UKTV
The BBC has been a shareholder in
UKTV since 1997. Its much-loved
portfolio of distinctive British channels,
such as Dave and Gold, blend its own
originals – like Hypothetical and Dial M
for Middlesbrough – with BBC favourites,
to complement the BBC’s public service
channels.
Today, BBC content represents
approximately half of UKTV’s scheduleand around 60% of its viewing,
making UKTV part of a virtuous
circle that benefits both licence fee
payers and the creative community.
In June 2019, BBC Studios took
control of seven of UKTV’s channels
and its catch-up service UKTV Play,with full ownership simplifying
the way that the BBC’s rights are
exploited in the UK, but retaining the
UKTV name, office and culture.
Its overall share of audience and its shareof commercial impacts was strong in
the year, as UKTV’s offer across comedy,classics and originals draws audiences in
uncertain times. The business is building
on its reputation for quality content
with titles such as We Hunt Together,Traces and Meet The Richardsons.

52

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Strategic Report

Content
New titles reaching audiences in the year
alongside successful favourites Top Gear,
DIY SOS, Doctor Who and Silent Witness
included Seven Worlds, One Planet, Thatcher:
A Very British Revolution, Sacred Wonders,
A Fresh Guide to Florence with Fab 5 Freddy,
Ladhood and For Love Or Money for the BBC,Prince Charles: Inside the Duchy of Cornwall
for ITV, Good Omens for Amazon and the
BBC and The Edge of Science for YouTube.
Overall, the business won 77 newcommissions (49 for the BBC and 28 fromthird-parties including Apple and Netflix).
At year end, the number of third party
commissions secured by the production
business in its three years as a marketfacing commercial studio totalled 53, withmore than 700 from the BBC, resulting
in a strong future pipeline. Notable newwins for the business were futuristic
Terry Pratchett adaptation The Watch for
BBC AMERICA (a BBC Studios and AMC
Networks joint venture) and the Jon Favreaucollaboration Prehistoric Planet for Apple.

BBC Three’s awardwinning Famalam

Recognition for BBC Studios’ creative
success in UK production continues, with
73 awards and 202 nominations in thefinancial year. The production team wasboosted by new senior creative leads into the
key genres of drama, comedy and factual.
BBC Studios’ production arm iscomplemented by a quality portfolio
of independent production companies,
including Sid Gentle, maker of global
hit Killing Eve, and Lookout Point,
producer of Gentleman Jack, and an
adaptation of Vikram Seth’s epic novel
A Suitable Boy for BBC One. These partlyor wholly owned businesses now makeup a significant proportion of content
investment and sales, boosting the rangeof programming that BBC Studios canoffer to customers as well as the business’
ability to invest in areas including
customer insight and trade marketing.
BrandsThe year saw strong performances for
BBC Studios’ core brands. The tangible
chemistry between Top Gear’s newpresenters broadened and grew the show’s
audience. Viewer numbers increased acrossboth series 27 and 28 when compared tothe previous series, heralding a move to
BBC One for the forthcoming series 29. The
brand continues to deliver huge audienceengagement on digital, with more than
500 million views globally on YouTube

Over

700

commissions won by
BBC Studios sincelaunchNew ways ofmaking deals

BBC AMERICA, PBS and Discovery in
the US, ZDF in Germany, FTV in France
and CCTV9 and Tencent in China.

BBC Studios’ major customers
connect the business to its audiences,helping it fund world-class content.
The BBC is its largest customer
for content, and long-standing
relationships with BBC AMERICA
and UKTV also support this.

This enables the business to plan
ambitious new programming many years
into the future – moving beyond individualtransactional sales deals to wide-ranging,mutually beneficial strategic relationships.

However, as production costs rise,long-term and strategic partnerships
with major customers enable
investment in premium programming
enjoyed by BBC viewers at home andinternational audiences – for example,
the majority of the BBC’s natural
history programming is supported
by longstanding partners including

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

In 2019, BBC Studios agreed new or
extended partnerships with Discovery,
HBO Max, ZDF and Yandex, meaningthat the business will increasingly work
alongside other global media players
to distribute existing programmes
and make entirely new ones for theiraudiences, creating new intellectual
property for both parties.

53

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Commercial operations
BBC Studios continued

across the financial year. Jodie Whittaker’s
series 12 of Doctor Who continued to bringyounger audiences to BBC One, ranking
amongst the top 20 shows for the 16-34 age
group. The brand also attracted more than
125 million YouTube views in the year.
The latest landmark Planet title – Seven
Worlds, One Planet – was the BBC’s mostwatched factual title in 2019. It has also beena hit internationally, with over 180 million
views on the Tencent platform in China
to date. Meanwhile, the BBC Earth brandincreased in popularity, reaching one billion
views on its website shortly after year end.
Children’s brand Bluey goes from strength
to strength. Now the number one children’sshow in Australia – awards include a
Logie Award, an AACTA Award and an
International Emmy after year end – adeal with Disney announced in June2019 saw the title premiere on Disney
Junior in the US followed by Disney+in early 2020, alongside the launch ofbranded events and merchandising.
Markets
In the UK, full ownership of UKTV
brought immediate benefits, as the teamachieved a very sound year in audiences
and revenues. Both businesses now work
together much more closely, realising thestrategic advantages of full ownership,
increasing UKTV’s investment in original
productions and simplifying the way that
BBC Studios controls its rights in the UK.
The business combined its international
operations across content sales, branded
services and ancillaries outside the
UK to form a new Global Distribution
division, enabling greater strategic focus
on long-term partnerships of scale.
At the beginning of the financial year,
a significant deal was announced with
Discovery, making it the exclusive
partner for BBC landmark natural history
programmes through subscription tovideo-on-demand (SVOD). Warner Media’s
new streaming service HBO Max signed

up to become the streaming home ofDoctor Who, and licensed 700 episodesof content including Top Gear; a codevelopment and co-production deal was
agreed with Germany’s ZDF for scripted
and landmark factual content, and apioneering deal was signed with Russia’s
biggest technology company Yandex forover 100 hours of scripted programming.
BritBox UK, majority owned by ITV with acontent supply agreement from BBC Studios,launched in the UK in November. At year
end, ownership of BritBox in North America
became equally split between BBC Studios
and ITV, whilst performance has been
particularly strong, achieving one million
subscribers in March 2020 to become thefastest-growing niche SVOD service inthe US. In the same month, plans wereannounced to launch BritBox in Australia.
Financial review
BBC Studios’ financial results for theyear demonstrate the strength of thebusiness and the success of its strategy,
as well as the smooth implementationof the merger and UKTV acquisition.
Record sales, EBITDA, content investment
and content sales were achieved.
Sales have grown by 17% to £1,388 million
and EBITDA is up by 14% to £181 million.
The net debt position at year end,
excluding leases, was £112 million(2018/19: £46 million) and free cash flow
£89 million (2018/19: £111 million)*.

BBC Studios’ independent production
portfolio continues to grow in scale,developing and producing both returningand original series across scripted
and unscripted genres, for both UK
PSB channels as well as US and SVOD
services. BBC Studios also sold its 25%
stake in indie producer Two Cities
Television to STV Productions.
Revenues in total content sales reachedrecord levels this year, growing 21% yearon-year. This reflects strong performancein securing and delivering global content
partnership deals as mentioned above.
This part of the business has benefited
from record levels of content investment.
The consumer products business managed
to hold its results year-on-year despite
significant market pressure, reflecting
strong management and cost control.

Branded Services
BBC Studios’ Branded Services includes
the BBC-branded channels and digitalconsumer services outside the UK, UKTV,BBC Studios’ share of the results of the joint
venture and associate operations in BritBox
and BBC AMERICA, and of digital branded
services including BBC Player in Asia.

Production and Distribution
Production and Distribution includes
programmes commissioned by, andsold to, broadcasters and platform
owners globally and BBC Studios’share of the results of its joint venture
and associate production companies,
format sales, and consumer products.

The Branded Services performancein the year was strong, with growthin both sales and EBITDA. This
reflects the consolidation and strong
performance of UKTV and continued
growth of BritBox in North America.

Performance by operating segment
EBITDA (£ million)

2019/20

2018/192019/20

2018/19

Production & Distribution
Branded Services
Eliminations

1,059
385
(56)

1,047
161
(19)

75
111
(5)

81
71
7

Total

1,388

1,189

181

159

54

During the year the business focusedon the creative refresh of its key brands
and as a result Top Gear, the BBC’s Planet
series and EastEnders have gone fromstrength to strength, and as noted above,
the pipeline for new business is strong
for both third parties and the BBC.

In the year, the business made a small
investment in short-form mobile platform
Quibi alongside a first commission for anatural history series, Fierce Queens, and asmall equity investment alongside US PSB
players into podcast specialists Pocket Casts.

* Free Cash Flow (FCF) represents cash fromoperating activities including the purchase and saleof property, plant and equipment and the purchaseof distribution rights.

Sales (£ million)

The UK Production business is
continuing to perform well, and activity
has increased in commissions for
future year delivery as noted above.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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53

commissions secured
from third parties
since launch.

On 5 June 2019, BBC Studios took controlof the UKTV brand and the majority of
its linear channels from a previous joint
venture with Discovery, for a purchaseconsideration of £100 million. An additional£73 million will be paid, representing theassumption of debt previously financed by
Discovery and the impact of recognising
the consideration at its present value. The
results therefore reflect two months of
UKTV as a 50:50 ten-channel joint venture,
followed by ten months of full ownershipof UKTV and its now-seven channels.
Forward view
BBC Studios’ content has made an
immediate and positive contribution to theBBC’s response to the pandemic, bringing
the whole of the UK together to educate,
inform and entertain during tough andunprecedented times – with titles including
The One Show, Health Check UK, Horizon:
Coronavirus Special, Big Night In and VE
Day 75th anniversary. The business has
also supported customers with enhanced
licensing terms and non-exclusive accessto public service content packages.
Looking forward, the first priority forthe business is to protect the health of
its people and families, with extensive
support available for those working
from home and juggling childcare, anda focus on maintaining wellbeing ina stressful and uncertain climate.
The pandemic has had a significant effecton the BBC’s community of freelance
production talent – the lifeblood of
the creative industry both on and off

screen – and BBC Studios has worked
to support these individuals with anumber of initiatives. The businessalso made a donation to support theFilm & TV Charity’s emergency relief
fund for industry freelancers.
In operational terms, the coronavirus
pandemic will have an impact on a numberof key areas of business. Although thebusiness is seeing continuing demandfor premium content, underpinned byaudience choices and the continuing
proliferation of services, elsewhere theknock-on effect on the global economy ofsocial distancing measures is, at the timeof writing, profound. Filming pauses will
delay delivery of content to commissioners
and customers, as well as increasing thecosts of production overall. Advertising
revenues are under significant pressure
globally, following dips in consumer
confidence and business investment.
BBC Studios is working to minimise theoverall financial impact through carefulplanning and reduction of discretionary
spend to safeguard cash and profit where
possible. The effects are likely to besignificant, however, and the duration of
the crisis will be key to the extent of this.
Against this backdrop, BBC Studios
will continue to bring the best ideas toaudiences around the world, transforming
the business to lead the market in its
customer approach and focusing on
measures to underpin the long-term
security of its returns to the BBC Group.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Strategic Report

BBC One’s Seven Worlds, One Planet

1m

BritBox: fastestgrowing niche SVOD in
the US, now at 1 million
subscribers.

Seven Worlds,
One Planet
The latest in the successful Planet
series – Seven Worlds, One Planet – took
a fresh approach to find new stories as
it looked at each continent individually.
There were 90 shoots in over 40
countries, filming for a total of 1,794
days and shooting 2,260 hours offootage. Ground-breaking technology
was key: the latest thermal imaging
cameras to cover a wolf hunt in Italy,
and widespread use of drones with
4K cameras to showcase landscapesand capture behaviours more quietly,
more efficiently and with a much lower
environmental impact than helicopters.
In Australia, the team filmed a newly
discovered jumping spider performinga very bizarre mating ritual and, forthe very first time, dingos successfully
hunting kangaroos. In Chile, theteam spent six weeks on location
filming a successful puma hunt, andin the hostile Southern Ocean they
filmed the largest aggregation of great
whales ever shot in Antarctica.
The programme was the first
BBC landmark natural history
programme to receive the full Albertcertification of sustainability, whilst
only 20% of the programme’s funding
came from the licence fee, with therest coming from co-producers, BBC
Studios Distribution and UK tax
credits. Audiences have been extremely
positive, with the programme topping
the BBC’s list of factual titles in 2019
and a hit in China and beyond.

55

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Commercial operations

BBC Global NewsBBC Global News is the BBC’s commercial
news subsidiary and operates the BBC’s
English-language television and online
services outside the UK; BBC WorldNews and bbc.com. BBC Global News’mission is to bring the BBC’s trusted
and impartial journalism to a growing
global audience whilst operating asa sustainably profitable business.
2019/20 saw revenues hold steady across
our Advertising Sales and Distribution
businesses, with total revenues of £115
million. Growth was slowed and profitability
hit by challenging conditions in Asia-Pacific,
including the coronavirus pandemic. BBC
Global News achieved EBITDA of £2 million,
its fifth successive year of profitability.
Revenues from new business activity
increased significantly. Our new ProgrammePartnerships division, which collaborates
with leading international associations
to produce content focusing on particularissues or industries that are shaping society,has expanded rapidly since its launch inlate 2018/19, contributing several million
pounds in annual revenues, with further
growth planned for the coming years.
BBC World News’ weekly global audience
increased to 112 million in 2020, up 12%
year-on-year and up 48% from 2014.
Growth was particularly strong in the
US where weekly reach increased to 32
million, up 50% year-on-year. The channel’s
profile in the US was boosted by a newpartnership with WETA, one of the biggest
PBS member stations, for the distributionof BBC World News programmes on public
television stations across America.
bbc.com saw a major expansion in its
audience reach, with average monthly
browsers up from 93 million in 2018/19 to
121 million in 2019/20, up 29% year-onyear*. Video views on the bbc.com website
and apps also increased, from 31 million
to 40 million, up 27% year-on-year*. A
new monthly audience record was set on
bbc.com in March 2020, with 179 million
visitors (up 27 million on previous record
reach) and 1.5 billion page views, driven
by the BBC’s coronavirus coverage. The
combined total for video views on the bbc.
com platform and syndicated platforms
reached 179 million in March 2020, anotherrecord. bbc.com re-launched its BBC
Capital feature site as BBC WorkLife andunveiled new propositions including Future
Planet, which focuses on sustainability.

commercial and distribution strategy.
2019/20 saw an increase in off-platform
consumption, with bbc.com content
reaching over 26 million users on average
per month on platforms such as Apple News,MSN and Facebook Instant Articles. BBCNews is the most followed news source on
Facebook with over 50 million followers.
BBC Global News renewed an agreementwith Facebook to provide a weekly show,
Cut Through The Noise, on their Watch
platform following its success in 2019/20,
and signed an agreement with Quibi, thenew, short-form mobile video platform, toprovide an exclusive international news
show called Around the World from April
2020. The BBC News YouTube channel saw
continued growth in 2019/20, passing six
million subscribers, making BBC News oneof the biggest news sources on YouTube.
BBC Global News was recognised for the
excellence of its journalism with a numberof awards in 2019/20, including the George
Polk Award in Journalism for Inside China’s
Hidden Camps which aired on BBC World
News, and a Travel Media award for best
broadcast programme of the year for The
Travel Show’s programme on the Tokyo
Paralympics. On bbc.com, BBC Future
won a Webby for Best Writing (Editorial)
and BBC Reel won silver Telly Awards forthree of its video productions including
the Searching For Starlite series about theinvention of a potentially world-changing
material. BBC Culture, BBC Reel and
BBC Future all won Lovie awards, which
honour the best of the European internet.

Talking Business on
BBC World News

Off-platform global partnerships play
an increasingly important role in the56

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Forward view
The coronavirus pandemic has had adramatic impact on the markets in which
BBC Global News operates, shrinking
advertising budgets and putting additionalpressure on pay-TV operators alreadyfacing challenges from over-the-top (OTT)
competitors. At the same time, demandfor BBC Global News’ output has neverbeen higher as readers and viewers seek
trustworthy, independent coverage of worldchanging events. BBC Global News willbuild on this audience growth in 2020/21,
establishing a closer relationship with its
online audiences through an expandedroll-out of user registration. Although there
is uncertainty about how rapidly the online
advertising and TV distribution markets
will recover, the coronavirus pandemic
will continue to have an impact on BBC
Global News’s financial performance
into 2020/21. BBC Global News plans
to continue to respond to these impacts
through the pursuit of a range of new andexisting revenue opportunities, continued
development of its editorial propositions
and a sustained focus on cost management.
* Part of the 2019/20 uplift in browsers and video views is
attributable to new measurement of audiences viewing
BBC content on Google AMP.

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Strategic Report

BBC Studioworks

Even Later... with Jools Holland andMark Ronson—— Chat shows – The Graham Norton Show
for BBC One, The Apprentice: You’re Fired
for BBC Two, The Jonathan Ross Show for
ITV and The Great British Bake Off: An
Extra Slice for Channel 4—— Game shows – Pointless for BBC One,The Chase for ITV, Don’t Hate the Playaz
for ITV2 and A League of Their Own for
Sky One—— Comedy – Have I Got News For You andMock the Week for BBC One, Celebrity
Juice for ITV2 and The Russell Howard
Hour for Sky One—— Continuing drama – EastEnders for
BBC One
The post production team also experienced
a strong year, with clients including
Strictly Come Dancing, Strictly Come
Dancing: It Takes Two, The Last Leg, Holby
City and Saturday Night Takeaway.

BBC Studioworks is a wholly owned
commercial subsidiary of the BBC,providing television studios and postproduction services to all the major UK
broadcasters and production companies.
Our London-based facilities are home
to some of the nation’s most watched
and loved entertainment shows.
2019/20 has been a standout year,with total income up 8% year-on-yearat £40 million (2019: £37 million) and
EBITDA of £8 million (2019: £6 million).
The increase in sales was driven bysolid utilisation across our portfolio by
returning clients as well as a wealth of
new business. Delays to new capacity
opening in the market also helped to delivera robust performance. Whilst increased
pension liabilities have impacted overallprofitability, these additional costs havebeen absorbed, meaning BBC Studioworks
will be returning a cash dividend to the
BBC of £0.4 million (2019: £0.8 million).
During the year, the business extended
its lease agreement with Elstree Studios
until 2024. In turn, investment has also
been made in new technology, reinforcing
BBC Studioworks’ commitment toproviding a consistent and creative
proposition underpinned by premium kit.

Forward view
The market in which BBC Studioworks
operates remains challenging. The shortageof studio space in the UK has seen an influxof new developments being built acrossthe country. As productions trial new
locations and Public Service Broadcasters
deliver their nations and regions quotas,
the pressure to retain business, attract newclients and continue to deliver a first-classservice is real. A lack of industry investmentin the future workforce has also createdan acute and accelerating skills shortage.
New clients won in the last 12 months
include:—— Later… with Jools Holland and Take Offwith Bradley & Holly for BBC One—— Crazy Delicious, The Fantastical Factory of
Curious Craft, Harry Hill’s ClubNite and
The Lateish Show with Mo Gilligan for
Channel 4—— Saturday Night Takeaway, Kate and Koji
and Ball & Boe: A Very Merry Christmas
for ITV

Looking ahead, the impact of coronavirus
and the cancellation of productions will
negatively impact financial performance,
the level of which is unknown. BBC
Studioworks will continue to rigorously
manage our pipeline of work, retain clients,
win new business and make shrewd
investment decisions to mitigate any loss,
whilst maintaining security of supply
for the light entertainment TV market.

The move of Saturday Night Takeaway to
Television Centre means BBC Studioworks
is now broadcasting live from our West
London facility seven days a week,with ITV Daytime shows Good Morning
Britain, Lorraine, This Morning and Loose
Women transmitting on weekdays
and Channel 4’s Sunday Brunch.
In the same timeframe, returning shows
included:—— Live broadcasts – Strictly Come Dancing
and Children in Need for BBC One, Peston
for ITV and The Last Leg for Channel 4
BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

57

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How weoperateThis section sets out how we operate both internally, with
our staff, suppliers and producers and externally with arange of stakeholder groups, the public, charities and in
partnerships. The BBC voluntarily complies with corporate
governance reporting requirements under section 172 of
the Companies Act.

Human rights, modern slavery,anti-bribery
We are committed to respecting
the human rights of all those
who work for or with us. Our
Terms of Trade require any
suppliers we work with, andany sub-contractors they use, toadhere to the codes of practice
published by the Equality and
Human Rights Commission
and the Equality Commission
Northern Ireland. In addition,
suppliers, and sub-contractors,
are required to abide by our
Code of Ethical Policy. The
full code can be found here:
downloads.bbc.co.uk/supplying/
pdf/BBC_Ethical_Policy.pdf
We recognise the need toprioritise tackling the most
severe human rights abuses,
including modern slavery. We
abide by the Modern Slavery Act
2015 and publish our Modern
Slavery Statement in accordancewith this. The full statement isavailable at: https://downloads.
bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/
reports/pdf/bbcmsa2020.pdf
We are committed to a zerotolerance approach to bribery
and corruption. We expect allof those representing the BBC
to abide by the BBC’s AntiBribery Code of Conduct. The
full code can be found here:
downloads.bbc.co.uk/foi/
classes/policies_procedures/anti-bribery-policy.pdf

58

BBC One’s Noughts + Crosses

p

59

p

p

Our people

64

Consultations

Audience engagement report

p

66

p

p

Environmental sustainability

67

Charitable work

Partnerships and collaboration

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

65

68

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The BBC is at its best when our people work
together and feel included and valued. This
year we have embedded the transformationalchange of the last three years and gone evenfurther in delivering inclusive, innovative
solutions to attract and develop the besttalent and the best leaders in the industry.
An inclusive culture
The BBC’s ambition is to create an inclusive
culture, developing and supporting
brilliant leaders and great talent doing
their best work in an organisation
that’s simple and easy to work with.
In 2016, we published our Diversity
and Inclusion (D&I) Strategy and, four
years on, we have achieved many of ourambitions and goals. We have met ourtargets on workforce disability, LGBTQ+
and all-staff representation of black,
Asian and minority ethnic employees.
We know that we have more to do to reachour targets on gender and diverse leadershipand to build trust across the organisation.
In 2019/20 we consulted our people andstakeholders, listening to their ideas andworking with our employee networks to build
trust and to better support our workforce.
Our new strategy, to be published later thisyear, will run to 2023 and will build on thoseideas and address the challenges head on.
We have taken immediate action towards
our ambition of creating a truly inclusive
organisation and key initiatives include:—— the Senior Leadership Team Advisers
programme: in March and April, we
appointed two people from different
backgrounds and perspectives to each of
our Executive leadership teams (and one
each for the Scotland and Wales
leadership teams) to help us take decisions
which shape the BBC’s place in the world;—— beginning work to develop a Disability
Passport : a ‘living document’ we will
launch in 2020 to ensure workplaceadjustments are tailored and preserved forindividual users if they change jobs ortheir line manager changes;—— the launch of BBC Elevate: an initiative
designed to give disabled people withindustry experience the chance to gain
further experience on flagshipBBC shows. Recruitment into the scheme
will continue in 2020.
Our next generation
In 2019/20, 2.4% of the BBC’s workforce
was either an apprentice or trainee. We
were ranked 9th in The Times Top 100
Graduate Employers (first in the Media
category) and we also employ non-

Strategic Report

Our people

graduate apprentices across all areas ofour business. We’ve been shortlisted in
the 2020 School Leaver Awards and ourentry-level programmes aim to attract
the UK’s best talent from the broadest
backgrounds. Our intake in 2019 was over
25% black, Asian and minority ethnic
and over 15% with a declared disability.
Flexible working
Over the course of 2019/20 we haveseen investment across the UK andinternationally, creating over 200 new
content and digital roles, to support thegrowth of BBC iPlayer, BBC Sounds, ourdigital services and global output. This isoffset by the closure of 249 roles as a resultof saving plans across all BBC Divisions.
We have continued to strengthen our
broadcasting hubs across the UK and aroundthe world. In Cardiff we moved into Central
Square, an impressive new building which
will be home to around 1,000 staff acrossseveral divisions. Pacific Quay in Glasgow
has become home to a new base for Design
and Engineering (D+E), with another D+E
hub planned for Newcastle in the future.
Overseas, the World 2020 expansion
continues to revolutionise our coverage,
attracting new audiences everywhere.
An agile and flexible workforce
Our approach to flexible working iscentral to our people ambition. We havetransparent policies in place to provide
staff with the ability to work in ways which
suit their lives and commitments. We areproud to report that by the end of 2019/20(in March 2020) 96% of new vacancies
were advertised as being open to flexible
working. As a result of the lockdown
during the coronavirus pandemic, the vast
majority of our people were required towork remotely, supported by effective androbust technology, and by best-in-class
homeworking and employee wellbeing
policies. We aim to build on this experience
to ensure flexible working becomes the firstconsideration for every role across the BBC.
We are also committed to job-sharing as
demonstrated by the recent appointmentof our job-share Group HR Directors
Wendy Aslett and Rachel Currie.
Wellbeing
Helping staff maintain and improvetheir wellbeing is an essential part ofour people strategy and this year wehave continued our investment to makethe BBC a healthier, happier and greater
place to work. We have increased the

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

number of health kiosks in BBC buildings
and introduced a remote GP service inFebruary 2020. We are also now offering
health check sessions for night workers.
In November 2019 we curated ‘Wellbeing
Live’, a week of resources and events
around the country. Our commitment
to providing mental health support hascontinued with the number of trained
Mental Health First Aiders now over 1,000
across the UK, and a further 75 in ourinternational bureaux. Our new Trauma
Pathway supports the diagnosis andtreatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Our commitment to wellbeing has been
central to how we’ve supported staff
through the stresses created by the UK
lockdown in response to coronavirus, with acomprehensive Wellbeing Collection curated
by the BBC Academy and the launch of a
new mental health application, UnMind.
In addition to wellbeing and flexible
working, we’ve provided enhanced
support to our staff in many other areas
as a result of coronavirus. We’ve madechanges to several policies (in areas suchas expenses, transport and leave) to meetthe challenges faced by our employees andwe’ve transformed how we communicate
with everyone. Weekly calls, providing staff
with access to members of the Executive
and the Director-General, have resulted
in significant levels of engagement andgreater transparency and accountability
with regard to decision-making.
Recruitment
Our recruitment processes are inclusive,transparent and fair, underpinned by a newinterview and assessment framework. Our
Interview Champions Programme now
has over 250 trained champions based inover 30 BBC UK locations, bringing diverse
perspectives to our selection decisions.
We successfully launched The BBC Talent
Cloud – a secure database aimed at off-air
freelancers seeking bookings or shortterm contract work with the BBC in
the UK and covering all BBC public
service and commercial subsidiaries.
Leadership
In 2019 we introduced new Leadership
Commitments, setting out what’s expectedof all BBC leaders, communicated via
BBC-wide ‘Leadership Matters’ workshops
to almost 2,000 leaders. Three new
BBC Leadership Development programmes(junior, mid and senior levels) have59Return to contents

How we operate
Our people continued

been launched, with over 750 delegates,
alongside shorter BBC Leadershipcourses, reaching almost 2,000 in
2019/20. For the BBC’s senior leadership,
our team of Executive Coaches, offering
one-to-one support, has grown.

BBC staff (including employees working for BBC Studios and other commercial areas) are
now mapped to 27 Career Path Framework job families, divided into three categories. The
following table provides a breakdown of our headcount by job family.
CPF Category

Headcount

EFT

212
2,419
6,254
561
978
203
190
2,066
2,990

206
2,276
5,700
480
907
195
182
1,916
2,908

15,873

14,770

276
394
150
353
712
146
430

265
369
144
329
645
136
425

2,461

2,313

879
204
507
83
329
119
132
102
540
95
22

791
193
492
72
307
108
126
100
516
93
21

Support Total

3,012

2,819

Grand Total

21,346

19,902

Content

We have reinvented the way we share
information with our leaders, using threemain platforms (Ariel for Leaders, Senior
Leader Summits and Team Leader Calls).
All staff and leadership: 31 March 2020
Workforce

Women (all staff)
Women (leadership)
Disability (all staff)
Disability (leadership)
BAME (all staff)
BAME (leadership)
LGBTQ+ (all staff)
LGBTQ+ (leadership)

31 March
2020

2020
target

48.3%
45.0%
10.2%
8.6%
15.7%
12.3%
11.2%
11.2%

50%
50%
8%
8%
15%
15%
8%
8%

Learning and development
The BBC Academy has continued its threeyear transformation programme. Staff can
now access multiple sources of learning fromface-to-face to virtual classrooms, podcasts,
webinars, masterclasses and a library ofdigital content. The Academy’s commitment
to learning design has been recognised
nationally this year with the Gold award in
the category ‘Best Use of Blended Learning’at the Learning Technologies Awards.
The Academy, in partnership with theNews division, ran the first ever BBC Young
Reporter Festival this year. More than
1000 people from 77 schools took partin Young Reporter workshops acrossthe UK and over 600 schools and youth
groups ran their own festival events.
This year also saw the completion of
the Open Media training programmewith 8,000 staff trained on the newnews production system since 2016
through face-to-face or online courses.
Trust and transparency
Trust and transparency are at the heart ofour BBC values.
We need to attract, motivate and retain thevery best people so that we continue to makebrilliant content. Our policies are central
to that ambition and they enable us tobalance our wish to attract talent in a highly
competitive market with our responsibility
to deliver value to licence fee payers.
In 2019/20, with the agreement of theunions and the support of our staff, we
completed the final phase of the reform
60Group total

CPF Headcount March 2020
CPF Job FamilyCommissioning
Content Production
Journalism
Presenter
Production Management
Programme SchedulingResearch and Development
Technical Production
Technology, Systems and Delivery

Content Total
Content Support Commercial
Commercial, Rights and Business Affairs
Data and Analytics
Information and Archive Management
Marketing and Audiences
Resourcing
Training, Trainees and Apprentices
Content Support Total
SupportBusiness Management and Admin
External Communications
Finance
Fundraising and Partnerships
HR and Internal Comms and Engagement
Legal
Policy and Strategy
Procurement
Project Management
Quality, Risk and Assurance
Workplace

No CPF

446

393

Overseas

2,837

2,834

Total

24,62923,129of our policies, our pay structure andour terms and conditions, providing an
unparalleled level of transparency andconsistency. The National Audit Officereport of May 2019 (‘Managing the BBC’s
pay-bill’) stated that “the BBC has taken big
steps in improving consistency and fairness
and is well ahead of other organisations
with regards to pay transparency”.
Our new policies
Our employees now benefit from a rangeof new policies enhancing every aspect of
their working life. As well as policies on
flexible working, diversity, wellbeing andlearning and development, we introduced
clear and consistent guidelines on healthand attendance, expenses and attachments.
The importance we attach to a healthy work-

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

life balance has shaped policies for weekend
workers and night workers to support
their health, wellbeing and resilience.
Pay
Employees are now mapped to 880 distinct
roles across 27 job families and sevencareer bands. Each job has a clear, marketaligned pay range delivering industryleading levels of pay transparency. We use
independent experts and professional pay
and benefit surveys to inform these ranges,
ensuring employees are paid fairly andcompetitively with rules and guidance tomaintain consistency. We have a robust
approvals and governance framework toensure that pay decisions are challenged
and calibrated across the organisation.

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Strategic Report

This year we also introduced informationon our staff database, ‘PeopleView’,
to show the distribution of pay bygender and ethnicity within each of
our pay bands or job pay ranges.
We are still addressing a small
number of historic equal pay cases.
Resolving them remains a priority.
The gender pay gap (GPG)
The BBC’s gender pay gap remains thelowest in the industry and is reducing every
year. We remain substantially ahead of thenational average and we are closing our
GPG at a faster rate than the industry andUK average. The median GPG has been

reduced this year to 6.2% from last year’s
figure of 6.7%, significantly lower than thenational average which is currently 17.3%.
In the roles where we have most staff(Journalist, Senior Journalist, Producer,
Senior Journalist-Reporter, Assistant
Editor) our median GPG is less than 3%.
Supporting changeThis year the BBC HR team has supported
the BBC’s strategic aims, providing insight
into the lived experience of our workforce
and developing innovative solutions thatdrive the BBC’s ambition for change.
Over the next year and beyond we will
be building one BBC with people who areproud to work for us, who feel valued andwho have every opportunity to thrive ina BBC that’s relevant and inspirational.
Data tables
On the following pages, we provide
further data to support the information
reported in this section.
Total average headcount (equivalent fulltime as at 31 March 2020)
2020

2019

UK Public Service
Broadcasting
BBC Studios
Other commercial
businesses

19,572

19,231

2,672
505

2,641
456

Group total

22,74922,328Within the averages, above 3,085 (2019: 2,907) part-time
employees have been included at their full-time equivalentof 1,971 (2019: 1,840). In addition to the above, theBBC employed an average full-time equivalent of 1,409(2019: 1,350) persons on a casual contract.

RAISED participant Miriam Barker

Career Path Framework
Employee roles are mapped across 27
job families and seven career bands.
BBC Group
EFT/Headcount by CPF Band (excluding
Performing Groups, Trainees & Apprentices
and Non-CPF)
EFT
CPF BandReal Action in SocioEconomic Diversity
A new staff network launched in
November 2019.
The Real Action in Socio-Economic
Diversity (RAISED) network was set up toaddress the under-representation of BBC
employees from lower socio-economic
backgrounds, and to support the BBC’s
ambition to make content that reaches
audiences from those backgrounds.
The network promotes the interests of BBC
audiences from less affluent backgrounds,
bringing BBC content makers closer toall of our audience. It champions therecruitment and career progression ofcolleagues from underserved socioeconomic groups, as well as being pivotal
in connecting colleagues from lower socioeconomic backgrounds to key decisionand programme makers in the BBC.
BBC Wales Digital Journalism Apprentice
Miriam Barker, 30, says: “As a working
class, gay and mixed-race woman, I havefelt like the BBC isn’t for me. But BBC
RAISED has made me feel like I belong
here and I can openly be myself. It’s 100%
introducing me to different opportunities
and it’s given me the confidence toput myself up for new things.”

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Headcount
EFT
Headcount(%) Headcount
(%)

EFT

A
B
C
D
E
F
FP
SL

313
2,385
6,626
6,774
2,198
879
103
329

2%
12%
34%
34%
11%
4%
1%
2%

402
2,586
7,193
7,211
2,306
905
115
333

2%
12%
34%
34%
11%
4%
1%
2%

Total

19,607100%

21,051100%

UK senior leader headcount by salary band
(PSB only)
2019/20
Actual2018/19
Actual£50,000 – £99,999£100,000 – £149,999£150,000 – £199,999£200,000 – £249,999£250,000 – £299,999£300,000 – £349,999£350,000+

44
103
73
23
3
5
2

52
100
63
25
3
5
2

Total*

253

Salary band250

* Total excludes BBC Board members and pension
directors

61

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How we operate
Our people continued

Spend on on-air roles
2019/2020
Spend
£000s

Less than £40,000£40,000 – £100,000£100,000 – £150,000£150,000 – £500,000£500,000 – £1m£1m – £5m
Total

2018/2019*
Volumes

Spend
£000s

Volumes

Variance£000s

40,75069,445
12,731
17,908726
3,113

26,993
1,139
103
73
1
2

43,21065,184
13,38818,162610
3,001

28,234
1,083
109
75
1
2

(2,460)
4,261
(657)
(254)
116
112

144,673

28,311

143,555

29,504

1,118* Spend on on-air roles for 2018/19 has been restated following a review of the introduction of the BBC’s Career Path Framework and on-air review. An individual is deemed to have an
on-air role where they have significant (i.e. 80% or more) on-air responsibilities.

During 2019/20, spend on on-air roles represented 10% of total internal creative content spend (2018/19: 10%).
Severance payments
Our redundancy policy is one month’s pay for each year of service up to a maximum of 12 months’ pay (for those who joined before January
2013 it is a maximum of 24 months’ pay). Employees must have two or more years’ continuous employment on cessation to be eligible forpayment. We have maintained a cap on redundancy and severance payments of £150,000 and await further clarification on the
Government’s proposed new cap of £95,000, which we understand will apply to the BBC. Redundancy payments over £75,000 and all otherseverance payments are approved by the Senior Management Remuneration Committee.
Where redundancy pay is paid, notice is served. If an individual wishes to leave earlier than the end of their notice period, they must waive
the remaining notice period and they do not receive payment in lieu for it.
In 2019/20, we paid one payment in lieu of notice (PILON) to a member of staff who left the organisation. This was an employee employedoverseas who, on leaving the BBC, was paid PILON and severance pay under local law.
2019/2020
Payment band

Spend
£000s

Under £10,000£10,000 – £50,000£50,000 – £75,000£75,000 – £100,000£100,000 – £150,000
Over £150,000

119
2,928
3,949
5,284
11,1590

Total

23,4392018/19
Volumes

Spend
£000s

Volumes

19
103
63
61
85
0

162
3,169
3,407
3,278
7,820
0

25
113
56
38
64
0

331

17,836296

BBC Academy training
Reach2019/20

Total training completions*Face-to-face
OnlineBBC staff who completed one or more course

94,35422%
78%
95%

Total learning and development hours face-to-face and online

258,468
1.82

Number of learning and development days per EFT
Total online usage**

73,130

Value for money

2019/20£12£592

Training delivery spend (£m)***Learning and development cost per EFT****
Training data and EFT figures are BBC wide, including PSB, BBC Studios and other commercial subsidiaries.
* Individual face-to-face and online training completions.
** Individual online course completions and those with ‘in progress’ status.
*** Total Academy training delivery spend excluding major projects.
**** Total Academy training delivery spend divided by total EFT.

62

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Strategic Report

Information provided in line with the Trade Union (Facility Time Publication Requirements) Regulations 2017 – schedule 2(1 April 2019 – 31 March 2020)
We have continued to work closely with our recognised Trade Unions in the last 12 months in embedding the changes of Terms andConditions and working through the challenges posed by the pandemic. We continue to value and build on our positive and constructive
relationships with our unions. No strike action was taken in 2019/20.
As part of the Trade Union (Facility Time Publication Requirements) Regulations 2017, public authorities are required to report information
about facility time taken by trade union officials for a 12-month period. (Facility time refers to the time taken for our recognised trade unions
to represent members both individually and collectively in a range of issues across the BBC). This is detailed in the table below.
Relevant union officials
2019/20326(EFT: 312)

Number of union officials

Percentage of time spent on facility time

Number of
employees

0%1% – 50%
51% – 99%
100%
Total cost of facility time
Total eligible PSB paybill
Percentage of total paybill spent on facility time

0
319
0
7*
£706,997£1,203k
0.06%

Paid trade union activities

80%

Time spent on paid trade union activities as a percentage of total paid facility time hours
This information has been provided based on approximated numbers on known union representative numbers.
* There were seven full time union representatives (5.5 EFT)

Volume of internal complaints
Complaints made and investigated2019/20

2018/19

Bullying and harassment
Grievance complaints notified either
direct to HR, via a grievance being raised,or via the confidential bullying andharassment helpline.

92 formal cases— 10 sexual harassment— 82 bullying and harassment— 65 closed— 16 ongoing— 11 withdrawn
Average time to close case: 77 days

86 formal cases— 5 sexual harassment— 81 bullying and harassment— 52 closed— 24 ongoing— 10 withdrawn
Average time to close case: 108 days

Whistleblowing cases
Whistleblowing allegations are received
either via Expolink, who manage an
independent whistleblowing hotline on ourbehalf, via senior management including
a designated non-executive director, or
directly to the Investigations teams.

39 cases in total (a range of issues coveringsafety, theft, fraud):— 5 upheld— 21 unsupported— 13 ongoing

26 cases in total (a range of issues coveringsafety, theft, fraud):— 6 upheld— 14 unsupported— 6 ongoing

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

63

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How we operate

Consultations

The consultation had asked for views on
a range of options, including copying thecurrent concession, restoring a universal
licence fee, discounting the concession,
raising the age threshold from 75 to
80, or using the UK Government’s own
measure on pensioner poverty to give afree TV licence to any household where
someone is over 75 and receives Pension
Credit. Details on the consultation and
the BBC Board decision can be found
at: bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/reports/
consultation/age-related-tv-licence-policy

The BBC’s Charter requires the BBC
Board “to have regard to the benefitsof consultation with interested
persons” as part of our commitment
to openness, transparency andaccountability and is a key element inour engagement with stakeholders.
In 2019/20, we published the outcomesof four consultations and details of theseare below.
Public Interest Test consultation to extend
the availability of content on BBC iPlayer
We reported last year that the BBC, as partof a Public Interest Test, had consulted on
proposals to transform BBC iPlayer, fromprimarily a catch-up and linear TV service
into a destination for audiences, where theBBC’s programmes would be available forlonger. The consultation had asked for viewson the potential public value of the proposals
and their potential competitive impact. The
BBC Board concluded that the proposals had
met the Public Interest Test and would bereferred to Ofcom for a final determination.
In August 2019, following a Competition
Assessment which included further
consultation, Ofcom agreed that the
proposed changes could go ahead,64

concluding that they would deliversignificant public value over time throughincreased choice and availability of publicservice broadcast content, and that theywould help ensure the BBC remained
relevant in the face of changing viewing
habits. Ofcom also asked us to publish
further metrics on the performance of
BBC iPlayer. As such in this year’s Annual
Report we are publishing the signed-inreach and total weekly hours of BBC
iPlayer, its share of all BBC TV viewing,users’ perceptions of BBC iPlayer, and theextent to which they feel it contributes
towards the BBC’s delivery of the mission
and purposes. This data is included for
all audiences and, where measurement
allows, under 35s/16-34s. We are keeping
the sources from which we report thisdata under review as measurementof BBC iPlayer continues to evolve.
Details of this consultation and decision areavailable online at: bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/
reports/consultation/iplayerpit
Consultation on the future of free TV
licences for over-75s
In June 2019, the BBC Board published
its decision on the future of freelicence fees for over-75s – that any
household with somebody over 75
who is in receipt of pension credit
would receive a free TV licence.
To help inform the Board’s decision,
between November 2018 and February
2019, the BBC held its largest ever public
consultation, in which more than 190,000
people and stakeholder organisations
shared their views with the BBC.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Consultation on a revised draft of theBBC’s Editorial Guidelines
In July 2019, we published the seventh
edition of the BBC Editorial Guidelines.
This followed a consultation held at
the end of 2018 on a revised draft of
the Guidelines which sought views on
whether the Guidelines set out appropriate
editorial standards for those making
BBC programmes and content andsufficiently reflected the changes in the
media landscape since the last review in2010. The BBC’s Editorial Guidelines canbe found here: bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/
reports/consultation/editorialguidelines
Consultation on amendments to the BBC’s
Complaints Framework
Between February and April 2020, we helda consultation asking for views on a numberof proposed changes to the Editorial andGeneral Complaints Procedures containedin the BBC’s Complaints Framework.
The changes were aimed at providing
greater transparency around the way inwhich we explain and communicate ourdecisions. We also used the consultation
to update the Complaints Framework tobring it into line with Ofcom’s regulations
in relation to On Demand ProgrammeServices (ODPS) and Ofcom’s guidelines for
Fairness and Privacy complaints handling.
In May 2020, the BBC Board approved
the proposed changes and a revised
Complaints Framework was published,which can be found online: bbc.com/
aboutthebbc/reports/consultation/complaints-framework-amendments

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The BBC’s Charter requires us to“carefully and appropriately assess
the views and interests of the public
and audiences, including licence fee
payers, across the whole of the United
Kingdom”. The BBC has many waysof achieving this, including extensive
market research and a 24-hour Contact
Centre that runs 365 days a year.
In addition to this regular activity,
members of the BBC Board and Executive
Committee met with representativesof the audience across the UK:
1. Salford – 25-45 year olds – focus on
BBC Sounds and BBC iPlayer
2. Wrexham – broad age range from 18-75– focus on North Wales and BBC News3. Belfast – 35-55 year olds – focus on radio,
including Radio Ulster
4. Exeter – 18-26 year olds – focus on
younger audiences in the South West
5. London – 18-35 year olds – focus on audio
services including BBC Sounds
6. Glasgow – 25-60 year olds – focus on
BBC Scotland and the Scotland Channel
All the sessions comprised of around 20-25
people and participants discussed their
media consumption, their attitudes towards
the BBC and how it portrays their lives.
Key themes raised by the audience inthe sessions:—— Many are still ‘traditional’ radio
listeners – but they are increasingly
using new ways of listening (including
podcasts). BBC Sounds is gaining
visibility and those who use it value
having the means to discover
new content.
—— Broad respect for BBC – but, particularly
younger audiences, feel that it is a bit‘out of date’ and maybe for an older
audience. The BBC is often associatedwith being factual, professional,
grown-up and serious.
—— Many want more light-hearted content
from the BBC – but want it to remain true
to its values, not just copy others, andtake more risks and be bolder.
—— Desire for more representation of theirpart of the country – there was warmthfor programmes/services where theymight ‘recognise the accent’ and local
news felt relatable and ‘for them’ butnational news can feel ‘all about London’.

Strategic Report

Audience engagement report

are able to hear directly from audience
members using video conferencing
technology. These sessions, which in many
ways are more personal as we are talking topeople in their own homes or workplaces,
are an excellent way to ensure that westay closely connected to audiences at atime when ‘in person’ contact is difficult.

Participants discussed their media consumption,
their attitudes towards the BBC and how it
portrays their lives.

Plans for 2020/21
We have announced that we want toincrease our engagement with the British
public to hear their views on the BBC as
it approaches its centenary. Whilst faceto-face engagement will likely remainchallenging for much of the year, we haveestablished a successful model of ‘Virtual
In Person’ online sessions where BBC staff—— People struggle to know who hascommissioned a programme – views on
our services are usually framed in termsof the content they offer, and content
discovery can be increasingly difficult ina sea of choice and can sometimes feeloverwhelming. Attribution is also an
increasing problem – people struggle toknow who has made a programme.
—— Watching on-demand is becoming thenorm – nearly all say they are watchingless live now and many claim to now go
to on-demand before browsing theElectronic Programme Guide (EPG).
Netflix is often seen to be the market
leader by younger audience members.
—— iPlayer is generally valued, but it isusually used to find something they
already know about rather than as adestination. Many are pleasantly
surprised by what’s on there – andmany feel there is more content thanin the past.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

65

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How we operate

Environmental sustainability

Public awareness and concern overenvironmental issues reached newheights this year. The BBC has helped
raise this awareness and responded
to it through our programmes. We arefollowing our Greener Broadcasting
strategy with the aim of creating “apositive environmental impact”.

More than 100 of the programmes we’ve
broadcast this year have been certified as‘sustainable productions’. Seven Worlds,
One Planet hired local camera crews to
reduce air travel, Strictly Come Dancing
provided sustainable catering to its castand crew and The Dengineers used upcycledmaterials to build dream dens for children.

In 2019 the BBC launched Our Planet
Matters, which collates and promotes
our extensive and wide-ranging
environmental content from TV, radio
and online. TV highlights include Climate
Change – The Facts, presented by Sir David
Attenborough, War on Plastic with Hughand Anita and an edition of Panorama
entitled Climate Change: What Can We Do?

Our partnerships with other industry
players are breaking new ground forsustainability in broadcasting.

On radio, Greta Thunberg guest-edited
Today on Radio 4, 5 live ran their Cool Planet
series, offering practical advice to listeners
wishing to reduce their environmental
impact and My World appeared on
BBC World Service, bringing environment
issues to a global audience of teenagers.
Online, BBC Ideas’ Sustainable Thinking
playlist presents visionary perspectives oncurrent and future living and BBC Sounds
hosts ‘Green Pods’ on pioneering figuresof the environmental movement.
Green themes are not just for news andfactual programmes. EastEnders character
Bailey challenged environmental attitudes
and an episode of Doctor Who saw theteam confronting the impacts of climatechange on a devastated future earth.
We have briefed 1,000 colleagues,
produced our programmes in moresustainable ways and upgraded ourbuildings to become more green.
Our course Reporting Climate Change
continues to engage journalists fromacross our News output and bespoke
training sessions have been delivered
to operational and editorial teams.
Cardiff Central Square, our new buildingin Wales, has been awarded ‘BREEAM
Outstanding’ status for consideration
given to the environment during designand construction. Its features include
the use of local materials and rainwater
harvesting. Energy-saving lighting
upgrades have begun in Pacific Quay
in Glasgow and we have vacated twobuildings, helping our energy efficiency.

We have also worked with the pan-industry
group, the DPP, to promote sustainable
practices across the supply chain.
We have made some progress against
our targets.
Following improvements to our reporting
there has been an increase in the number of
productions completing a carbon footprint,
with 95% of titles now measuring theirimpact. We continue to hit our carbon
reduction target due to the purchase ofrenewable electricity to match that used at
the majority of our sites. We are working
with our caterers and the rest of our supply
chain with the aim to fulfil our commitmentof removing single-use plastic from ouroperations by the end of the year. There
has been a slight reduction in our energy
consumption but there is much more
to do to ensure we reach our targets.

The BBC and our commercial subsidiary
BBC Studios are active partners in the
BAFTA Albert Consortium, co-foundedby the BBC nearly ten years ago. His RoyalHighness the Duke of Cambridge recently
hosted a meeting attended by seniorcommissioners from the BBC and the UK’sother major broadcasters to discuss how TV
can have a positive impact on the planet.

The table below describes the targets we are aiming for by 2022, along with progress wehave made to date. We will continue to take action in these areas and report annually on
our progress.
Greener BBC targets and measures

Target/measure by 2022(baseline 2015/16)

Progress 2019/20 vs 2015/16

CO2eReduce24%1

Reduced by 77%

EnergyReduce10%

Reduced by 1%

Waste

Reduce10%

Reduced by 21%

Recycle75%

Recycled 51%

Zero waste to landfill

Waste to landfill 12%

Programmes

No single-use plastic by 2020

In progress

100%
albert calculation
25%2
output albert certified

95% calculated
34% certified
127 programmes

1 CO2e reduction target follows a science based methodology addressing scope 1 and 2 emissions and uses a sectoral
decarbonisation approach.
2 Methodology for this target has been revised in 2019/20 to improve accuracy.
UK electricity consumption in 2019/20 in accordance with the SECR reporting guidelines: 237,175 MWh.
UK gas consumption in 2019/20 in accordance with the SECR reporting guidelines: 74,461 MWh.
Consumption of fuel for the purposes of transport in 2019/20 in accordance with SECR reporting guidelines: Diesel andpetrol used in fleet cars operated for business and company cars on business: 746,622 litres; Data on fuel used in personal/
hire cars on business is not available.
Waste data is for UK waste only.
Where necessary due to lack of data, energy consumption by international bureaux has been calculated using averages
based on previous years.
‘Gross’emissions‘Net’emissionsGreenhouse gas emissions (tonnes CO2e emissions, scope 1 and 2)

61,947

22,144

Carbon intensity (tonnes CO2e emissions/total group income £m)

12.5

4.5

Greenhouse gas emissions 2019/20

Greenhouse gas data is for UK sites and managed international bureaux. ‘Gross’ emissions use location-based grid averagefactor. ‘Net’ accounts for renewable electricity purchased in the UK.
Data has been produced in accordance with the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard.

66

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Strategic Report

Charitable work

Challenge, were another highlight. All of thisculminated in a spectacular Appeal Show,
with a total of £47.8 million announced
at the end of the programme. For more
information, visit: bbc.co.uk/Pudsey

A mother in northern Zambia isinterviewed for BBC Media Action’s radio
show, ‘Natwampane’ (Coming Together),
which aims to help stop gender-based
violence in the region

Audiences continue to be incredibly
generous in their response to charity
appeals broadcast on the BBC. Once again,
millions of pounds have been raised,money that will benefit individuals,
communities and organisations across the
UK and around the world. Our audiences
get involved in all kinds of creative ways.
BBC Broadcast Appeals
Since 1923, the BBC has offered charities
airtime. This now takes the form of a Radio
4 Appeal or a BBC One Lifeline Appeal. A
quarterly application process selects 60
charities per year covering a wide range of
causes. Audiences are able to read about
the impact of these appeals: bbc.co.uk/
charityappeals/what-your-money-does.
The Radio 4 Christmas Appeal with St
Martin-in-the-Fields raised £4.2 million,
a 21% rise on the previous year, to help
homeless people at The Connection at St
Martin’s and offer grants to vulnerable
people across the UK. In Northern Ireland

there were 11 Radio Ulster Appeals andthree Community Life television Appeals:
bbc.co.uk/niappeals. BBC Radio Sheffieldin collaboration with the South Yorkshire
Community Foundation raised funds for
those affected by the flooding in November.
BBC Children in Need
BBC Children in Need is currently fundingaround 3,000 local charities and projects
supporting disadvantaged children andyoung people throughout the UK. In thelast year alone, the charity helped change
600,000 young lives. The BBC inspired
huge numbers of people across the UK to
support its 2019 Children in Need Appeal,
including over three million children inaround 17,000 schools across the UK.
The BBC’s special programming included
The One Show’s Rickshaw Challenge,
Countryfile Ramble, DIY SOS: The Big Build,
Got It Covered, as well as programmes on
CBeebies and CBBC. Radio 2’s fundraisingendeavours, including Rylan’s Karaoke
BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Comic Relief
Sport Relief 2020 had amazing support
across the corporation, including The One
Show, Catchpoint, Bargain Hunt,
BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 1, plus an epic
BBC Radio 2 triathlon challenge and
BBC Radio 3’s Beat Beethoven. A team ofbrave celebrities took on an intense four-day
100-mile expedition across the Namib
desert for The Heat is On challenge, aBBC documentary. The fun-filled night ofTV saw celebrity spoofs of popular shows
including Line of Duty and Killing Eve.
Powerful appeal films reminded viewers of
how their donations are changing lives in
the UK and around the world. The BBC’s
support helped raise over £40 million on
the night. For more information visit:
comicrelief.com
Children in Need and Comic Relief came
together for The Big Night In, raising over £70
million (at the end of April) to help support
vulnerable people of all ages impacted by thecoronavirus crisis.
Media Action
BBC Media Action is the BBC’s international
charity. Their work supports independent
media for democracy and development,
and creative communication that helps
save lives, improve health, counter
misinformation and build more peacefulcommunities. They work in over 20
countries and reach 84 million people a year.
Projects this year have included a global
emergency response to the coronavirus
pandemic; internationally recognised
support for Rohingya refugees, andchallenging stigma around disability in
Tanzania, Nigeria and Bangladesh.
BBC Media Action is not funded by
the licence fee and the work relies on
the generous support of donors. Findout more: bbcmediaaction.org
67Return to contents

How we operate

Partnerships and collaboration

The BBC has a duty to work collaboratively
in partnership with other organisationsin the national interest. In 2019/20 the
BBC had more than 350 partnerships,
large and small, focused on supporting
UK culture and the creative economy.
Such partnerships came into dramatic
focus during the coronavirus
pandemic. Here’s a snapshot.
Impact partnerships during the pandemic
BBC Learning’s Bitesize expandedwith the help of more than 45
partners to create an unprecedented
14 weeks of home learning for every
household, whatever the child’s age.
The BBC’s two main charities, Children
in Need and Comic Relief, came together
for the first time ever, to create The Big
Night In, which had raised over £70
million by the end of April, for local
charities and projects in the UK.
Joining with Global Citizen and the World
Health Organization, plus stars from thecontemporary music scene, the BBC helped
create One World: Together at Home, a moving
tribute to health workers everywhere.
BBC Arts’ Culture in Quarantine
was created in record time with thesupport of Arts Council England andcountless other funding and producing
bodies to create a vibrant showcase
for arts in this crisis period.
BBC Local Radio’s Make a Difference
brought together those in need ofhelp with providers and agencies:
more than 1.1 million people had
responded by the end of June 2020.
Developing learning & skills
The BBC Academy’s partnership with
the National Film and Television Schoolsupported students from diverse
backgrounds, and bases in Glasgow and
Leeds ran an ever-expanding set of skills
gap courses. Likewise, the Academy’s Digital
Cities ran in multiple UK locations to offer
free talent development opportunities,
with a host of industry partners.
Our longstanding relationship with theOpen University was re-focused by new
initiatives such as Our Planet Matters,
a five-year project combining landmark
programming with school campaigns
and environmental vocational training.
Culture and the creative economy
Ten Pieces, the popular schools musiceducation package, transformed itself into68

Ten Pieces Trailblazers last year, asking
students to rethink orchestral music for
their time. And BBC Music Introducing
Live brought together 20,000 young people
under the age of 30 to help facilitate future
careers in the music and creative industries.
On the classical front, orchestral
partnerships were as ever the lifebloodof BBC music-making, including theEuropean Broadcasting Union’s Music
Exchange scheme which shared classicalmusic recorded concerts across Europe.
Other new collaborations featured atransatlantic relationship with Museumof Modern Art in New York, and the
AHRC-supported New Generation
Thinkers, both projects for Radio 3.
In the wider arts, Get Creative mobilised
UK-wide partners – including new national
festivals – for a bumper nine-day festival,
with activities ranging from dance andDJing to painting and pottery, whilst
the new Dance Passion brought together
leading dance companies including
Birmingham Royal Ballet, Akram Khanand ACE Youth in 25 live streams ofdance celebration and exploration.
Mental health and wellbeing
The BBC’s innovative Mental Healthseason presented well known figures suchas Nadiya Hussain and Alastair Campbell
and their very own personal stories; theBBC also worked with the Mental HealthFoundation, Public Health England andMind to coordinate resources and messaging
to the general public. As a result of theseason and other mental health initiatives
in 2019, the linked Action Line received
an astonishing 83,122 online visits andcalls. Music Day also took up this theme,
using music to explore dementia, andpartnering with 100 major organisationsin this field in over 800 events across UK.
Partnerships across the UK
This year saw a strengthening of the TV
industry in the nations through the power ofpartnership. The BBC and Screen Scotlandcommitted to deliver a minimum of threetelevision dramas, three comedies and threefactual series from Scotland each year. In
Northern Ireland, a new youth-focused
initiative was initiated in association with
BBC Three and Northern Ireland Screen.
And in Wales, the BBC began a collaboration
with Channel 4 and S4C to create a dynamic
production centre for factual TV production
there, as well as continuing It’s My Shout, avibrant short film showcase for new talent.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Our collaboration with libraries continued
in all the nations of the UK. BBC Archive
broadened its partnerships with thesector, working with the British Library,
National Archives, National Library ofWales, National Library of Scotland, theImperial War Museum, National Media
Museum and others to make available
our vast array of archive content.
BBC partnerships and collaborations: asnapshot in 2019/20
The table below presents the main
collaborations and creative partnerships
across the BBC:BBC AreaNo.
partnerships/
collaborations

Archive
Arts/Arts North
Academy (Birmingham)Children’s (Salford)
Content/TV
Learning (Salford)
Sport (Salford)
News
Music
Radio
R&D
England Network Centres
Scotland
Wales
Northern Ireland

19
35
10
7
18
70
12
5
43
64
46
15
8
16
6

Total

374

This data includes programme-making divisions, R&D
and training in network production centres across the
UK. It does not record the activities of individual local
radio stations.

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Governance

GovernanceThis section looks in detail at the role of the
BBC Board and includes reports from theBoard’s delegated sub-committees. The section
also includes detail on our overall approach tocorporate governance, our regulatory position
and affirmation of the Board’s duties inrelation to the Annual Report.

BBC Four’s The last Igloo

p.

70

p.

BBC Board
The Board is responsible for
ensuring the BBC fulfils its
mission and public purposes
as set out in the Charter.

Audit and Risk
Committee Report
This reviews and maintains
oversight of the BBC’s corporate
governance, particularly
with respect to financial
reporting, internal control
and risk management.

p.

74

p.

Remuneration Report
This report sets out the BBC’s
remuneration policy for executive
directors and details the annual
remuneration received by themembers of the BBC Board,
Executive Committee andCommercial Holdings Board forthe 2019/20 financial year.

Pay disclosures
Under the terms of our Charter
we are required to publish thenames of people working for the
BBC who are paid more than£150,000 from licence fee revenue.

p.

104

p.

Commercial Holdings Board
The Commercial Holdings Board
oversees the BBC’s commercial
activities. It sets strategy inline with overall BBC Group
company goals, agrees businessplans and ensures compliance inregulatory and legal matters.

Editorial Guidelines
and Standards
The Editorial Guidelines andStandards Committee is responsible
for content standards at the BBC.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

91

81

105

69

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BBC Board
The Board is responsible for ensuring the
BBC fulfils its mission and public purposes,
as set out in the Charter.
The Board is constituted under the terms of the BBC’s Royal Charterand Agreement. The Charter sets out the Board’s responsibilities, its
membership and the requirement for a number of committees tosupport its work. The Board is responsible for the proper, effective
and independent exercise of all of the functions of the BBC. It sets thestrategic direction for the BBC and approves the creative remit andthe budgets for the BBC’s services.
The Board is chaired by Sir David Clementi and consists of up to
ten non-executive directors – including the Chairman – and four
executive directors, including the Director-General.
The Chairman and the four nations’ non-executive directors areappointed by HM The Queen on the recommendation of appropriate
Ministers across the UK. The remainder of the Board are appointed
by the BBC, through the Board’s Nominations Committee.

The Board delegates some of its responsibilities to a number of
sub-committees. It is required to have a Remuneration Committee,
a Nominations Committee and an Audit and Risk Committee. The
work of these committees is complemented by the work of a numberof other committees, established by the Board – these include the Fair
Trading Committee, the Editorial Guidelines and Standards
Committee, the Commercial Holdings Board and committees foreach of the four nations of the UK.
This section includes reports from those committees, which are
chaired by and predominantly made up of non-executive directors,
as required by the Charter.
These pages show the membership of the Board as at September 2020.
During the year, Simon Burke stood down from the Board and was
replaced by Shirley Garrood as non-executive director and Chair of
the Audit and Risk Committee. Nicholas Serota was appointed by the
Board as Senior Independent Director. There were no other changes
to Board membership during the year, though the outgoing DirectorGeneral, Lord Hall, announced in January his intention to leave the
BBC and was replaced in the role by Tim Davie on 1 September 2020.

Full biographies of all Board members, including their other roles, canbe found on the BBC’s website: bbc.com/aboutthebbc/whoweare/bbcboard.

Detail on members’ attendance at Board and sub-committee
meetings is set out on page 90.

Sir David Clementi
Chairman

Tim Davie CBE
Director-General and Editor-in-Chief

Dame Elan Closs Stephens DBE
Non-executive director
Member for Wales
Chair, Commercial Holdings Board

Shirley Garrood
Non-executive director
Chair, Audit and Risk Committee

Tanni Grey-Thompson, Baroness
Grey-Thompson DBE
Non-executive director

Tom Ilube CBE
Non-executive director
Chair, Fair Trading Committee

Ian Hargreaves CBE
Non-executive director
Chair, Editorial Guidelines andStandards Committee

Charlotte Moore
Chief Content Officer

Steve Morrison
Non-executive director
Member for Scotland

Ken MacQuarrie
Director, Nations and Regions

Dr Ashley Steel
Non-executive director
Member for England

Sir Nicholas Serota CH
Senior Independent Director
Chair, Remuneration Committee

Find out more: bbc.com/
aboutthebbc/whoweare/bbcboard

Francesca Unsworth
Director, News and Current Affairs

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BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Executive Committee

The Executive Committee is responsible for delivering the BBC’s
services, in accordance with the strategy agreed by the Board, andfor all aspects of operational management.

Information on the membership and remuneration arrangements ofthe Executive Committee in 2019/20 can be found in the
Remuneration report on pages 74 to 80. A new membership of theCommittee was announced in September 2020, and details of thiscan be found at bbc.com/aboutthebbc/whoweare/exco.

GovernanceTo support and implement the work of the Board, the DirectorGeneral chairs an Executive Committee, which is responsible forthe day-to-day running of the BBC.

The Executive Committee meets regularly and oversees key
strategic projects and proposals of importance to the wholeorganisation. It takes regular reports on audience and financial
performance, as well as maintaining oversight of pan-BBC HR andorganisational design issues. It also discusses and approves all
relevant papers discussed at the Board.
Next Generation Committee
The BBC Next Generation Committee (NGC) was established by
the Director-General in late 2017 with the purpose of advisingsenior leaders and ensuring younger people’s voices and ideas areheard at executive level. The NGC is composed of 15 younger
members of staff from across the organisation, who usually serveon the Committee for a period of 12-15 months.
During the year, the Committee advised on existing ideas andstrategies within the organisation and challenged the Executive
to go further and move at a faster pace to reinvent iPlayer,
commission for younger audiences and support initiatives toattract new staff from different backgrounds. Other ideas focusedon innovation in the digital space and strengthening the focus on
younger audiences in both News output and in social media.
The Committee also took part in discussions at the BBC’s
Leadership Summit and contributed at divisional Board meetings
as requested.

Next Generation Committee members
For 2020

For 2019

Becca Bryers (chair)

Hayley Reynolds (chair)

Freya Bronwin

Sowda Ali

Malachi Butt-Mukete

William Allott

Aaron Cooper

Tom BellBeth Dinnall

Mairead Campbell

Jordan Dunbar

Sarah Corker

Emmanuella Kwenortey

Seren Jones

Lina Mar

Chinwe Kalu-Uma

Shannon McGowan

Junior Kassim

Louise Ogunnaike

Jordan Kenny

Madusha Pallawela

Luke Mason

Ahmed Razek

Waseem Punnu

Jacob Rickard

Jess Quayle

Ben Tattersall Smith

Owen Rawlings

Keely Watson

Ione Wells

2020 Next Generation Committee

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

71

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Corporate Compliance Report
We comply with corporate governance best practice
The BBC’s corporate governance framework is defined in its
Charter and the accompanying Framework Agreement.
The Charter and Agreement can be found on the BBC website at:https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/governance/charter.
The Charter requires the BBC to have regard to generally accepted
principles of good corporate governance. Although the BBC is not alisted company, it has opted to apply best practice and follow theprovisions of the Financial Conduct Authority’s Listing Rules andthe UK Corporate Governance Code 2018 (‘the Code’), whereappropriate. This delivers the governance standards applicable tocompanies quoted on an EU-regulated stock market.
During the year a Board Effectiveness Review was conducted, which
included an assessment of the Chairman’s performance.
There are a number of components of the Code that are either not
appropriate to the circumstances of the BBC or are overridden bycompliance with the BBC’s Charter or Agreement. This relates to:—— provision 3, 4, 36 and 37, relating to engagement withshareholders and alignment to their interests, which given thatthe BBC does not have shareholders in the same way that acompany does not apply. However, the BBC does have a wide
range of measures in place to ensure engagement with external
stakeholders—— provision 5, matters set out in section 172 of the Companies Act
2006, which is relevant to companies only and overriden by the
Public Purposes of the BBC as described in the Charter.
—— provision 18, membership of the Board, which is governed by thearticles of the Charter—— provision 25 and 26, approach taken to the appointment orreappointment of the external auditor, which is governed anddetermined by clause 55 of the Agreement.
However, the BBC has fully complied with the corporate governancerequirements of the Charter and Agreement and has also fullycomplied with the Code.
Cost of compliance
In order to ensure that we complied with all relevant legislation thatthe BBC is subject to as a broadcaster and a public body, in 2019/20
we incurred compliance costs estimated at £17 million (2018/19:£17 million). This figure includes the BBC’s annual £10 million fee
paid to Ofcom.
Regularity
The management of all of the BBC’s resources must accord withthe provisions of the Charter, Framework Agreement and otheragreements the BBC enters into with Government Ministers.
Transactions that meet the intended purposes and are in line with
relevant authorities are considered to be ‘regular’; those that do
not meet these criteria are considered ‘irregular’. Fraudulent
transactions and fines or penalties are treated as ‘irregular’. In
addition to the NAO’s audit of regularity, Internal Audit conducted areview of the BBC’s regularity compliance framework, including theprocesses, controls and assurance mechanisms in place to manage
the regularity risk in areas assessed as being at greatest risk ofirregularity. The scope of the review considered the appropriate useof licence fee money, the assessment of material changes, operating
within borrowing limits and the risk of fraud. No material
exceptions were identified as a result of this review andmanagement are not aware of any material transactions that could
be considered as irregular.

72

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Remuneration Committee Chair’s statement 2019/20

This year, the Committee focused on pay arrangements in thecommercial parts of the Corporation, particularly in BBC Studios
where those competitive market forces are most acutely present. We
have sought to ensure that talent continues to be incentivised in a
way that recognises the work they deliver whilst also reflecting thegreater restraint on pay that is expected across the BBC as a whole.
This year we have overseen changes to the relevant incentive
schemes in BBC Studios, seeking to ensure that the pay offer isbetter aligned with market practice, whilst also recognising theeffective discount that must come from working as part of a publicbody. The Committee will continue to review the effectiveness ofthese schemes on an annual basis to ensure that the incentives arealigned with BBC Studios’ and wider Group strategic priorities andare competitive within the constraints of the BBC constitution.
In the public service part of the BBC, we continue to pay close
attention to the development of the pay processes introduced inrecent years – such as the fair pay check and the Career Path
Framework. These processes seek to ensure that pay is set
appropriately against the market and benchmarked internally in a
way that is consistent, transparent and fair. We recognise that
historic pay cases continue to be raised, which is regrettable, and it
remains a high priority for the Group to address this issue. As a
Committee, we remain of the view that pay systems in the BBC are
now significantly more robust and able to stand up to scrutiny interms of fairness, transparency and equal pay as a result of the
improvements made in recent years. In 2019/20, we have madefurther improvements in transparency with the publication of new
pay distribution charts by gender and ethnicity.
The BBC’s gender pay gap (GPG) remains the lowest in the industry
and is reducing every year. We remain substantially ahead of thenational average and we are closing our GPG at a faster rate than theindustry and UK average . The median GPG has been reduced thisyear to 6.2% from last year’s figure of 6.7%, significantly lower than
the national average which is currently 17.3%. In the roles where wehave most staff (Journalist, Senior Journalist, Producer, Senior
Journalist-Reporter, Assistant Editor) our GPG is less than 3%.

Similarly, we have continued to observe the implementation of theBBC’s fair pay principles and the policy on pay for senior leaders that
we set out in last year’s report and restate on page 74. In 2019/20,
senior leader numbers have remained steady at 253, representing
1.4% of the total workforce. The paybill for these senior leaders has
stayed largely flat at £37.5 million. More detail on overall headcountnumbers can be found on page 61 and, this year, the Committee
reviewed trends in headcount over time, noting the areas where
increased resource has been received and invested to meet thestrategic objectives of the BBC, such as the extension of the World
Service through the provision of additional language services. Also
included in this report is the disclosure of pay information for all
those earning over £150,000 from the licence fee in the year. We
were pleased to see continued progress in the gender balance of thehighest earners this year, with the list of on-air employees now at a
split of 45% female and 55% male, up from a 34%/66% split two
years ago.
During the year, there have been a number of staff changes at
Executive level which have been overseen by the Committee.
We have also spent time in recent months considering market dataand comparators in setting the remuneration level for the new
Director-General.
In total, we met as a Committee four times this year as well as
conducting other business offline, and I am grateful to my fellow
Committee members, Tanni Grey-Thompson and Steve Morrison, as
well as to David Clementi, for their thoughtful and wise input andsupport during the year. We have also enjoyed our collaboration
with Elan Closs Stephens, in her capacity as Chair of the Commercial
Holdings Board. I look forward to developing that relationship next
year as we will continue to look across the BBC’s senior leadershipand work with management to ensure that pay at the BBC continues
to be fair, transparent and a matter of trust.
The Committee is very aware of the current environment arisingfrom the coronavirus pandemic and as part of our work for 2020/21,
we will carefully consider the impact when making decisions on pay
and incentives.

Nicholas Serota
Chair, Remuneration Committee
2 September 2020

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

73

Governance

Whilst there has continued to be much public comment on pay
practices in the BBC, the Remuneration Committee has beenpleased to see clear and strong evidence that recent changes andnew processes continue to bed in well and to give pay and reward
in the BBC a sound foundation. However, we recognise that there
are challenges as the BBC seeks to balance appropriate pay
restraint with the demands of creative and technological markets
that continue to expand and develop at pace, becoming ever moreglobal at the same time. We also know that the BBC will be
operating in markets which have been significantly affected by
the coronavirus situation, with consequential impacts on pay
and incentives.

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Remuneration Report
This report sets out the BBC’s remuneration policy for executive
directors and senior leaders and details the annual remuneration
received by the members of the BBC Board and Executive
Committee for the 2019/20 financial year. This includes ourannual disclosure of pay as required by the BBC’s Charter.
It has been prepared on the basis that the requirements of the Large
and Medium-sized Companies and Groups (Accounts and Reports)
Regulations 2013 and Listing Rules apply to the BBC wherever these
disclosure provisions are relevant. The sections on pensions andremuneration received by this group have been audited by the NAO,
the BBC’s statutory auditors.
The Remuneration Committee’s constitution and operation
The Board’s Remuneration Committee, since 1 April 2017, hasbeen responsible for setting the remuneration strategy for the
BBC Group and for all aspects of the remuneration of the Executive
Committee and Board executive directors. Its members are
non-executive directors: Tanni Grey-Thompson, Steve Morrison
and Nicholas Serota. Nicholas Serota has chaired the Committee
since 1 August 2018.
The Remuneration Committee takes specialist advice from external
professional advisers on some matters, particularly those relating tomarket practice. During the year, independent advice was received
from Willis Towers Watson on matters related to executive
remuneration and periodically in the form of market assessments,and from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP on broader incentive designin relation to our commercial subsidiaries.
The Committee makes sure that executive remuneration is aligned
to the BBC’s purpose and values. It ensures our arrangements aretransparent and easily understood, and that remuneration levels areproportionate to contribution.
The Senior Manager Remuneration Committee (SMRC), establishedin September 2012, has responsibility for aligning the operational
needs of the BBC within the strategic framework set by the Board.
The SMRC has responsibility for approving any remuneration,compensation or benefit policy within the senior leader pay policy,
which includes the review and approval of salaries for employees in
the Public Sector who earn over £75,000 per annum (full-time
equivalent basis).
Board and Executive Committee membership
For the purposes of this report, executive directors are classed as
those who sit on the Board along with the other members of the
Executive Committee.
Within the terms of the Charter, the Board is made up of up to ten
non-executive directors (the Chairman, five BBC appointees andthe four Nations representatives) and four executive members – seepage 70 for more details. The member for Northern Ireland is still tobe appointed.

BBC Pay Principles
There has been a continued focus on pay at all levels of the BBC
allied to an increased focus on fair pay. Several initiatives havebeen undertaken to ensure our Fair Pay Principles are embedded
throughout the organisation and to provide a framework inwhich fair and consistent pay decisions are taken.
1. Fair
2. Consistent
3. Transparent
4. Competitive
5. Clear
The BBC operates within a fast-changing market with intensecompetition for talent, and dramatic growth amongst some new
media, streaming and digital technology companies offering
highly attractive packages. We therefore continue to balancemarket-competitive pay with the need to demonstrate value formoney to the licence fee payer. This balance is reflected in ourmarket-informed job pay ranges which, where external (market)
factors support, continue to be discounted against market.
We believe that these Pay Principles ensure the BBC continues tobe able to appeal to all those who are excited about theopportunities of working in public service broadcasting.
More detail on this can be found in the Our People section on
pages 60.
Senior leadership remuneration policy
The Remuneration Committee is committed to setting appropriate
levels of pay for executive directors that attract, motivate and retain
the best people to lead the BBC and provide value for the licence fee
payer. In 2018, the Committee agreed that the BBC’s pay principles
should apply to all staff, executive directors and senior leaders acrossthe BBC Group. The Committee has agreed that these pay principles
will apply as set out in the table on the following pages.
The BBC has extended its union-negotiated Career Path Framework
to include an additional non-union negotiated career level band
called SL (senior leader). This includes job pay ranges for the mostsenior jobs. In framing the BBC’s pay policy the Committee gives fullconsideration to the best practice provisions of the UK Corporate
Governance Code.
Executive directors and senior leaders are not entitled to the annual
pay increase agreed with the joint unions and are not automaticallyentitled to any form of annual increment or progression payment.
Pay decisions for executive directors can only be taken by the
Remuneration Committee and pay decisions for senior leaders by the
Senior Manager Remuneration Committee, to ensure consistency
and fairness. During 2019/20, the BBC continued to embed thisapproach to senior leaders’ pay.

The BBC Board is supported by the Executive Committee, which is
responsible for the operational leadership of the Corporation. Details
on the remuneration levels for the executive directors can be foundon page 77. During 2019/20 the following membership changes took
place on the Executive Committee:—— Bob Shennan and Sarah Jones were appointed to the Executive
Committee on 8 April 2019 and 1 May 2019 respectively.
—— Valerie Hughes-D’Aeth resigned as Chief HR Officer and stepped
down from the Executive Committee on 31 October 2019. She
was replaced by Wendy Aslett and Rachel Currie, who share therole of Group HR Director. They were both appointed to the
Executive Committee on 1 November 2019.
—— June Sarpong joined the BBC in November 2019 as Director of
Creative Diversity and attends the Executive Committee.

74

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Purpose and link to strategy

Operation

Maximum opportunity

Base pay

For executive directors, base pay
is defined by reference to themarket median for total direct
remuneration (salary, annual
bonus and annualised long-term
incentive). It is expected that
this will result in remuneration
being significantly discounted
to market as no long-term
incentives are offered at the BBC.

The following factors areused to determine the level ofbase pay set for an executive
director or senior leader:

No prescribed maximum
salary or maximum increasefor executive directors.

For senior leaders, job pay ranges
are informed by market median
total target cash (base salary,allowances and target bonus)
which guide pay decisions.
No senior leader is paid below
the job pay range minimum fortheir role and pay ranges aretransparent to both senior leaders
and the wider BBC workforce.
Variable pay

Benefits– Pension

Salaries are reviewed annually,
with increases taking effectfrom 1 August. A budget isagreed and distributed according
to the above factors.
Pay ranges for senior leaders
are reviewed annually andupdated as required.

Executive directors and seniorleaders in the Public Service
are not entitled to receivea performance bonus.

Pensions are offered in accordancewith the pension arrangements
offered to all BBC employees.

Executive directors and seniorleaders can elect to join the
BBC’s defined contribution
scheme LifePlan.

Current policy provides a defined
contribution scheme with no salary
cap and a maximum employer
contribution of 10% of salary.

The BBC’s defined benefit scheme
is closed for new joiners.

Existing members of a defined
benefit pension scheme are cappedat the maximum salary for theirpension scheme or are subject to acap in pensionable salary growth.

In April 2012, the BBC removed
the car allowance benefit for all
new executive directors to ensurethat future policy aligns witharrangements for all BBC employees.
Car allowance benefit forsenior leaders was removed in2012 for all new starters.

Benefits– Private
MedicalInsurance (PMI)

Senior leaders have job pay ranges
with a minimum and maximum;
where an individual is above themaximum of their pay range owing
to legacy or commercial reasons
their pay will not increase further.

Executive directors and somesenior leaders employed in the
BBC’s commercial businesses are
eligible for a performance-related
annual bonus. Such bonuses arewholly funded by the commercial
businesses and not the licence fee.
It is reward for the achievement ofstrategic goals and profit growth.

In addition to pensions, life
assurance is provided in linewith arrangements provided
to all BBC employees.

Benefits– Transport/
travel— Scale and complexity of role
— Knowledge, skills andexperiences— Performance and contribution— Market factors and affordability

In April 2011, the BBC removed
the private health care benefit for
all new executive directors andsenior managers and aligned toarrangements for all BBC employees.

Governance

Component

Payments of a bonus in the
BBC’s commercial businesses
are subject to the achievementof an overall target based ona mix of headline profit andcash flow for their business.

Executive directors are provided
with death in service life assurance
cover of four times their basic salary.
David Jordan is in receipt of a legacy
car allowance; no other executive
director receives such an allowance.
Some senior leaders are also still inreceipt of a legacy car allowance.

No executive director in the
Public Service has received
a bonus since 2008.
For 2019/20, one executive director– CEO BBC Studios – participatedin a bonus scheme. The incentive
scheme has a target bonus of
40% and a maximum of 50%.

There is no prescribed maximum
as this is an historic benefit
which has not been offered to
new starters since 2012.

The Director-General is entitledto the use of a car and driver but
has no entitlement to a personal
car allowance or fuel allowance.
The Chairman is subject tothe same arrangements.
All executive directors now receivea legacy allowance in lieu of PMI.

The maximum level of coveroffered is family cover.
This is an historic benefit.

Following consultation, it wasagreed to remove the PMI benefit
for executive directors and seniorleaders from 1 April 2019.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

75

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Remuneration report
Component

Purpose and link to strategy

Operation

Maximum opportunity

Employment
contracts andseverance

Employment contracts of executive
directors have a maximum notice
period of six months, but are subject
to earlier termination for cause.

There is no contractual entitlement
to any additional remuneration in
the event of early termination otherthan in the case of termination
for reason of redundancy.

In the event of redundancy, all
executive directors are entitledto payments equal to one monthsalary per year served up to
maximum payment of £150,000.

Other
remuneration

There is no entitlement to any
other remuneration, so no suchpayments were made in the year.

Should any additional remuneration
be proposed, full consideration is
given to the reputational risk to
the BBC and any such payment
would require the approval of
the Remuneration Committee,
prior to implementing.

There is no prescribed maximum.

PensionExecutive directors who joined the BBC before 1 December 2010 are eligible to continue to participate in the BBC Pension Scheme (‘theScheme’), which provides for pension benefits on a defined benefit basis. Executive directors who joined the BBC on or after 1 December 2010
are eligible to join LifePlan, which is the BBC’s defined contribution arrangement. The BBC pays matching contributions to LifePlan for
employee contributions at 5%. Employee contributions between 6% and 7% are matched plus an additional 1%. Employee contributions of
8% or more receive the maximum employer contribution of 10%. There is no maximum pensionable salary for contributions to LifePlan.
Executive directors who decide not to join LifePlan or are not already an existing member of the Scheme are, subject to meeting the relevant
criteria, automatically enrolled into the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST). The BBC paid 3% and employees paid 5% of qualifying
earnings to NEST in 2019/20 in line with statutory requirements. Individuals can choose to opt out of this.
Executive directors’ pension arrangements may be reviewed and amended in response to changes in legislation or similar developments.
Features of the BBC’s pension arrangements that our executive directors participate in alongside other BBC employees are provided in thetable below.
Details of the BBC Pension Scheme are available at bbc.co.uk/mypension/.

LifePlan defined
contribution

National
Employment Savings
Trust (NEST) defined
contribution (autoenrolment
arrangement)

1 January
2012

Open toall eligible
employees

Open toall eligible
employees

1.67% accrual
Adjusted in linewith inflation

1.67% accrual
Adjusted in linewith CPI

BBC will
contribute a
maximum of
10% of salary if
employeecontributes 8%
with lower
sliding scale

BBC will
contribute 3%of qualifying
earnings(2019/20)

BBC Pension Scheme – defined benefit
Old benefits

New benefits

CAB 2006

CAB 2011

Date closed

30 September
1996

31 October
2006

30 November
2010

Accrual60ths accrual

60ths accrual

SchemeSalaryNormal pensionable age
Earnings cap

Pensionable salary
growth before theearnings cap is applied
Employee contribution(% of pensionable salary)76

Final pensionable

Final
pensionable

Career averagerevaluedearnings

Career averagerevaluedearnings

60

60

65

65

N/A

N/A

Joined before
1 June 1989
uncapped,
cappedotherwise£166,200

Capped at£166,200

Capped at£166,200

Capped at£154,800

Uncapped

Minimum
earnings£6,136p.a.
Maximum
earnings£50,000p.a.
(2019/20)

Limitedat 1% p.a.

Limitedat 1% p.a.

Limitedat 1% p.a.

No restriction

N/A

N/A

7.50 %

7.50 %

4%

6%

Minimum
employeecontribution
is 5%

5% of qualifying
earnings(2019/20)

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Details of the chairs of each of the various BBC committees can be found on page 70. Each Chair receives £5,000 per annum in addition totheir base fees. These fees are included in the table below. All fees are shown pro-rata where appropriate.
BBC Board (audited)
Details of remuneration received (values in £000s)
Year

Base pay

Taxablebenefits1

Pensionrelatedsingle figure

Performance
relatedTotal

16/02/2021

2019/20
2018/19

£100
£100

£16
£13

£0
£0

£0
£0

£116
£113

03/04/2017

03/07/2019

2019/20
2018/19

£13
£38

£0
£0

£0
£0

£0
£0

£13
£38

Shirley Garrood3

03/07/2019

02/07/2023

2019/20
2018/19

£28
–

£0
–

£0
–

£0
–

£28
£0

Tanni Grey-Thompson

03/04/2017

02/04/2021

2019/20
2018/19

£33
£33

£0
£0

£0
£0

£0
£0

£33
£33

Ian Hargreaves

03/04/2020

02/04/2023

2019/20
2018/19

£38
£38

£0
£0

£0
£0

£0
£0

£38
£38

Tom Ilube

03/04/2020

02/04/2023

2019/20
2018/19

£38
£38

£0
£0

£0
£0

£0
£0

£38
£38

Steve Morrison4

03/04/2017

02/04/2021

2019/20
2018/19

£38
£40

£0
£0

£0
£0

£0
£0

£38
£40

Nicholas Serota4

03/04/2017

02/04/2021

2019/20
2018/19

£38
£36

£0
£0

£0
£0

£0
£0

£38
£36

Ashley Steel

03/04/2017

01/12/2020

2019/20
2018/19

£38
£38

£0
£0

£0
£0

£0
£0

£38
£38

Elan Closs Stephens4

20/07/2017

19/07/2020

2019/20
2018/19

£43
£38

£0
£0

£0
£0

£0
£0

£43
£38

2019/20
2018/19

£407
£399

£16
£13

£0
£0

£0
£0

£423
£412

Appointment
term start dateAppointment
term end dateNon-executive directors
David Clementi2

16/02/2017

Simon Burke3

Total non-executive directors
Executive directors
Tony Hall2

03/04/2017

31/08/20205

2019/20
2018/19

£450
£450

£21
£25

£0
£0

£0
£0

£471
£475

Anne Bulford6

03/04/2017

31/03/2019

2019/20
2018/19

£0
£435

£0
£0

£0
£0

£0
£0

£0
£435

Tim Davie7

03/04/2017

31/08/20205

2019/20
2018/19

£400
£400

£2
£2

£40
£40

£200
£200

£642
£642

Ken MacQuarrie

03/04/2017

02/04/2021

2019/20
2018/19

£325
£325

£3
£2

£0
£0

£0
£0

£328
£327

Fran Unsworth6

01/04/2019

31/03/2021

2019/20
2018/19

£340
–

£2
–

£0
–

£0
–

£342
£0

Total executive directors

2019/20
2018/19£1,515£1,610

£28
£29

£40
£40

£200
£200

£1,783£1,879Total Board

2019/20
2018/19£1,922£2,009

£44
£42

£40
£40

£200
£200

£2,206£2,291

1 Taxable benefits: car allowance, private medical insurance/legacy allowance and other taxable expenses.
2 The Chairman and Director-General are entitled to a car and driver but have no entitlement to a personal car allowance or fuel allowance. During 2018/19 and 2019/20 access to the
Chairman’s car and driver has also been made available to all other executive directors on a shared basis.
3 Simon Burke stepped down from the Board on 3 July 2019. Shirley Garrood joined the Board on 3 July 2019 and therefore received no remuneration in 2018/19.
4 Steve Morrison chaired both the Remuneration and Scottish Nations Committees during 2018/19, receiving additional Chair fees in respect of both of these positions. He stepped
down as Chair of the Remuneration Committee on 31 July 2018. Fees for 2018/19 are shown pro-rata. Nicholas Serota was appointed Chair of the Remuneration Committee on
1 August 2018. Fees for 2018/19 are shown pro-rata. Elan Closs Stephens was appointed Chair of the Commercial Holdings Board with effect from 1 April 2019. In 2019/20 she
therefore received additional Chair fees in respect of both this position and her existing position as Chair of the Wales Committee.
5 The role of Director-General is a permanent position on the Board. Following the announcement in January 2020, Tony Hall stepped down from the Board on 31 August 2020. Tim
Davie was appointed as the new Director-General with effect from 1 September 2020. His previous term on the Board as CEO, BBC Studios therefore ended on 31 August 2020 and hetook up the permanent position on the Board as Director-General on 1 September 2020.
6 Anne Bulford stepped down from the Board on 31 March 2019 therefore no figures are reported for the 2019/20 period. Fran Unsworth was appointed to the Board on 1 April 2019
therefore no figures are reported for 2018/19 period.
7 Tim Davie’s role as CEO, BBC Studios is funded entirely by the BBC’s commercial revenues and not paid for or subsidised by the licence fee. Payment of any bonus issubject to the achievement of an overall headline profit and cash for that subsidiary, with targets approved by the Remuneration Committee. The performance-related
remuneration relates to the amount earned in the year.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

77

Governance

Annual remuneration of the BBC Board and Executive Committee – detail of remuneration received
The table below provides full details of the remuneration received by all BBC Board members for 2019/20. The Board was first constituted on
3 April 2017 under the implementation of the 2016 Charter and Agreement, which set out new governance arrangements for the BBC.

Return to contents

Remuneration report
The table below provides full details of the remuneration received by all BBC Executive Committee members for 2019/20, compared to theprevious year. Remuneration for members shown below relates solely to the period of time when they served on the Executive Committee.
For full annual amounts, please refer to the Disclosures section on page 85.
Total Executive Committee remuneration for 2019/20 has risen since 2018/19, due to increased membership of the Committee in the year
(18 members at the end of the year compared to 15 members in 2018/19).
BBC Executive Committee members (audited)
Details of remuneration received (values in £000s)
Date appointed
to Committee

Year

Base pay

Taxablebenefits

Pensionrelated single
figure1

Performance
related

Total

Tony Hall

02/04/2013

2019/20
2018/19

£450
£450

£21
£25

£0
£0

£0
£0

£471
£475

Tim Davie2

01/11/2012

2019/20
2018/19

£400
£400

£2
£2

£40
£40

£200
£200

£642
£642

Ken MacQuarrie

22/09/2016

2019/20
2018/19

£325
£325

£3
£2

£0
£0

£0
£0

£328
£327

Fran Unsworth

01/01/2018

2019/20
2018/19

£340
£340

£2
£2

£0
£0

£0
£0

£342
£342

Wendy Aslett3

01/11/2019

2019/20
2018/19

£63
–

£1
–

£8
–

£0
–

£72
£0

Kerris Bright4

18/06/2018

2019/20
2018/19

£360
£283

£0
£0

£6
£0

£0
£0

£366
£283

Rachel Currie3

01/11/2019

2019/20
2018/19

£63
–

£1
–

£3
–

£0
–

£67
£0

Valerie Hughes-D’Aeth5

01/08/2014

2019/20
2018/19

£200
£310

£0
£0

£0
£0

£0
£0

£200
£310

Glyn Isherwood4

09/04/2018

2019/20
2018/19

£335
£318

£0
£0

£0
£0

£0
£0

£335
£318

Sarah Jones3

01/05/2019

2019/20
2018/19

£255
–

£2
–

£0
–

£0
–

£257
£0

David Jordan

01/04/2018

2019/20
2018/19

£178
£171

£3
£8

£0
£0

£0
£0

£181
£179

Charlotte Moore

06/07/2016

2019/20
2018/19

£370
£370

£2
£2

£29
£32

£0
£0

£401
£404

Matthew Postgate

01/04/2016

2019/20
2018/19

£317
£310

£0
£0

£30
£31

£0
£0

£347
£341

James Purnell

19/03/2013

2019/20
2018/19

£315
£315

£0
£0

£32
£3

£0
£0

£347
£318

Gautam Rangarajan4

01/06/2018

2019/20
2018/19

£181
£146

£1
£1

£40
£26

£0
£0

£222
£173

June Sarpong6

01/11/2019

2019/20
2018/19

£75
–

£0
–

£0
–

£0
–

£75
£0

Bob Shennan3

08/04/2019

2019/20
2018/19

£303
–

£2
–

£33
–

£0
–

£338
£0

John Shield

01/04/2018

2019/20
2018/19

£220
£218

£0
£0

£1
£1

£0
£0

£221
£219

Clare Sumner

01/04/2018

2019/20
2018/19

£175
£170

£0
£0

£18
£17

£0
£0

£193
£187

Remuneration relating to former Executive
Committee members7
Total Executive Committee

2018/19

£435

£0

£0

£0

£435

2019/20
2018/19£4,925£4,561

£40
£42

£240
£150

£200
£200

£5,405£4,953

1 Employee pension contributions are ordinarily made via a salary sacrifice arrangement as an employer contribution, with a corresponding reduction in salary. Base salaries for
executive directors have not been adjusted to reflect the impact of salary sacrifice to enable like-for-like comparison with prior years before salary sacrifice was introduced. The
pension-related single figure is generally calculated at 20 times the increase in the accrued pension over the year net of inflation, less the directors’ defined benefit contributions, plus
the employer’s defined contributions. This is also shown in detail in the defined benefits pension prospective entitlements table.
2 Tim Davie’s role as CEO, BBC Studios is funded entirely by the BBC’s commercial revenues and not paid for, or subsidised by, the licence fee. Payment of any bonus is subject to theachievement of an overall headline profit and cash for that subsidiary, with targets approved by the Remuneration Committee.
3 Bob Shennan joined the Executive Committee on 8 April 2019. Sarah Jones joined the Executive Committee on 1 May 2019. Wendy Aslett and Rachel Currie were appointed as joint
Group HR Directors and joined the Executive Committee on 1 November 2019. Therefore no figures are reported for the 2018/19 period.

78

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Governance

4 Kerris Bright, Glyn Isherwood and Gautam Rangarajan joined the Executive Committee on 18 June 2018, 9 April 2018 and 1 June 2018 respectively. Figures shown for 2018/19 are
pro-rata.
5 Valerie Hughes-D’Aeth left the BBC on 31 October 2019.
6 June Sarpong joined the BBC and was appointed to the Executive Committee on 1 November 2019 and therefore received no remuneration in 2018/19. She works on a part-time basis
as reflected in the base pay figure disclosed.
7 Remuneration relates to Anne Bulford, who stepped down from the Executive Committee at the end of the 2018/19 financial year.

Total remuneration – Board and Executive Committee (audited)
There has been an increase in the overall total annual remuneration for the Board and Executive Committee in 2019/20, predominantly as aresult of the increase in membership of the Executive Committee in 2019/20 to 18 members (previously 15 in 2018/19).
Total remuneration (values in £000s)

2019/20

2018/19

Total Executive Committee (including Board executive directors)
Board non-executive directors£5,405£423£4,953£412

Total annual remuneration£5,828£5,365

Defined benefit pension prospective entitlements (values in £000s) (audited)

Age at31 March 2020

SectionAccrued pension
31 March 2020
(or retirement/leaving theBoard if earlier)

Tim Davie

52

CAB 2011

21

18

Wendy Aslett

58

CAB 2011

19

18

4

8

Charlotte Moore

51

New benefits

34

31

11

29

Matthew Postgate

45

New benefits

38

35

12

30

Gautam Rangarajan

48

CAB 2011

20

17

9

40

Bob Shennan

58

CAB 2011

21

18

9

33

Accrued pension
1 April 2019(or joining theBoard if after)

Director DB
contributions(via salarysacrifice)2019/20

Pension related
single figure

940Notes:Tim Davie is an active member of the CAB 2011 section from January 2012 and retains a deferred benefit in the New Benefits section for service up to that date.
The accrued pension shown relates to CAB 2011 only.
Wendy Aslett is an active member of the CAB 2011 section from January 2012 and retains a deferred benefit in the Old Benefits section for service up to that date.
The accrued pension shown relates to CAB 2011 only.
Charlotte Moore joined the BBC on 1 May 2006. The pension figures shown include the period before she was appointed as an executive director.
Matthew Postgate joined the BBC on 1 June 2005. The pension figures shown include the period before he was appointed as an executive director.
Gautam Rangarajan is an active member of the CAB 2011 section from January 2012 and retains a deferred benefit in the Old Benefits section for service up to that date. The accrued
pension shown relates to CAB 2011 only.
Bob Shennan re-joined the BBC in February 2009 and was appointed as an executive director on 8 April 2019. The pension figures shown include the period before he was appointed as
an executive director. He is an active member of the CAB 2011 section from December 2011 and transferred out his previous benefits.
The accrued pension shown relates to CAB 2011 only.

Comparative pay across the BBC
In 2011 the BBC voluntarily agreed to report the top to median Public Service earnings multiple as proposed in the Hutton report ‘Fair Pay in
the Public Sector’. Since 2011 the BBC has published these figures on an annual basis.
The table below provides a summary of the Director-General to BBC staff median earnings and executive directors to median earnings
figures since 2011. The sample group for the executive directors group has changed since 2018/19 following the expansion of the Executive
Committee membership in 2019/20.
The Public Service staff median has changed from 10.2 to 9.9 in 2019/20.
2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

Director-General earnings

9.9

10.2

10.7

10.2

10.4

10.7

Executive directors’ median earnings

6.9

7.0

7.7

7.7

8.19

8.2

10.9

11

16.5

16.8

8.2

8.1

8.7

8.9

Notes:
Earnings calculation includes: basic pay, bonus, continuing allowances, overtime and other non-continuing allowances. Median earnings figures are calculated using Director-Generaland executive directors’ annual salaries.
These figures exclude roles which are funded entirely by the BBC’s commercial operations, such as the CEO, BBC Studios.

The table below provides a summary of the changes to the Director-General’s cash earnings for 2019/20 versus the change in pan-BBC
median earnings over the same period. There have been no changes to the Director-General’s remuneration in 2019/20.

Director-General earnings
Pan-BBC median earnings

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

2019/20(values in £000s)

Change from2018/19

£450
£45.5

0%
3.4%

79

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Remuneration report
The Committee has considered the new reporting regulations applying to large quoted companies, which require them to publish
information on the ratios between CEO and average staff pay. For consistency in reporting and in light of the appointment of a new DirectorGeneral during 2020/21, the Committee intends to review the method of calculation of comparative pay across the BBC with a view topublishing figures next year which are based on the requirements of the new regulations.
Severance
No severance was paid to executive directors during the year ended 31 March 2020.
Outside interests
With the prior agreement of the Director-General, executive members of the BBC Board may hold remunerated external directorships.
The prime purpose of the external directorship should be to support personal and career development and thereby give back to the BBC.
Remuneration which arises from external directorships may be retained by the individual, but is subject to formal approval. Executive
directors may also hold non-remunerated posts outside the BBC. No more than one to two days per month are permitted to fulfil all
external duties.
The BBC’s commercial businesses
During 2019/20, the BBC had staff employed with three main commercial subsidiaries:—— BBC Studios—— BBC Studioworks—— BBC Global News
Remuneration within the commercial subsidiaries is subject to the BBC’s governance and approval processes. The remuneration policy forthe subsidiaries includes the provision of an annual bonus available to eligible staff, including directors, and it varies between commercial
entities. The full cost of base pay and annual bonus are self-funded by the commercial revenues of each subsidiary company and are notsubsidised by the licence fee.
BBC Studios Company Bonus Scheme
The Remuneration Committee has oversight of the design and outturn of the BBC Studios Company Bonus Scheme. The 2019/20 scheme
was built on two key financial measures and personal objectives as follows:—— EBITDA, weighted 50% (66.6% of financial element);—— free cash flow, weighted 25% (33.3% of financial element); and—— individual personal objectives, weighted 25%.
Targets are set to ensure achievement of the long-term business strategy for BBC Studios, and for 2019/20 incorporated 7.5% growth(EBITDA) and 5% growth (free cash flow) at target, and 21% growth (both financial measures) at maximum.
The targets are set out in the table below (all figures in £ millions).
ThresholdTargetMaximum

EBITDA£153.5£165.0£185.4

Free cash flow

£48.1

£50.5

£58.1

Participation is limited to senior roles in key commercial areas, with threshold, target and maximum individual percentages set by grade. For
the CEO, BBC Studios, the achievement of the targets above results in the following individual payments, subject to Remuneration
Committee discretion and approval:

Bonus as % of salaryThresholdTargetMaximum

16%

40%

50%

2019/20 results
For 2019/20, the Remuneration Committee assessed the outturn of the BBC Studios bonus against the targets set out above. BBC Studios
exceeded the targets for both EBITDA and free cash flow in 2019/20. This resulted in a bonus payment of 50% (£200,000) to the CEO, BBC
Studios in respect of the year’s performance.

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Pay disclosures

Last year we set out a projection of what we expected the list to look
like this year. We have now met the 55:45 balance projected between
male and female on-air employees, a significant further
improvement which is shown in the lists below. This is a huge shift
from the 76:24 split when we first reported on this in 2016/17, and up
again from the 60:40 split we reported last year. The number ofwomen in the top ten has increased to four, compared to none three
years ago, and there are now ten women in the top 25 earners. The
number of men earning over £500,000 has reduced from three totwo, along with diversity in the list remaining at the same level as
projected in last year’s report.

On-air talent pay tables
Individuals on this list are shown by category: News, Radio, Sport,
and presenters who work regularly across multiple parts of the BBC
including Television. These figures include payments from licencefee revenue made to individuals working under a contract forservices. These figures exclude any recharges, amounts paid, andinvestments into programmes made by our commercial entities – forexample BBC Studios. Payments made by independent producers,
royalties, repeat fees, contractual and other recoverables andexpenses are also excluded. Programme commitments have beendrawn from contractual commitments or other patterns of work,and have generally been stated to the nearest ten. These have been
consistently disclosed for each principal programme or genre. Single
episodes have been excluded, unless this represents a significant
part of an individual’s work.

Year-on-year, we have shown that we are able to deliver on our
projections for improvement and development of the list, and we are
now approaching a 50:50 balance on a gender basis and seeing
increasing numbers of women at the top of the list. We expect thistrend to continue, but we have not provided a projection for 2020/21,
as coronavirus has made the production environment highly volatileand consequently quantities of work are hard to predict in a numberof areas, especially Sport.
It is also worth noting that, both on air and off, we continue tooperate in extremely competitive markets for talent, with inflationlevels for pay often well above the average for the UK economy. Thispressure, taken with the fixed £150,000 entry point to the list,
suggests that more individuals will appear on these lists over time.
Were the threshold for inclusion to be linked to inflation, we would
expect the numbers on the list to be broadly flat. Nevertheless, as inprevious years, we will continue to monitor and aim to reduce ourtotal senior leader and on-air paybill as a whole.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

81

Governance

Report from the BBC Remuneration Committee of people paid
more than £150,000 of licence fee revenue in the financial year
In the following pages, we set out details of those individuals who
received more than £150,000 from licence fee revenue in the year.
The Charter requires us only to publish amounts paid during theyear for these individuals, set out in bands. We go beyond that
requirement by publishing more detail of the work that individuals
appearing on air carried out for the remuneration they received.

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Pay disclosures
Detailed on-air talent pay tables
Principal programme

Name

Programme commitments

Pay

Nick Robinsonc.140 presentation daysc.40 episodes of Political Thinking
Panorama on Brexit
Election Specials£295,000 – £299,999

Mishal Husainc.140 presentation daysc.20 presentation days for BBC One
12 episodes of From Our Home Correspondent£265,000 – £269,999

Martha Kearneyc.140 programmesRadio 4 documentary£255,000 – £259,999

News and Current Affairs
Today

Justin Webb

c.140 programmes£250,000 – £254,999

World at One

Sarah Montaguec.180 presentation daysc.10 episodes of HARDtalk£250,000 – £254,999

PM

Evan Davisc.200 programmes
The Bottom Line on Radio 4£275,000 – £279,999

BBC News at Six and
BBC News at Ten

Huw Edwardsc.180 presentation days for BBC One and News Channel
Election Night and News Specials£465,000 – £469,999

George Alagiahc.180 presentation days for BBC One£325,000 – £329,999

Sophie Raworthc.180 presentation days for BBC One
Election Programme£275,000 – £279,999

Question Time

Fiona Brucec.40 episodes of Question Timec.50 presentation days for BBC One£450,000 – £454,999

The Andrew Marr Show

Andrew Marrc.40 programmes
c.20 editions of Start the Week
Documentaries for BBC One and Election Night£360,000 – £364,999

The Andrew Neil Show

Andrew Neil

The Andrew Neil Show, Politics Live and This Week
Election Specials and Election Night£170,000 – £174,999

Newsnight

Emily Maitlisc.140 presentation days for Newsnight
BBC documentaries and Election Programme£370,000 – £374,999

Kirsty Warkc.80 presentation days for Newsnight
Cover for Start the Week and Talking Books£215,000 – £219,999

Victoria Derbyshire

Victoria Derbyshire

Lead presenter on Victoria Derbyshire£215,000 – £219,999

Westminster Hour

Carolyn Quinn

Lead presenter on Westminster Hour and cover for PM£150,000 – £154,999

BBC News Channel

Clive Myrie

BBC News Channel, BBC One and location work

£215,000 – £219,999

Reeta Chakrabarti

BBC News Channel, BBC One and location work
Election Night£180,000 – £184,999

Ben Brown

BBC News Channel, BBC One and location work

£165,000 – £169,999

Simon McCoy

BBC News Channel, BBC One and location work

£160,000 – £164,999

BBC Breakfast

82

Carrie Gracie

BBC News Channel and location work

£155,000 – £159,999

Jane Hill

BBC News Channel, BBC One and location work

£150,000 – £154,999

Joanna Gosling

BBC News Channel and BBC One
Presenter on Victoria Derbyshire

Louise Minchinc.180 programmes
Triathlon: World Series£215,000 – £219,999

Naga Munchettyc.180 programmes and The Media Show cover£195,000 – £199,999

Charlie Stayt

c.180 programmes£190,000 – £194,999

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Name

Programme commitments

Pay

On-air editors andcorrespondents

Laura Kuenssberg

Political Editor and Election Night
Two BBC Two documentaries£290,000 – £294,999

Jon Sopel

North America Editor
BBC Radio 4 Today cover£235,000 – £239,999

Jeremy Bowen

Middle East Editor£220,000 – £224,999

Katya Adler

Europe Editor£210,000 – £214,999

Amol Rajan

Media Editor
c.40 episodes of The Media Show
Cover on BBC Radio 2, Start the Week
BBC Television documentaries£205,000 – £209,999

Fergal Keane

Africa Editor, World Service and Radio 4 documentaries

Simon Jack

Business Editor and BBC Radio 4 Today cover£190,000 – £194,999

Mark Easton

Home Editor£185,000 – £189,999

James Naughtie

Presenter and Correspondent£170,000 – £174,999

John Pienaar

Deputy Political Editor and Pienaar’s Politics
One episode of Panorama£165,000 – £169,999

Orla Guerin

International Correspondent£160,000 – £164,999

Faisal Islam

Economics Editor£155,000 – £159,999

Scott Millsc.210 editions of The Scott Mills Showc.20 editions of The Scott Mills and Chris Stark Show onRadio 5 live

£345,000 – £349,999

Greg Jamesc.180 editions of Radio 1 Breakfast ShowRadio 1‘s Teen Awards and Big Weekend
Rewinder on Radio 4£275,000 – £279,999

Nick Grimshaw

c.190 editions of Radio 1 Drivetime ShowRadio 1’s Big Weekend£240,000 – £244,999

Annie Macc.220 editions of The Annie Mac ShowRadio 1’s Big Weekend£170,000 – £174,999

Clara Amfo

c.190 editions of Radio 1 Mid Morning ShowRadio 1’s Big Weekend£155,000 – £159,999

Zoe Ballc.210 editions of The Zoe Ball Breakfast Show

£1,360,000 – £1,364,999

Steve Wrightc.220 editions of Steve Wright in the Afternoon
c.50 editions of Steve Wright’s Sunday Love Songs£475,000 – £479,999

Ken Bruce

Radio 2 Mid Morning Show
Eurovision Song Contest
Radio 2 Live in Hyde Park

£385,000 – £389,999

Jeremy Vine

Daily show on Radio 2
Election programme£320,000 – £324,999

Jo Whileyc.180 editions of Radio 2 Evening Show

£280,000 – £284,999

Sara Coxc.230 editions of Radio 2 Drivetime ShowRadio 2 Live in Hyde Park

£275,000 – £279,999

Trevor Nelsonc.180 editions of Rhythm Nationc.50 Weekend Shows on 1Xtra£220,000 – £224,999

GovernancePrincipal programme

Radio
BBC Radio 1

BBC Radio 2

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Pay disclosures
Principal programme

Name

Programme commitments

Pay

BBC Radio 5 live

Nicky Campbell

c.200 editions of 5 live Breakfast Showc.200 editions of Your Call

£300,000 – £304,999

Emma Barnett

c.180 editions of The Emma Barnett Showc.20 editions of Newsnight
Election work

£260,000 – £264,999

Rachel Burdenc.200 editions of 5 live Breakfast Show
Cover for BBC Breakfast and Your Call

£175,000 – £179,999

Nihal Arthanayakec.190 editions of 5 live Early Afternoon Showc.40 editions of The Big Debate on Asian Network£170,000 – £174,999

Adrian Chilesc.40 editions of Chiles on Friday
c.40 editions of Question Time Extra Timec.20 other shows on 5 live

£155,000 – £159,999

Lauren Laverne

c.210 editions of 6 Music Breakfast Showc.40 6 Music Recommends
c.30 Desert Island Discs on Radio 4
Mercury Music Prize£395,000 – £399,999

Shaun Keavenyc.210 editions of 6 Music Early Afternoon Show

£160,000 – £164,999

Mary Anne Hobbs

c.230 editions of 6 Music Mid Morning Showc.50 6 Music Recommends£150,000 – £154,999

Steve Lamacq

c.230 editions of 6 Music Afternoon Showc.50 6 Music Recommends

Vanessa Feltz

c.200 editions of Radio 2 Early Breakfast Showc.220 editions of Radio London Breakfast ShowRadio 2 cover£405,000 – £409,999

Stephen Nolan

The Nolan Show on Radio Ulster
Nolan Live on BBC One (Northern Ireland)
The Stephen Nolan Show on 5 live

£390,000 – £394,999

Gary Lineker

Match of the Day: Premier League and FA Cup
Sports Personality of the Year

£1,750,000 – £1,754,999

Alan Shearer

Match of the Day: Premier League and FA Cup£390,000 – £394,999

Jermaine Jenas

Match of the Day: Premier League and FA Cup
MOTDx and Friday Football Social£200,000 – £204,999

CricketJonathan Agnew

International test, one-day and Twenty20 series
BBC Cricket Correspondent£170,000 – £174,999

TennisSue Barker

Wimbledon, Queen’s, ATP World Tour Finals
Australian OpenBBC documentaries£200,000 – £204,999

John McEnroe

Wimbledon
BBC documentaries£195,000 – £199,999

Mark Chapman

Three editions of 5 live sport per week
Weekly Premier League highlights
Rugby League and NFL£245,000 – £249,999

Gabby Logan

Athletics
Premier League Show and Women’s World Cup
Sports Personality of the Year

£185,000 – £189,999

Clare Balding

Wimbledon
Cycling and Equestrian
The Boat Race
Sports Personality of the Year

£155,000 – £159,999

BBC 6 Music

Multiple stations

Sport
Men’s footballMultiple sports

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Principal programme

Name

Programme commitments

Pay

Television

Mary Berry

BBC television fee for a range of programmes and series£215,000 – £219,999

Radio and Sport

Jason Mohammad

Daily BBC Radio Wales programme and other BBC Wales
television output
Final Score, other football and The Boat Race
Good Morning Sunday on Radio 2£285,000 – £289,999

News and SportDan Walker

Football Focus
BBC Breakfast£260,000 – £264,999

News and Radio

Tina Daheley

Radio 2 Breakfast Show and Beyond Today podcast
BBC One News and BBC Breakfast coverc.40 episodes of The Cultural Frontline
Election Programme and cover for Woman’s Hour

£255,000 – £259,999

Radio and Television

Graham Norton

Weekly show on Radio 2
BBC television fee for a range of programmes and series
British Academy Television Awards andBritish Academy Film Awards£725,000 – £729,999

Claudia Winkleman

Weekly show on Radio 2
BBC television fee for a range of programmes and series£365,000 – £369,999

Governance

Multiple genres and Television
There are a small number of individuals who have pre-existing multi-year relationships with BBC commissioning. Payments from
BBC Studios have been removed from the disclosure, and they may also receive payments from independent producers. We also include inthis section presenters who spend close to 50% of their time in more than one of TV, Radio, News and Sport.

Senior executives
We already publish on our website the pay and expenses for all senior leaders earning over £150,000 in the BBC’s public services. Under theterms of our Charter, we are required to publish a report from the Remuneration Committee listing all senior executives of the BBC paid
more than £150,000 from licence fee revenue in the financial year, set out in pay bands. These figures exclude any recharges or amounts paid
from our commercial entities.
Pay

Name

Role

Tony Hall

Director-General£370,000 – £374,999

Charlotte Moore

Director, Content£360,000 – £364,999

Kerris BrightChief Customer Officer£340,000 – £344,999

Francesca Unsworth

Director, News and Current Affairs£335,000 – £339,999

Glyn Isherwood

Chief Financial Officer£325,000 – £329,999

Ken MacQuarrie

Director, Nations and Regions£315,000 – £319,999

Matthew Postgate

Chief Technology and Product Officer£310,000 – £314,999

Bob Shennan

Group Managing Director£305,000 – £309,999

James Purnell

Director, Radio and Education£280,000 – £284,999

Sarah JonesGroup Legal Counsel£220,000 – £224,999

John Shield

Director, Communications and Corporate Affairs£180,000 – £184,999

Gautam Rangarajan

Director, Strategy

David Jordan

Director, Editorial Policy and Standards£175,000 – £179,999

Clare Sumner

Director, Policy£165,000 – £169,999

Wendy Aslett

Group HR Director

Director-General£450,000 – £454,999
Executive Committee

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

85

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Pay disclosures
Pay

Name

Role

£325,000 – £329,999

Bal Samra

Group Commercial Director£210,000 – £214,999

Dale Haddon

HR Director

Balram Veliath

Director, Quality, Risk and Assurance

Corporate Functions£205,000 – £209,999

Shirley CameronGroup Financial Controller£200,000 – £204,999

Anna Gronmark

HR Director, News and Current Affairs£195,000 – £199,999

Peter Ranyard

Director, Corporate Legal

Gillian Taylor

HR Director

David CurleyGroup Corporate Finance Director

Noel Scotford

Director, HR Systems and Business Affairs£175,000 – £179,999

Chris Rowsell

Head of Regulation£170,000 – £174,999

Claudia Giles

Legal Director

Phil Harrold

Company Secretary

Pipa Doubtfire

Director, Revenue Management

Catherine Hearn

Director, Resourcing

Sarah Gregory

Director, HR Operations

Simon Morrissey

Legal Director

David Attfield

Legal Director

Nick Wilcox

Legal Director

Isabel Begg

Director, Commercial Rights and Business Affairs

Jessica Cecil

Director, BBC

Claire Paul

Senior Head of Leadership and Development

Tim Cavanagh

Director, Workplace£180,000 – £184,999£160,000 – £164,999£155,000 – £159,999£150,000 – £154,999

Alexis Hawkes

Legal Director

Natasha Wojciechowski

HR Director£215,000 – £219,999

Matt Grest

Director, Platform£205,000 – £209,999

Robin Pembrooke

Director, Content Production, Products and Systems£200,000 – £204,999

Stuart Page

Director, Corporate and Commercial, Product and Systems£195,000 – £199,999

Chris Condron

Director, Digital Products

Design and Engineering

Jatin Aythora

Chief Architect

Gary Payne

Chief Information Security Officer

Kieran Clifton

Director, Distribution and Business Development

Andy Baker

Director, Engineering Operations

Andy Conroy

Controller, Research and Development

Dan Taylor-Watt

Director, iPlayer and Sounds, Product and Systems

Sarah Hayes

Director, BBC Archives

Richard Cooper

Controller, Digital Distribution£160,000 – £164,999

Andrew Kaczor

Finance and Operations Director£155,000 – £159,999

Claire Hetherington

Head of Product

Grace Boswood

Chief Operating Officer

Ellie Runcie

Chief Design Officer

Sundar Srinivasan

Principal System Specialist£190,000 – £194,999£175,000 – £179,999£165,000 – £169,999

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BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents£150,000 – £154,999

Name

Governance

Pay

Role

John Parrott

Head of Architecture

Gabriel Straub

Head of Technology Transformation

Kirsten Mitchinson

Head of Commercial

Matthew Percy

Head of Architecture£185,000 – £189,999

Justin Bairamian

Director, BBC Creative£175,000 – £179,999

Nick North

Director, Audiences£240,000 – £244,999

Ian Haythornthwaite

Chief Financial and Operating Officer£195,000 – £199,999

Peter Johnston

Nations Director£190,000 – £194,999

Joe Godwin

Director, Partnerships

Rhodri Talfan Davies

Nations Director

Marketing and Audiences

Nations and Regions£185,000 – £189,999

Donalda MacKinnon

Nations Director£165,000 – £169,999

Helen Thomas

Nations Director£155,000 – £159,999

Steve Carson

Senior Head of Multi-Platform Commissioning£150,000 – £154,999

Chris Burns

Senior Head of Local Radio Commissioning

Alan Bainbridge

Director, Workplace£270,000 – £274,999

Piers Wenger

Controller, Drama Commissioning£225,000 – £229,999

Dan McGolpin

Controller, iPlayer and Programming

Patrick Holland

Controller, BBC Two and BBC Four

Barbara Slater

Director, Sport

Alison Kirkham

Controller, Factual Commissioning

Kate Phillips

Controller, Entertainment Commissioning

Shane Allen

Controller, Comedy Commissioning£215,000 – £219,999

Fiona Campbell

Channel Controller£210,000 – £214,999

Rose Garnett

Commissioning Controller£205,000 – £209,999

Lucy Richer

Senior Commissioning Editor, Drama£175,000 – £179,999

Philip Bernie

Head of Sport, TV£170,000 – £174,999

Manda Levin

Senior Commissioning Editor, Drama£165,000 – £169,999

Lindsay Currie

Head of Portfolio Scheduling

Clare Sillery

Senior Head of Factual Commissioning

Cassian Harrison

Channel Editor£155,000 – £159,999

Jo Wallace

Senior Commissioning Editor, Entertainment£150,000 – £154,999

Ben Gallop

Head of Sport, Digital and Radio

Workplace£150,000 – £154,999
Content£220,000 – £224,999£160,000 – £164,999

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87

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Pay disclosures
Pay

Name

Role

£205,000 – £209,999

Kamal Ahmed

Editorial Director£200,000 – £204,999

Alan Dickson

Chief Financial and Operating Officer

Jamie Angus

Director, World Service Group

Gavin Allen

Head of News Programmes

Jonathan Munro

Head of Newsgathering

Naja Neilsen

Senior News Controller£170,000 – £174,999

Mary Hockaday

Controller, World Service English£165,000 – £169,999

Joanna Carr

Head of Current Affairs

Sarah Ward-Lilley

Managing Editor£160,000 – £164,999

Jon Zilkha

Senior Project Director£155,000 – £159,999

James Gray

Head of Journalism£150,000 – £154,999

Sarah Sands

Executive News Editor£225,000 – £229,999

Alice Webb

Director, Children’s£215,000 – £219,999

Graham Ellis

Controller, Radio Production£200,000 – £204,999

Cheryl Taylor

Head of Content, Children’s£180,000 – £184,999

Jonathan WallController, Radio

Alan DaveyController, Radio£175,000 – £179,999

Helen Bullough

Head of Children’s Production£155,000 – £159,999

Mohit Bakaya

Controller, Radio

Ben Cooper

Controller, Radio

Valerie Hughes-D’Aeth

Chief HR Officer

News and Current Affairs£180,000 – £184,999

Radio and Education

Former Staff*£195,000 – £199,999* This section includes individuals who left the BBC during the financial year 2019/20 and for whom therefore a full annual salary would not have been paid

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NAO opinion on pay disclosures

I have conducted independent assurance procedures on thedisclosures included in the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)Annual Report arising from the requirement under the Royal
Charter for the continuance of the BBC (the Royal Charter) to publish
the names of all senior executives of the BBC paid more than£150,000 from licence fee revenue in that financial year; and thenames of all other staff of the BBC paid more than £150,000 fromlicence fee revenue in that financial year set out in pay bands for the
year-ended 31 March 2020. These disclosures comprise the Pay
Disclosures as set out on pages 81 to 88 of the BBC’s Annual Report(the subject matter) (the “Pay Disclosures”).
My work is conducted in accordance with International Standards
on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000 Assurance Engagements
Other Than Audits or Reviews of Historic Financial Information.
Respective responsibilities of the BBC Board and the Comptroller
and Auditor General
For the reporting year covered by this report, the BBC Board was
responsible for publishing information required by the Royal
Charter as follows:—— the names of all senior executives of the BBC paid more than£150,000 from licence fee revenue in that financial year; and—— the names of all other staff of the BBC paid more than £150,000
from licence fee revenue in that financial year set out in pay
bands for the year-ended 31 March 2020.
I am responsible for providing an opinion on whether, in all material
respects, the subject matter is complete and accurate and has been
properly prepared in accordance with the basis set out therein.
In conducting this work, my staff and I have complied with the
Financial Reporting Council’s Revised Ethical Standard 2016. I am
independent of the BBC in accordance with the ethical requirementsthat are relevant to my procedures. My staff and I have fulfilled ourother ethical responsibilities in accordance with these requirements.
My staff and I have applied International Standard on Quality
Control 1 and accordingly maintain a comprehensive system of
quality control including documented policies and procedures
regarding compliance with ethical requirements, professional
standards and applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
My approach
I have performed a reasonable assurance engagement as defined in
ISAE 3000. A reasonable assurance engagement is to perform suchprocedures as to obtain information and explanations which
I consider necessary to express an opinion on whether, in allmaterial respects, the Pay Disclosures (the subject matter) arecomplete and accurate and have been properly prepared inaccordance with the basis set out therein.

My work consisted of:GovernanceIndependent Assurance Report to the Board of the British
Broadcasting Corporation, acknowledging that Parliament also
places reliance on the Group Accounts and Report—— Understanding the process adopted by the BBC to derive the Pay
Disclosures, in particular the completeness and accuracy of
information used;—— Testing the completeness of disclosures, including:– cross-reference to my BBC Group audit procedures relating topayroll and expenditure;– comparison to the prior year and my understanding of theBBC; and– review of individuals paid in the subsequent month who havebeen paid close to the disclosure threshold in 2019/20.
—— Agreement of staff disclosure to payslips or, where staff are notpaid via BBC payroll, agreement of spend back to other evidence
such as contracts;—— Agreement of the spend per individual paid more than £150,000
of Licence Fee revenue into the appropriate salary banding;—— Recalculation of the volume of individuals included within each
£5,000 band; and—— Review of the accompanying commentary for reasonablenessand clarity around the basis of disclosure.
Inherent limitations
My assurance procedures have been designed to provide reasonableassurance. The objective of a reasonable assurance engagement is to
reduce engagement risk to an acceptably low level in thecircumstances of the engagement as the basis for a positive form of
expression of my conclusion. It does not, however, eliminate this risk
entirely. In particular, in preparing the disclosures, the BBC Board isrequired to make a number of judgements which inherently
introduces an element of risk. My work has been undertaken so that
I might state to the BBC Board and Parliament those matters I am
required to in this report and for no other purpose.
OpinionBased on the results of my procedures, in my opinion, in allmaterial respects the Pay Disclosures included on pages 81 to 88
are complete and accurate and have been properly prepared inaccordance with the basis set out therein. This opinion has been
formed on the basis of the matters outlined elsewhere in thisindependent assurance report.

Gareth Davies
Comptroller & Auditor General
National Audit Office157-197 Buckingham Palace Road
London SW1W 9SP
3 September 2020

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

89

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Nominations Committee Report
Board appointments
The Board Nominations Committee is responsible for making
recommendations on appointments to the Board (with the exceptionof the Chairman and the nations’ members) and Board committees.

In fulfilment of its responsibility for evaluating the performance of
the Board and its associated sub-committees, the Nominations
Committee asked an independent reviewer, Christopher Saul, toassess the performance of the Board and sub-committees of theBoard this year. As well as reviewing the related paperwork, theassessment included interviews, an evaluation survey andobservation of some meetings. After a positive review, Christopher
Saul’s additional recommendations have now been considered by
the Board and an implementation plan has been completed.

The Nominations Committee consists of: the Chairman, David
Clementi; Nicholas Serota, the Senior Independent Director; Tim
Davie, the Director-General; and non-executive directors Ashley
Steel and Elan Closs Stephens.
In addition to its responsibility for nominating appointments to theBoard, the Committee is also responsible for nominating members to
the sub-committees of the Board, and its main commercial
subsidiaries. The Nominations Committee also considers andreviews the independence of Board members, including any
conflicts of interest, and ensures compliance with the Board’s Codeof Practice. As part of its work this year, the Committee reviewed
and amended its Terms of Reference to ensure it could manage
conflicts of interest on the Committee more effectively. The
Committee also assesses the composition of the Board and its
associated committees in terms of the balance of skills andexperience required, and to develop a succession planning strategy.

The Nominations Committee has led the process for recruiting the
new Director-General, in conjunction with the wider group of
non-executive directors of the Board, through a series of formal andinformal meetings.

Sir David Clementi
2 September 2020

This year the Nominations Committee has met three times, withsome business conducted offline. The Committee’s work on
appointments has consisted of recruiting and appointing Mai Fyfield
as a non-executive director on the BBC’s Commercial Holdings
Board. As part of its responsibilities for succession planning andperformance assessment, the Committee also proposed the
re-appointment for a further three years of two of the BBC Board’s
non-executive directors, Ian Hargreaves and Tom Ilube, which theBoard approved at its February meeting.

Board and Committee attendance

Number of meetings forthe period

Board

Audit andRisk
Committee

Editorial
Fair Trading Nominations Remuneration Guidelines &Committee
Committee
Committee
Standards

Ordinary

MemberMemberMember

11

5

3

3

MemberNations
Committee– England

Nations
Committee– Scotland

Nations
Committee– WalesNations
Committee– N. Ireland

MemberMemberMemberMemberMember

5

3

3

3

3

4

Non-executives
David Clementi

11

Simon Burke

5 of 53 of 3

Shirley Garrood

7 of 83 of 3

Tanni Grey-Thompson

11

Ian Hargreaves

10

Tom Ilube

11

Steve Morrison

10

3

3

2 of 2
4
3

5

4
5

3

3
3

1

3

Nicholas Serota

10

Ashley Steel

11

3

Elan Closs Stephens

113

Tony Hall

111*

Tim Davie

11

Ken MacQuarrie

11

Fran Unsworth

11

5

3

4

3
5

3

3
3

3

3

2

Executives

3
5This table does not include extraordinary meetings or business conducted offline.
* The Director-General did not attend meetings relating to the appointment of his successor.

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Audit and Risk Committee Report

My colleagues on the Committee – Tom Ilube and Ashley Steel – areboth diligent, knowledgeable and committed to the role we fulfil. We
receive good, independent and impartial advice from the internal
audit and risk teams, as well as from the NAO as the BBC’s statutory
auditor. I am satisfied, as a result, that the Committee has thenecessary skills and support in place to discharge its duties properly.
Through the year, the Committee has focused on its remit to
scrutinise the BBC’s management of key risk areas and to oversee
the development and audit of the Group accounts, including any
issues that have a material impact on them. Clearly, the coronavirus
crisis will have an ongoing impact on many of the issues within theCommittee’s remit and we began to consider these at the end of the
2019/20 financial year, including in the decision to publish theseaccounts later this year than we have in previous years.
Our work-plan for this year has included:—— reviewing and assuring the basis for the BBC Group’s statementsof going concern and viability;—— developing our ongoing relationship with the NAO, including
approving their audit plan, taking an update at every meeting on
progress with their work, and approving the BBC’s responses toactions arising from their value for money reviews;—— reviewing the regularity of the BBC’s financial transactions,
including any significant issues, and how these are presented in
the accounts;—— oversight of risks and improvements to the processes of risk
measurement and reporting in the BBC – this year that has
included a deep dive into the risk metrics that support thereporting to the Board;—— continued oversight of risks in the commercial subsidiaries,
including an annual session to review and assure controls in BBC
Studios. We have also developed our relationship with theCommercial Holdings Board, who review and sign the accounts
for the BBC’s commercial subsidiaries;—— specific deep dives into risk areas including: technical resilienceand cyber-security, processes for the valuation of IP in BBC
Studios, management and audit of the BBC’s international
bureaux, and the implementation of the systems required to
begin collecting the licence fee from eligible over-75s;—— maintaining regular oversight of whistleblowing cases andreporting in the BBC;—— monitoring the work of the internal audit team and the findings
and actions from their work – this year, 43 audits and assurance
reviews were completed, as part of a risk-based plan, with 158
improvement actions concluded from internal audit work (allimprovement actions arising from internal audit work are
tracked to completion by the Committee); and—— implementation and performance of major projects across theBBC, including the E20 project, see detail below.

One of our key areas of focus during the year has been themonitoring and oversight of major projects across the BBC, of which
there are some 6 to 10 at any point in time. We considered both
specific projects themselves and also a wider overview of thethemes, issues and challenges faced by such projects in the BBC. We
continue to monitor the E20 project – the programme to refresh andupdate the EastEnders set – and have also this year spentconsiderable time reviewing issues and projects related to the
Licence Fee Unit (LFU). This included the decision, taken in
December, to cancel the implementation of a new customer
management system in the LFU, due to unacceptable delays andincreases in costs against the original plan.

GovernanceStatement from the Chair of the Audit and Risk Committee
I took on the Chair of the BBC’s Audit and Risk Committee when I
joined the Board in July 2019. Since then I have enjoyed getting togrips with how the BBC operates and how it manages risk across all
its many parts. In taking on my role, I am grateful for the help andadvice I received from the outgoing chair, Simon Burke, and for the
support I have received both from the other members of theCommittee and from the BBC at large.

This was a decision we looked at in some detail and commissioned athorough piece of work to establish what happened in relation to thisspecific project and what lessons could be learned from it for othersuch projects in the BBC. We will assess the implementation of therecommendations arising from the review during this coming year.
We will continue to pay close attention to key projects, including theimplementation of the Board’s decision on television licences for theover-75s.
Through the year we had five meetings overall, timed to fit with key
points of the BBC’s reporting cycle. Each meeting was attended by
Executives as appropriate and by the Chairman, the DirectorGeneral, the Chief Financial Officer and the NAO. We have also held
sessions in private with both the NAO, as external auditor, and with
the Director of Quality, Risk and Assurance and Director of Internal
Audit. I’m happy that the Committee has good access to the Internal
Audit and Risk teams and that issues raised are looked at properly,
on an independent basis.
The effectiveness of the Committee was assessed this year as part ofthe Board’s overall external review, led by Chris Saul. We willconsider the findings of the review and will implement changes thisyear, including an extra meeting of the Committee, to allow moretime to consider any issues relating to the commercial businesses. In
the coming year we will also formally review our relationship withthe external auditor. I have been impressed so far by the maturity
and candour that is present in the way the NAO consider and reporton their work with the BBC.
Clearly the coming year will present some new and uniquechallenges as we assess and address the impacts of the coronavirus
pandemic. We will work as a Committee to help the BBC review andunderstand the risks arising from this and to ensure that processes
are in place to deal with them. I am now looking forward to a firstfull year as Chair of the Committee and the chance to work with mycolleagues to monitor, review and assist the BBC in delivering thebest it possibly can for licence fee payers.

Shirley Garrood
2 September 2020

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Audit and Risk Committee report
Audit committee reportRole
The main purpose of the ARC is to review and maintain oversight of
the BBC’s corporate governance, particularly with respect tofinancial reporting, internal control and risk management. In orderto gain this assurance, the ARC has responsibility for:—— reviewing and overseeing the effectiveness of the BBC Group’s
internal control and risk management processes;—— providing oversight of the key risks facing the BBC Group and theactions being taken to mitigate those risks to an acceptable level;—— reviewing the activities and risks of BBC’s commercial
subsidiaries, ensuring that risks are acceptably managed and thatassurance is independent and sufficient;—— reviewing and challenging, where necessary, the actions andjudgements of management in relation to the BBC’s Annual
Report and Accounts and related formal statements;—— overseeing and directing the work of the BBC’s Internal Audit
function, meeting with the Internal Audit senior management
privately to discuss issues as necessary;—— giving due consideration to Parliament’s expectations of the
management of BBC resources, as expressed in reports of the
Public Accounts Committee and Value for Money reports by the
National Audit Office;—— reviewing the external auditors’ proposed audit scope andstrategy, ensuring no unjustified restrictions or limitations
are made;—— reviewing the auditors’ quality control procedures and steps
taken by the auditor to respond to changes in regulatory andother requirements;—— meeting separately with the external auditors to discuss any
matters the Committee or the auditors believe should be
discussed privately;—— considering the independence of the external auditor;—— reviewing the BBC’s systems for the detection and prevention of
fraud and corruption; and,—— reviewing arrangements by which staff may, in confidence, raise
concerns about possible improprieties in matters of financial
reporting, illegality or other matters.
The ARC’s Standing Orders set out in more detail our
responsibilities. These were approved by the BBC Board in 2018 andwere reviewed by the Committee in September 2019. They can beread on our website: downloads.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/whoweare/bbcboard/auditandrisk/arc-tor-sep-2019.pdf
Membership
The ARC comprises three non-executive members, of whom one
must have recent and relevant financial experience. The members
who served during the past year are:Simon Burke (Chair – term ended 2 July 2019)
Shirley Garrood (Chair – appointed to the Board 3 July 2019)
Tom Ilube
Ashley Steel
Shirley Garrood, the Committee chairman, has significant, recent
and relevant financial experience. In addition, all of the members of
the committee are individuals who hold or have held senior
positions in similar sized organisations and have the experience andskills to properly fulfil their responsibilities. When appropriate, theskills and experiences of members are augmented with advice frominternal and external professionals – for example on matters such as
developments in financial reporting.
Committee meetings are also attended by the Director-General, theChief Financial Officer, the Director of Quality, Risk and Assurance
and senior representatives from Internal Audit, Legal, Risk
Management, Finance and the National Audit Office, as the BBC’s
statutory auditors.
The Committee also meets privately, without any member ofmanagement present, with Internal Audit, Risk and the external
auditors, on a regular basis.
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The Committee regularly assesses its own effectiveness and thisyear the work of the Committee was part of the external review of
BBC Board effectiveness, conducted by Chris Saul. The findings
and recommendations from that review have been considered by
the Committee.
Meetings
The Committee met five times during 2019/20, at key times in thereporting and audit calendar.
Minutes from the meetings are made available to the Board andsummary minutes are published on the BBC website: bbc.com/
aboutthebbc/whoweare/bbcboard/auditandrisk. Additionally the
Chairman of the Committee reports back to the Board after eachmeeting on any issues where action or improvement is required.
The Committee also provides views on the integrity of the financial
statements before the Annual Report is approved by the Board asa whole.
Integrity of financial reporting
The Committee reviewed the integrity of the financial statements of
the BBC. In doing so it:—— identified, through discussion with both management and theexternal auditor, the key risks of misstatement within the BBC’s
financial statements, including those areas where significant
financial judgements were required and which have influenced
the financial statements;—— discussed these risks with the external auditor as part of theagreement of the external audit plan and at the conclusion of theaudit of the financial statements; and—— reviewed and challenged detailed papers received frommanagement on those areas requiring significant financial
judgement, taking account of the views of the auditor.
Set out below are the key areas of judgement and how theCommittee has addressed them:
Revenue Recognition
There is a risk that income is not recognised correctly in line withfinancial reporting standards. The nature of the risk varies between
licence fee revenue in the public service and commercial income.
Licence fee revenue is treated as an amount due from the relevant
Government department, principally the DCMS, on the basis thatamounts receivable from licence fee payers will be paid across.
Commercial revenue is more complex, with a number of different
revenue streams including sale of content to global broadcasters,
subscription income and revenue from the sale of physical anddigital products. The complexity of contractual terms may require
judgements in assessing when revenue can be recognised, which isbased on the delivery of performance obligations and when control
is transferred to the customer.
Committee Response – The Committee receives reports frommanagement on any material or complex judgements. For example,
during the year the Committee reviewed the accounting treatmentof commercial revenue generated from Warner Media primarily
relating to Doctor Who and revenue generated from Discovery,
including content relating to the iconic Planet Earth collection.
The Committee considers that the BBC’s existing financial control
systems should ensure that income is properly treated in thefinancial statements and has confidence that management
understand the risks in this area and have suitable controls in place.
Property
The BBC holds a significant property portfolio, which continues to berationalised in order to reduce costs. The estate includes properties
held under freehold and those held under finance and operatingleases. Buildings which have been sub-let or which are available forsub-let may be classified as investment properties. Judgements
relate to the future intentions for any vacant buildings and therelated timescales. This can change the appropriate accounting
treatment and affect the carrying value on the balance sheet.

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The derivative assets and liabilities connected to the underlying
Broadcasting House lease structure are subject to sensitivities inmarket data in addition to an adjustment to the discount rate to takeaccount of risk. As a result, net liabilities of £182 million have beenrecognised in relation to this arrangement. The transaction was
implemented in a manner that limited any increase in the BBC’s
credit exposure to the derivative counter-parties involved. The
special purpose vehicle established to redevelop Broadcasting
House, Daunus Limited, is accounted for as a joint venture following
an assessment of control. The BBC’s interest in the entity is at costand no indicators of impairment have been identified.
The sale of BBC Wales Broadcasting House is expected within 12
months and is therefore recognised as an asset held for sale.
Committee Response – The Committee reviewed reports frommanagement, which explained the treatment for the most significant
buildings, including the projected timescales for future activity andrationale for treatment. Specifically, the Committee reviewed therevised treatment of property assets under IFRS 16. The Committee
was satisfied that the treatment of properties within the financial
statements was consistent with management intention and in linewith international financial reporting standards.
BBC Defined Benefit Pension Scheme
The financial statements include a surplus on the balance sheet of£247 million for the BBC’s defined benefit pension scheme. Criticaljudgements are required regarding the assumptions used in
calculating the pension deficit. Changes in these assumptions canresult in large swings in the final numbers disclosed. The
assumptions used for the latest accounting valuation are based upon
the recommendations of independent actuaries and are within an
acceptable range according to the NAO.
Current and ongoing economic uncertainty arising from thecoronavirus pandemic means that asset valuation techniques that
rely on unobservable inputs are less certain as transactional activity
in the market is currently lower than normal.
Committee Response – The Committee was satisfied that theassumptions used in the financial statements relating to the pension
scheme were reasonable, appropriate to the BBC and supported byindependent actuarial specialists. The Committee noted thesignificant movement in the pension scheme valuation and weresatisfied with the explanations and analysis provided bymanagement and the scheme advisors.
Financial provisions and contingent liabilities
Financial provisions are made when the BBC has a present
obligation as a result of a past event that is probable and can bereliably measured. Provisions of £153 million are within thefinancial statements.
Committee Response – The Committee received reports on matterswhich could result in the recognition of potential liabilities anddiscussed the level of provisions with management. Management
confirmed that they have applied a consistent approach to theidentification, recognition and release of provisions across the BBCgroup. The Committee is satisfied with the level of provisions carried
and the disclosure in respect of those provisions.
Capital projects
The BBC undertakes multiple capital projects at any one time, which
contribute to the overall strategy of the BBC. An assessment over theappropriateness of capitalisation, along with the valuation of any
capitalised asset, is required. If a material capital project cannot becompleted on time, or will not derive future benefit to the BBC, this
could trigger an impairment charge. Reports from management
were reviewed, which explained the status of major capital projects
and the approach taken to assess whether any impairment charge
was required.

Committee Response – The Committee was satisfied thatmanagement’s assessment of capital projects, including whether any
impairment is appropriate, is in line with international financial
reporting standards. The Committee reviewed the costs andcapitalisation associated with the cancelled Campaign Management
System Modernisation Project (CMoD).
Coronavirus
The BBC worked with the NAO to identify and implement emerging
best practice for financial reporting following the emergence ofcoronavirus in late 2019/20. Key areas of reporting risk wereidentified and assessed for impact. This has included, but is not
limited to: financial instruments, leases and property related
contracts, content commitments and work in progress, the viabilityof independent production partners, the credit quality of debtors
and the impact of foreign exchange movements. In addition theimpact of coronavirus on the quality and timeliness of year end
reporting activity was fully assessed, with controls and mitigations
put in place as appropriate.
Committee Response – The Committee has been provided withdetailed updates on the impact of Coronavirus on the preparationand content of the financial statements and is confident thatmanagement has taken a reasonable approach.
Management confirmed to the Committee that they were notaware of any material misstatements or immaterial misstatements
made intentionally to achieve a particular presentation. The
auditors reported any misstatements that they had found in
the course of their work and that no material amounts remain
unadjusted. The Committee can confirm that it is satisfied thatthe external auditors have fulfilled their responsibilities withdiligence and professional scepticism.
After reviewing the presentations and reports from management
and consulting, where necessary, with the external auditors, theCommittee is satisfied that the financial statements appropriately
address the critical judgements and key estimates (both in respect tothe amounts reported and the disclosures). The Committee is alsosatisfied that the significant assumptions used for determining thevalue of assets and liabilities have been appropriately scrutinised,challenged and are sufficiently robust.
The Committee reviewed the group financial statements and how
these are positioned within the wider Annual Report. To assist thisreview, reports from management and from the internal andexternal auditors were considered, covering:—— the quality and acceptability of accounting policies, including
their compliance with accounting standards;—— compliance with legal and regulatory requirements;—— the clarity of disclosures and their compliance with relevant
reporting requirements; and—— whether the Annual Report as a whole is fair, balanced andunderstandable and provides the information necessary to assess
the BBC’s performance and strategy.
Effectiveness of internal controls and risk management
framework
Internal controls assurance
The Committee reviewed the effectiveness of the BBC’s system ofinternal controls, taking account of the findings from internal andexternal audit reports and other assurance activity across the Group.
Specific areas considered during the year included:—— the trends and themes from Internal Audit activity, questioning
representatives of Internal Audit on the outcomes of their work.
A summary of every internal audit, including key findings andassurance rating was reviewed by the Committee;—— actions arising from independent assurance activity, includinginternal and external audit and NAO Value for Money reviews
are monitored by the Committee for completion. This is an area

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Governance

The adoption of IFRS16 during 2019/20 has led to a reclassificationof assets and a material movement in values compared to 2018/19.

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Audit and Risk Committee reportfollowed up at every meeting to ensure that agreed actions in
respect of any weaknesses found are being properly addressed;—— for areas which are considered high profile or have received
critical assurance findings, the Committee ensures there issuitable follow up and scrutiny over the completion of any
improvement plans or agreed actions;—— the Committee approved BBC’s Modern Slavery statement andreviewed the approach for ensuring compliance;—— regular whistleblowing reports and updates on levels of fraud
and theft, along with the mechanisms in place to minimise andprevent these; and—— the findings and progress of actions from the audits of BBC
commercial subsidiaries are considered. The Chief Executive andChief Financial Officer of BBC Studios attend annually to provide
assurance on the control environment and management of risk inthis subsidiary.
Risk management
The Committee considered the processes for managing significant
risks within the BBC.
In particular, the Committee reviewed reports and challenged
management on the BBC’s major strategic and operational risks,reviewed the governance arrangements for risk reporting andoversight, considered areas of emerging risk with potential to impact
the BBC, and conducted “deeper dives” into selected risk topics.
The impact of coronavirus on the BBC was reviewed by theCommittee, with particular reference to the health and wellbeing of
the BBC’s workforce, the effect on production and output, theresilience and security of our infrastructure and the impact on the
BBC’s finances.
The approach to risk management in the BBC continues to develop
and the Committee was actively involved in reviewing progress andimprovements. The assessment of the BBC’s principal risks is set out
on page 96.
Effectiveness of Internal Audit
The work of Internal Audit is overseen by the Committee. This is aregular item at each meeting which the Director of Internal Audit
also attends. During the year the Committee has:—— approved the plan of work for the coming year, ensuring that it isrisk based and strikes a balance between providing assurance
over core business processes and areas of emerging strategic risk;—— considered the findings from audit activity, focusing on audits
with unsatisfactory outcomes and management’s plans toaddress these;—— reviewed the re-procurement of the Internal Audit co-source, andthe appointment of the preferred provider.
—— considered the resource requirements for Internal Audit andits capability; and—— assessed the impact of coronavirus on the internal audit plan
and approved changes to the plan to ensure it remains relevant
and proportionate.

The Committee continues to monitor the structure of the Internal
Audit function and the operation of the current resourcing model,
with a proportion of audits provided by an external partner. The
Committee is satisfied that this arrangement is functioning well.
An independent assessment of the Internal Audit function’s
effectiveness was validated by the Institute for Internal Auditors in
2019. The findings of this review have now been implemented.
Independence and effectiveness of our external auditors
Appointment of our external auditors
Under the 2016 Charter and Agreement, the NAO are appointed theBBC’s statutory auditor for the duration of the Charter period.
Relationship with external auditors
The Committee oversaw the relationship with the NAO, including
the scope of and approach to their work. Specific areas of focus thisyear have included:—— the external audit process, including the reporting requirementsof regularity and propriety;—— private discussions with the auditors without management
present;—— NAO’s assessment of areas of audit risk or judgement. For
2019/20, this included, but was not limited to, the implementationof IFRS 16, the pension scheme valuation, commercial revenue
recognition and the impact of coronavirus; and—— with regard to coronavirus, the impacts of the pandemic on thefinancial reporting timetable and statements were reviewed. In
particular, assumptions underpinning going concern andviability were revisited.
Private discussions with the external auditors without management
present took place.
Non-audit services
As one of the safeguards over the independence of the external
auditors, the Committee has developed, and oversees, the BBC’s
policy on the commissioning of the auditors to provide non-audit
services.
This policy defines the types of services which the external auditors
can and cannot provide. Additionally it includes thresholds above
which any proposed non-audit work to be carried out by the external
auditors must be approved in advance by the ARC. It also defines
when work must be submitted for competitive tender.
The NAO is not considered for work which might compromise its
ability to give an independent opinion on the BBC’s financial
statements. Recruitment from the NAO into any senior management
position in the BBC would require the prior approval of the ARC.

In addition, the Committee Chair meets with the Director of Quality,
Risk and Assurance, and Director of Internal Audit, on a regularbasis outside formal Committee meetings.

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Risks and opportunities

Our approach to risk management
In a highly challenging and competitive external environment, theBBC must be able to confidently manage its risks, ensuring that we
can continue to deliver our public purposes and value to all
audiences. We continue to take seriously our regulatory andstatutory responsibilities. Just as taking risk is fundamental tofulfilling our purposes and strategic ambitions, rigorous risk
assessment and mitigation are at the core of delivering what we do.
The BBC acknowledges that the coronavirus pandemic has broughtboth risks but also opportunities. The BBC’s core editorial offeringsof news, radio, BBC linear channels and iPlayer have had significant
demand from audiences as people seek both to be informed about
the situation but also to be entertained in these difficult times. The
pandemic also poses significant challenges and risks to the safety ofour people, our buildings, our finances and our technology, which arebeing monitored and managed on a real time basis.
Risk management is inherent across the BBC, where carefulconsideration of risks and opportunities contributes to both ourcreative ambition and desire to serve our audiences, in the UK andinternationally, and also to how we run the BBC.
Risk management – current state
The BBC categorises its principal risks into two risk types:—— Strategic risks – threats to our strategic ambitions;—— Operational risks – threats to our operational activities andbusiness objectives.
Governance – The Board, both directly and via the Audit and Risk
Committee (ARC), conducts a regular review of the BBC’s principal
strategic and operational risks which are measured and monitored
by a set of quantitative key risk metrics. Metrics continue to bereviewed and refreshed periodically.
Risk management – 2019/20 improvements
Risk management at the BBC continues to evolve and develop. In
2019/20, we made the following improvements to our risk
framework:
Enhanced risk reporting – Risk reporting to the ARC includes a
focus on risks that have moved significantly in quarter and provides
line of sight on upcoming risks and mitigations.
Risk appetite – Qualitative risk appetite statements have been
agreed for selected key operational risk areas which have been
discussed at the BBC Executive Committee and the BBC ARC. For
these risk areas, quantitative risk metrics and targets are in place.
The BBC Executive Committee has participated in facilitateddiscussions on performance against such targets and further
sessions are planned in 2020/21.

Emerging risks – New and emerging risks to the BBC may be
identified through a number of processes and activities, including
working closely with the divisions, embedding the consideration ofrisk into Board and Executive Committee papers and reviewing theexternal environment. As a result of this review, we have recently
elevated Data Protection to a principal risk; further details on thisare provided on page 102.

Governance

Risks and opportunities affect the ability of
the BBC to fulfil its Charter obligations andpublic purposes. Our approach to risk
management needs to support the deliveryof our strategic ambitions and operational
objectives.

Risk Management – 2020/21 Plans
In 2020/21, key improvement initiatives include a pan-BBC risk
framework that gives line of sight of both corporate and divisionalrisks; roll out of consistent divisional risk reporting; monitoring theclosure of risk management actions arising from risk registers andrefreshed pan-BBC risk acceptance protocols.
Climate change – We are committed to reducing the impact on theenvironment of our operations and to becoming more sustainable.
This is inherently the right thing to do and our audiences expect itfrom us. Further information on our approach and activities areprovided in the environmental sustainability section of the strategic
report on page 66.
Coronavirus pandemic
The coronavirus pandemic has had, and will continue to have, awidespread impact across our entire risk landscape. Following theoutbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in January 2020, our focus
has been on the safety and wellbeing of our people, maintaining
quality output and ensuring an agile business model and approachthroughout the next phases of the incident response. In March,
incident management structures were invoked and business
continuity plans activated across the BBC Group.
The pandemic has impacted our people, output and productions,
technology and finances as summarised below:
People: The physical and mental health and wellbeing of our staff
and contributors remains our top priority. We have put in place awide range of health and safety and other measures to support our
workforce and contributors.
Output and productions: The pandemic has had a significant impact
on the media industry as a whole, with large scale cessation of
productions, postponement of live events including sports andaudience consumption of content increasing significantly. Key
output areas developed streamlined plans and prioritised services
whilst recognising reduced staffing levels and changing patterns ofaudience consumption. Return of productions and delivering newcontent remains challenging in light of limited insurance cover
during the pandemic and adherence to social distancing
requirements.
Technology: There has been a very significant and rapid increase in
the number of staff working from home and accessing BBC systems
remotely. Despite this, our technology infrastructure and broadcast
chain has held up well, with no large scale issues recorded.

Risk registers – Risk registers have been developed for a number ofkey risk areas including child protection and safeguarding; dataprotection and tax.

Finances: A number of factors have increased financial risks,
including the impact on licence fee income from collection challenges
during lockdown, delaying the changes to over-75 concessions, loss of
income from cancelled live events and sunk costs due to cancelled
productions, the implementation of policies to support people
working during these times, and elevated cost pressures arising fromany potential delays to savings plans. The BBC was quick and agile torespond to these challenges by re-budgeting and re-forecasting thefinancials and identifying additional savings for the year.

Working across the BBC – A pan-BBC Risk Champions Working
Group has been established to discuss and disseminate corporatewide principles and risks (top down); obtain divisional risk insight(bottom up); and share good risk management practices across thedivisions and from the central risk management team.

We continue to be in contact with key stakeholders including healthauthorities and governmental agencies in all our areas of operation,
so that we can respond and adapt to changes to Government
guidelines. We will review the lessons learned during this crisis tomake the BBC stronger.

Risk framework – Enhancement work continues on a pan-BBC risk
management framework seeking to build consistency and including
a process to identify, monitor and report emerging risks.

Where appropriate, we have incorporated coronavirus commentary
into each of the principal risks identified on the following pages.

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Risks and opportunities
Our principal strategic and operational risks and opportunities are set out on the following pages.
Key to risk movement: Movement in risk during 2019/20
Risk has increased in year
Risk has remained static in year
Risk has decreased in year
Public purposes1

To provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them.

2

To support learning for people of all ages.

3

To show the most creative, highest quality and distinctive output and services.

4 o reflect, represent and serve the diverse communities of all of the UK’s nations and regions and, in doing so,
Tsupport the creative economy across the UK.

5To reflect the UK, its culture and values to the world.

Strategic risks and opportunities
Note: Strategic risks and opportunities are mapped to the public purposes (1-5)

1. Audiences and external media landscape

1

2

3

4

5

What is the risk?
There is a risk that changes to consumer behaviours become
permanent and digital SVOD providers cement their positions in
the marketplace. There has been a significant acceleration indemand for VOD content across all platforms during thecoronavirus lockdown and there is a risk that the BBC fails toadapt, capitalise and provide high-quality and relevant content
and services to all licence fee payers including underserved
audiences (youth, nations and regions and black, Asian andminority ethnic).

What is the impact?
Audience levels are not maintained across all platforms. The BBC
is not valued by audiences and/or society and we do not meet theneeds of underserved audiences, including youth, nations andregions and black, Asian and minority ethnic.

How is this risk managed (current and planned mitigations)?
—— Establishing BBC iPlayer as a destination service.
—— UK route to market strategy with 12-month VOD rights
for iPlayer.
—— Continued investment in BBC Sounds.
—— Remaining the most trusted provider of news in the UK andthe most important source of information/news aboutcoronavirus.
—— Delivering the biggest education offering to children across the
UK to support curriculum-based learning (Bitesize) in
response to coronavirus.
—— Creation of a Director of Creative Diversity role to support
making the BBC more inclusive and representative of thebroad and diverse audience it serves and with a clear focus onareas such as on-screen portrayal.
—— Refreshing content to appeal to younger and diverse audiences.
—— Delivering content via digital platforms i.e. iPlayer exclusive
content that is making a real impact with young people.
—— Audience metrics monitored, including reach, time spent with
the BBC, audience demographics and audience feedback, todrive informed decision-making.
—— Performance and trends discussed at Executive Committee
and Board meetings.

How has this risk changed during 2019/20?
Audiences have been increasingly migrating from linear TV to
SVOD platforms and radio to music streaming and podcast
services. There has also been rising competition in the market
fuelled by significant new entrants drawing audiences at afaster rate.
There has been a significant acceleration in demand for VOD
content across all platforms during the coronavirus lockdown
and, as outlined in our 2020/21 Annual Plan, our response tothese changes must also be accelerated.

Residual risk
The residual risk relates to the BBC maintaining its audiences on both linear and radio due to the long-term trend of audiences moving to
SVOD and digital streaming services.

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2What is the risk?
Competition from other broadcasters and large scale consolidated
players for content and talent, which represents the diversity of
the UK, continues to increase. In an external environment of cost
inflation and digital disruption, there is a risk that we do notsecure the best quality content supply from investments,
acquisitions and associate relationships. Providing impartial,
unbiased content in the current environment of disinformation is
key to maintaining audience trust in the BBC. There is also a riskthat BBC Studios does not develop its creative pipeline, win
external commissions or respond to intense competition for
creative talent.

3

4

Governance2. Creativity and content

5What is the impact?
Reduction in high quality content that represents the UK
impacts our ability to retain audiences in a highly competitiveenvironment. Failure on impartiality erodes trust in the BBC
and leads to lost audiences.

Disruption of production due to coronavirus and significant
uncertainty of when productions will be resumed in full.
How is this risk managed (current and planned mitigations)?
—— Investing in new formats, series, products and services for TV,
radio and online for all audiences.
—— Entering into creative partnerships in order to secure rights to
new content.
—— Doubling our investment in the Small Indie Fund in response
to coronavirus.
—— Expanding BBC Three creative partnerships in other nations
and regions.
—— Bespoke content for the four nations (England, Scotland,
Northern Ireland and Wales) and continued investment in our
production bases outside of London i.e. in Glasgow, Cardiff,
Belfast, Salford, Bristol and Birmingham.
—— Focus on attracting and retaining the best creative talent.
—— On-air talent and programme diversity targets in place,including the 50:50 Project to promote gender equality
on screen.
—— Well-established editorial function and policy with extensive
monitoring of bias, trust, accuracy, complaints and Executive
Committee and Board review of exceptions.
—— Creative and business development leads within BBC Studios
focus on key genres and opportunities.
—— A streamlined and focused pitch process.
—— Investment in development activity across all genres, withcreative and business development leads to identify
opportunities.

How has this risk changed during 2019/20?
Continued competition from large players for content and talent
compounded by an increased risk due to reduced productions as
a result of coronavirus.
Further new entrants into the market with significant
investment and funding.
There have continued to be significant challenges in audience
perception when we covered topics which were sensitive orpolarise public opinion, such as during the UK General Election
and Brexit.

Residual risk
The residual risk reflects competition for content, creative talent and the continuing trends for costs and rights inflation.

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Risks and opportunities
3. Global reach

1

3

5

What is the risk?
There is a risk that the global reach ambition to reach 500 million
people is impacted by the market environment with more choice
for audiences and consumption turning to social media. The
reliance of the World Service on syndication creates a risk thataudiences do not attribute content to the BBC. The current
Government investment in the World Service expires at the endof September 2021.

What is the impact?
Inability to meet the global audience targets and the audience notcorrectly attributing content to the BBC.

How is this risk managed (current and planned mitigations)?
—— Output continues to be monitored and supported by research,
to develop our proposition and to understand how we cancontinue to reach global audiences, including younger andfemale demographics.
—— Syndication contracts are carefully managed to ensure that
we can continue to reach the broadest audience throughtrusted and reliable partners.
—— Syndicated social media platforms indicate significantly
higher growth as compared to direct digital platforms
although this increases the challenge of ensuring attributionof content to the BBC.
—— Project to understand female audience behaviours and needs
across news consumption commissioned in year.

How has this risk changed during 2019/20?
Strong increase in audience numbers, reaching up to 468 million.
Negotiations with Government on their investment in the World
Service have led to an extension of FCO funding to the end of
September 2021.
Significant increase in visitors to bbc.com sites during the
pandemic, a strong indicator of impartial journalism.

Residual risk
The residual risk reflects the performance in global audience numbers and the use of trusted and reliable partners.

4. Our finances

1

What is the risk?
The risk that we do not effectively manage and/or offset therising cost of producing and broadcasting the high quality andcreative output that our audiences expect. On the licence fee, therisks include real time licence fee decline, a rise in licence fee
evasion, or increased cost of collection. There is also a risk thatthe BBC does not continue to drive efficiencies in its operations
and thereby does not deliver even greater value for money.

2

3

4

5

What is the impact?
Reduction in licence fee income or returns from commercial
entities or failing to deliver on savings initiatives will have anegative impact on services and the scope of what the BBC will
be able to offer its audiences, staff and contributors – particularlyin the light of pressures arising from coronavirus, which willcontinue to impact during the coming financial year.

There is a risk that the BBC’s commercial entities fail to respondto market challenges, therefore reducing financial returns. The
risk of a decline in advertising sales revenue for the BBC’scommercial entities would be exacerbated by an economic
downturn.
Future adverse changes to the actuarial valuation of the pension
scheme represent a risk to financial stability, as would any
further increase in the future service costs for the defined benefit
pension scheme – further details are provided on page 46. A
reduction in the BBC’s credit rating would increase the cost offunding.
How is this risk managed (current and planned mitigations)?
—— Close monitoring of licence fee collection and evasion rates.
—— Multi-year savings targets are defined.
—— 94.5% of controllable spend covered by benchmarking.
—— New savings plan with coronavirus impact and revisedsavings measures in place.
—— A clear plan to manage the implications of the Board decision
to defer the commencement of the over-75s licence fee toAugust 2020.
—— Plans in place to eliminate the deficit and make the pension
scheme self-sufficient by 2028.
—— Annual going concern and viability reviews to assess ongoing
financial stability.
—— Stable credit rating with no significant change.

How has this risk changed during 2019/20?
The financial challenges remain an elevated risk for the BBC.
Licence fee revenues showed a decline, largely as a result ofchanges to the over-75s licence fee concession. There has been
continued focus throughout the year to deliver efficiencies and anumber of savings initiatives remain under pressure.
Coronavirus has increased the financial risk due to closure of
Capita contact centres impacting licence fee collection, delay inimplementation of over-75s licence fee changes and savings
initiatives. Significant reduction in production and advertisement
sales have impacted the returns from commercial subsidiaries to
BBC Group.

Residual risk
The residual risk relates to ongoing challenges to licence fee revenues, commercial subsidiaries income along with savings pressures.

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1

2

3

4

Governance

5. Our people

5What is the risk?
The extent of operational, organisational and culture change inprogress creates a risk that the organisation is placed undersignificant strain. The re-commencement of divisional savings
plans increases the threat of industrial action. Additional
measures such as the voluntary redundancy scheme may also
lead to uncertainty for staff. There is a risk that we are not able
to retain employees in key areas due to pay challenges ordisengagement from failure to meet our diversity and inclusion(D&I) targets.

What is the impact?
Inability to retain and hire talent and disengaged staff impacting
on productivity and increasing the potential of industrial action.
Health and safety issues including mental health from extended
lockdown measures.

How is this risk managed (current and planned mitigations)?
—— Placing utmost importance on the wellbeing of BBC staff
during coronavirus by offering extra HR and other support
measures.
—— Extensive staff communications, with engagement monitored
through focus groups and staff survey.
—— Change and Operations group ensures that business change is
implemented in a consistent, co-ordinated way.
—— Creation of a Head of Workforce Diversity and Inclusion post
to help strengthen the BBC’s drive to be the best place to workin the media industry.
—— Clear diversity targets in place.
—— Centre of Excellence for diverse talent established andDiversity Commissioning Code of Practice implemented toensure shared values and commitments.
—— Significant Board attention to equal pay and gender pay gap
challenges.
—— Launched our LGBTQ+ Allies Programme and providing
resources to support employees who are transitioning andguidance for team leaders and colleagues.
—— Increasing online training available to all staff via BBC
Academy during coronavirus period.
—— Clear career structures provided through the BBC Career Path
Frameworks (CPF).
—— Terms and conditions reviewed and modernised together with
the Joint Unions.
—— Working with both staff and Unions, together with a clear
communications strategy and plan, to minimise the impact ofchange on our people.

How has this risk changed during 2019/20?
The pan-BBC Career Path Framework (CPF) has continued to beembedded during the current year.
From a diversity and inclusion perspective, LGBT+ and disability
measures for all staff and leadership roles have improved
compared with prior years and are above targets. Further work is
required to meet targets in gender and black, Asian and minority
ethnic leadership diversity.
Staff have been significantly impacted during the pandemic withremote working for more than 85%. The related risks will become
clearer during the course of the year. Staff survey results indicate
a positive response to the measures taken by leadership during
coronavirus.

Residual risk
The residual risk relates to the potential long-term impact of remote working as well as the impact of change anticipated from delivery of
2020/21 savings plans.

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Risks and opportunities
Operational risks and opportunities
1. Health, safety, security and environment
What is the risk?
The risk that we fail to protect the health, safety, security andwellbeing of our employees and members of the public with whom
we interact. This includes ensuring that those with whom we havea duty of care over are not put at harm from a significant single
event or over a period of time. Coronavirus has increased theinherent health and safety risk to staff, contributors and visitors.

What is the impact?
Inability to look after the physical and/or mental health of ourpeople, contributors and visitors. Failure in this regard may also
have a reputational consequence to the BBC.
Negative public perception and/or regulatory fines for not
meeting commitments to manage our impact on theenvironment.

The risk that we do not acknowledge and manage our impact on
the environment through consumption of energy, contributionof CO2 emissions and sustainable approach to productions
and operations.
How is this risk managed (current and planned mitigations)?
—— Health and safety risk assessment process in place, supported
by training and safety monitoring audits.
—— Implementing Government-led measures to secure BBC
buildings in response to coronavirus.
—— All reported incidents investigated to identify any corrective
action.
—— Child protection controls include mandatory backgroundchecks for anyone working with children, supported bymandatory training and policies and compliance monitoring.
—— Specialised training in place for staff on high-risk deployments(and their managers) and each deployment subject to thoroughrisk assessment.
—— Scenario planning and simulation exercises conducted withkey management teams.
—— Ongoing security reviews for BBC premises and outside
broadcasts, and close links in place with UK security
authorities and cross-sector security forums.
—— ‘Greener Broadcasting’ strategy in place.
—— Participation in the Albert+ cross-media programme.

How has this risk changed during 2019/20?
Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences
Regulations (RIDDOR) incidents remained low and within levels
expected given the size of the organisation and the range andamount of activities undertaken. Mandatory training remains afocus area. Improved levels of training of staff deployed to highrisk environments. Review of safeguarding procedures has
resulted in increased awareness and training sessions.
Coronavirus has significantly increased the inherent health andsafety risk to staff, contributors and visitors. However, significant
mitigations have been put in place.

Residual risk
The residual risk relates to the impact of a potential second wave of the coronavirus as well as the expectations of meeting environment
sustainability targets.

2. Business management and change
What is the risk?
The risk that we do not effectively manage our business
operations and material change programmes impacting thedelivery of strategic or operational goals. This includes the
Critical Project Portfolio (CPP), business continuity plans,
third-party suppliers and anti-fraud processes.

What is the impact?
The BBC is subjected to unexpected financial cost, a detrimental
impact upon our reputation and/or regulatory intervention.
Delays to critical change initiatives impacts the BBC’s ability todeliver against key strategic and operational objectives as well as
impacting financial sustainability and staff morale.

The risk that we have not planned effectively and put mitigations
in place to limit the impact on operations and services in the eventof a no-deal exit from the European Union by the United Kingdom.
How is this risk managed (current and planned mitigations)?
—— Senior-level sponsors of all critical projects.
—— Dedicated, skilled project teams applying project management
disciplines (the BBC Way).
—— Implemented ‘Set up for Success’ reviews.
—— The Corporate Project Management Office (PMO) assures thebusiness benefits and outcomes of critical projects.
—— Procurement monitor spend to ensure that supplier contracts
are in place, and to assess the adequacy of suppliermanagement to deliver value for money.
—— Development of a counter-fraud strategy and metrics withsupporting processes.
—— The BBC has put in place, as far as possible, mitigations in theevent of a no-deal Brexit.

How has this risk changed during 2019/20?
Our responses to the coronavirus pandemic have demonstrated
strong incident business continuity management arrangements.
Delivery of major programmes remains challenging, especiallygiven the impact of coronavirus, including the diversion ofinternal resources to core operations; and third-party suppliersand contractors being unable to deliver their services. This year
one of our major projects moved successfully into its completion
stage. Broadcast centre in Central Square Cardiff now provides
world-class digital facilities and new ways of working.
Heightened fraud risks during coronavirus are being assessed
and assured.

Residual risk
The residual risk relates to the re-planning and delivery of the CPP.

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Governance3. Compliance
What is the risk?
The risk that we fail to comply with legal, regulatory and otherstandards/obligations (including internal requirements e.g.
editorial compliance) pertaining to the BBC.

What is the impact?
Inadequately managed compliance risk may result in
reputational damage, loss of trust, legal action, fines orother penalties.

How is this risk managed (current and planned mitigations)?
—— Policies in place, aligned with legal and regulatory
requirements, supported by training advice from subject
matter experts, and detailed monitoring and reporting.
—— Established editorial policy in place, with review in progress toensure it remains fit for purpose.
—— Process in place to ensure compliance with Ofcom regulatory
requirements, also supported by reporting and monitoring.
—— Ofcom complaints monitored with regular reporting to the
Director-General and Executive Committee, and monthly
Board reporting.
—— Specialist teams in place to support compliance with tax, legal
e.g. employment, litigation, and other regulatory compliancerequirements.

How has this risk changed during 2019/20?
There continues to be a high level of scrutiny in the regulatoryenvironment and external interest in editorial judgements. We
have continued to engage with regulators to meet theirrequirements, who have expressed they understand challenges
being faced during coronavirus. During 2019/20, equal pay
matters and discussions with HMRC also remain ongoing.
The impact of coronavirus on both production and broadcastingschedules has inevitably had an effect on the BBC’s ability tomeet all Ofcom quotas. The timing of the pandemic means theimpact on 2019/20 is to some extent limited, although thischallenge will undoubtably continue through the coming year.

Residual risk
The residual risk relates to meeting various regulatory requirements during the pandemic.

4. Technology
What is the risk?
The risk that we fail to provide a resilient broadcasting service
across all distribution channels and/or protect the confidentiality,
integrity or availability of the BBC’s data through a cyber-attack.

What is the impact?
Failure to deliver the content our audiences expect, when they
expect it. Significant commercial and reputational risk from any
uncontrolled release of content.

The risk that the increasing numbers of our people who are
working remotely, as a result of coronavirus lockdown
arrangements, are not able to do so.

Failure of our people to work efficiently and effectively and todeliver our core services and operations.

How is this risk managed (current and planned mitigations)?
—— Single points of failure identified and actions taken as
appropriate.
—— Recovery plans in place and tested.
—— Outages and adherence to recovery time objectives are closely
monitored to ensure minimal disruption to broadcast services.
—— Extensive policies and procedures in place to prevent/detectcyber threats and liaison with the National Cyber Security
Centre to provide cyber risk intelligence.
—— Appropriate monitoring mechanisms are in place to provide
threat monitoring services with incident management
capabilities.
—— Mandatory Data Protection & Cyber Security training rolled
out to the organisation.
—— New technologies and processes to facilitate and enhanceremote working, technical support and employee onboarding.

How has this risk changed during 2019/20?
The risk that the BBC will be targeted by malicious andsophisticated cyber-attacks has remained high. Mitigations toprotect the BBC’s infrastructure and data are in place.
The broadcast chain has remained robust throughout 2019/20.
Audience-impacting outages and other IT infrastructure outages
have been kept within the low tolerances set.
The BBC’s IT infrastructure has held up well in light of increased
home working.

Residual risk
The residual risk relates to the BBC being a target for malicious, sophisticated and novel cyber-attacks.

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Risks and opportunities
5. Data protection
What is the risk?
The risk that we fail to comply with the GDPR and dataprotection legislation and fail to protect the personal data weprocess and handle.

What is the impact?
Inadequately managed data protection risk may result in
reputational damage, loss of trust, legal action, fines or otherpenalties from the regulator (ICO). It may also result in a lack ofinnovation, and inability to support the BBC’s long-term goals
and evolving data strategies.

How is this risk managed (current and planned mitigations)?
—— GDPR-compliant policies and processes on data protection
and privacy, including data subject rights and public-facing
privacy policies.
—— Data protection training and awareness for staff.
—— Resilience of IT systems.
—— Access to in-house and external data protection legal advice.
—— Oversight by the Data Protection Officer.

How has this risk changed during 2019/20?
The risk profile is increasing due to the continued awareness of
individuals’ rights under the GDPR, with an ongoing upward
trend in the number of Data Subject Access Requests (DSARs)
and complaints to the regulator.
Coronavirus has had an impact, given the need for the BBC toprocess more sensitive category data (health data) especially inresponse to the early stages of the pandemic.

Residual risk
The residual risk relates to the significant shift to greater offsite working during coronavirus and the growing role and use of data in BBC
product development and personalisation.
Note: The risks and mitigations listed do not comprise of all those associated with the BBC and the numerical referencing does not denote an order of priority. Additional risks anduncertainties not presently known to management, or currently deemed to be less material, may also have an adverse effect on the BBC. These less material risks are kept in view in casetheir likelihood or impact should show signs of increasing.

Risk management and internal control framework
The BBC’s process for identifying, evaluating and managing
significant risks remains aligned with the Financial Reporting
Council’s Guidance on Risk Management, Internal Control and
Related Financial and Business Reporting. Risk management
mechanisms are embedded within each division, with central
coordination to identify, escalate and manage pan-BBC risks.
Assessing the effectiveness of risk management andinternal control
The Board continues to use a number of mechanisms to help it
assess the effectiveness of the system of risk management andinternal control across the BBC in order to make its assessment thatthe overall level is sound.
Risk oversight: The Board delegates responsibility for the detailed
review of risk and control processes and oversight to the ARC. The
ARC met four times during 2019/20 to provide scrutiny andoversight over the effectiveness of controls and the management ofrisks (further information is provided on page 91). A regular risk
report is also presented to the BBC Board.

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Internal Audit: The Internal Audit function maintained its
independent reporting line into the Chair of the ARC and conducteda programme of audits aligned to the principal risks facing the BBC.
Findings from these audits have been reported to senior
management and the ARC, with remediating actions tracked tocompletion.
External audits: The findings of external audit work performed by
the National Audit Office have been reviewed by the ARC, and any
recommended actions are tracked to completion. In addition, theNational Audit Office continued its programme of Value for Money
audits. There is also external assurance provided on our Fair Tradingarrangements to ensure that our processes and practices, when we
undertake commercial and trading activities, do not risk distorting
the market. These arrangements are overseen by the BBC’s Fair
Trading Committee.
Whistleblowing: A protected disclosure policy is in place, supported
by a ‘whistleblowing’ hotline, administered by an independent
external company to ensure anonymity. This has been extended andis now available in 13 languages. A non-executive director has been
named on the policy as the contact for the raising of the mostserious concerns.

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Viability Statement
GovernanceIn accordance with the UK Corporate Governance Code, the BBC
Board has assessed the prospects of the Corporation over a longer
period than the minimum 12 months required by the ‘Going
Concern’ provision. The BBC Board has considered the assessment
over a three-year period.
The three-year plan covering the period to 31 March 2023 has been
considered by the BBC Board and the forecast is regularly reviewed
at monthly Board meetings. A three-year horizon is consideredappropriate as this is in line with the BBC’s budgeting and planning
process. The three-year plan considers cash flows as well as thefinancial covenants and credit facilities.
Key assumptions underpinning the three-year plan, and theassociated cash flow forecast, are the licence fee settlement that set
the financial parameters for the BBC from 2017/18 to 2021/22, theCharter and Agreement that protects a licence fee until 2027 and theimpact of the coronavirus pandemic on licence fee income, costs andsaving programmes.
A robust assessment of the principal risks facing the Corporation, as
described in the Annual Report and Accounts from page 95, hasbeen undertaken, including those that would threaten its businessmodel, future performance, solvency or liquidity. For 2020, due tothe increased pressures on the BBC as a result of the coronavirus
pandemic, we conducted additional financial stress testing andsensitivity analysis, considering income at risk as well as the impactof our response plan to the crisis.
Sensitivity analysis is applied to the cash flow to model the potential
effects should principal risks actually occur, individually or in
combination. The peak borrowing requirement was calculated bymodelling a combination of severe but plausible risks, however with
the inclusion of mitigations, the cash flows remained within the
borrowing limit throughout the three-year period.
Taking account of the BBC Group’s current cash position, theimplementation of the new income policy for over-75 licences,principal risks and the aforementioned sensitivity analysis, theBoard has a reasonable expectation that the Corporation will be able
to continue in operation and meet its liabilities as they fall due over
the three-year period of the assessment.

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Commercial Holdings Board Report
This was my first year as Chair of the Commercial Holdings Board.
The Board is tasked with setting strategy in line with overall BBC
Group goals, agreeing business plans and ensuring compliance inregulatory and legal matters. The income that the BBC receives fromcommercial sources is important to supplement its public funding,as well as helping to build the BBC’s brand and reputation andpromote British creativity globally. I am therefore pleased that theBBC’s commercial subsidiaries have had another strong year of
growth despite the coronavirus pandemic impacting all areas ofactivity towards the end of the financial year.
BBC Studios, now in its second year as a combined production anddistribution business, has had a successful year, resulting in EBITDA
increasing to £181 million (2018/19: £159 million). I was pleased that
the NAO’s review of BBC Studios, in their first Value for Money
review of the BBC’s commercial subsidiaries, recognised that themerger of BBC Worldwide and BBC Studios had a clear rationale andhad been well implemented. The Commercial Holdings Board andthe BBC Board agreed with the NAO that more needed to be done tomeasure and demonstrate the non-financial benefits of the merger.
Non-financial performance indicators have therefore been agreed tohelp the Commercial Holdings Board to assess the degree to which
Studios is winning new work and creating new IP, delivering
cultural change and managing risk.
BBC Studios completed its acquisition of UKTV, which means thatthe BBC now has full control of all of its channels in the UK. UKTV,
under its CEO Marcus Arthur, has refreshed its strategy and this isalready showing signs of success, with revenue and EBITDA up
year-on-year, thanks to a creative refresh as well as an effective costsynergy plan.
The business secured or extended a number of significant
international content partnerships with the likes of Discovery,
Warner Media, Germany’s ZDF and Russia’s Yandex. Under these
multi-year arrangements, BBC Studios works closely to develop andsupply content, giving the business a greater level of long term
security for the planning of investment and income.

The BBC and ITV together launched BritBox UK, building on its
success in North America where there are now over one million
subscribers. BritBox UK combines the best of the UK’s public service
broadcasting, with content from Channel 4 and Channel 5 joining
many of the highlights from the BBC and ITV’s archives. BritBox isdue to expand into Australia later in 2020.
The successful turnaround of BBC Studioworks’ business continued,
with record income (£40 million in 2019/20, compared to £37 million
in 2018/19) and EBITDA (£8 million in 2019/20, £6 million in
2018/19). BBC Studioworks appointed a new CEO this year, Andrew
Moultrie, who is currently undertaking a strategic review to see how
the BBC can capitalise on the growing demand for studio space inthe UK.
Global News continues to provide millions around the world with
impartial and trusted news whilst operating in a challenging
market. Despite coronavirus starting to impact on Global News’
business sooner than the rest of the BBC, it still managed to bring in£115 million in sales, compared to last year’s £114 million andgenerated £2 million of EBITDA.
Mai Fyfield joined the Commercial Holdings Board this year andbrings a wealth of commercial experience to our discussions.
As we came to the end of the financial year, all work on productions
ceased immediately, and advertising income for UKTV and Global
News came under pressure. I and my Board members are grateful to
all the teams that report into the Commercial Holdings Board for theenergy and commitment shown in dealing with the lockdown andre-positioning their businesses.
The Commercial Holdings Board intends to play a key role in helping
the BBC strengthen its long-term financial sustainability. Much of
the focus for 2020/21 will be on the BBC’s evolving global strategy,
the commercial benefits of this and implications for BBC Studios;securing a more stable financial footing for Global News; andoverseeing the implementation of Studioworks’ strategic review.

Elan Closs Stephens DBE
Chair, Commercial Holdings Board
2 September 2020

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Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee Report

Since launch, the guidelines have been shared and discussed withBBC staff in the UK and across the world. A series of online training
modules is in place and are being updated to ensure that all those
who work for the BBC are familiar with the guidelines and aware of
their responsibilities in applying them.
The Committee oversees the BBC complaints process on behalf of
the Board. A public consultation on amendments to the BBC’s
Complaints Framework and Procedures (as approved by EGSC andthe BBC Board) was held from 24 February until 3 April 2020. This
consultation proposed a number of changes aimed at improving thetransparency of the complaints process following complaints about
BBC Breakfast’s coverage of an incident in which President Donald
Trump had been accused of using racist language (July 2019). The
complaints centred on a discussion between presenters Dan Walker
and Naga Munchetty on the alleged racist nature of President
Trump’s remarks. The consultation also proposed changes to bring
the Framework in line with Ofcom regulations for On Demand
Programme Services and their guidelines for Fairness and Privacy
complaints. The outcomes of the consultation were discussed andapproved by EGSC and the BBC Board and the new Complaints
Framework was published and came into effect on 8 June 2020.
A fundamental priority for the BBC Board is to ensure the BBC
continues to provide impartial, high quality output, as required by
the Charter. The Committee has monitored work to research,understand and improve public perceptions of BBC impartiality.
Impartiality lies at the heart of UK public service broadcasting andin an era characterised by misinformation and political polarisation,
the role of the BBC is vital in sustaining trust with audiences andhelping people understand issues from a range of viewpoints. The
rollout of the revised Editorial Guidelines has also re-emphasised
impartiality as a core BBC value. This has involved enhanced
training for those working in news and current affairs, and further
guidance to staff on the due impartiality required of all BBC content.

The Editorial Guidelines state that all BBC pre-recorded content iswatched or listened to by two people prior to broadcast. To support
this high standard, compliance forms must be completed. Spotchecks are undertaken on regular occasions by Internal Audit. The
findings of these spot checks are reported to EGSC and, where there
have been issues, BBC divisions have been required to investigate
and, where necessary, take remedial action.
Core functions of the Committee are to ensure that the BBC’s
complaints process runs effectively and meets published targets fortimeliness, and so provides assurance that all areas of the BBC abide
by content standards set out in the Editorial Guidelines and Ofcom’s
Broadcasting Code. In 2019/20, 87% of complaints at Stage 1 and
85% of complaints at Stage 2 of the complaints process werehandled within the target timeframe: ten working days for Stage 1
complaints; 20 working days for standard Stage 2 complaints and 35
working days for complex Stage 2 complaints. Where response times
have fallen below the targets, these have been reported to the Board.
For the first time, the Stage 1 target (93%) was not met. This waslargely due to an unprecedented number of complaints during the2019 UK General Election campaign, when complaints ran at threetimes their normal level (63,348 for the period 6 November –16 December 2019). A number of measures were put into place tomanage the backlog of complaints, including extra staff andstreamlining of complaint responses. The Committee has noted adeveloping relationship between social media and the workings ofthe BBC’s formal complaints machinery.

Ian Hargreaves
Chair
2 September 2020

BBC complaints 2019/20:

Ofcom:
Editorial complaints
within remit: 212
Number of complaints
upheld: 1

Stage 2, Editorial complaints:
759 – 85% answered on time (target 80%)

Stage 1, Editorial and general complaints:
368,377 – 87% answered on time
(target 93%)

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GovernanceIn 2019/20 our Committee oversaw a detailed revision of the BBC
Editorial Guidelines on behalf of the BBC Board. The updated
guidelines were launched on 8 July and came into effect on 15 July
2019 – the first iteration of the guidelines under the current
governance structure of the BBC.

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Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee report
Membership of the Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee
The Editorial Guidelines and Standards Committee (EGSC) is
responsible for content standards at the BBC. The EGSC comprises
three non-executive directors and two executive directors: Ian
Hargreaves (Chair), Tanni Grey-Thompson, Nicholas Serota, the BBC
Director-General and Francesca Unsworth, the Director of Newsand Current Affairs. EGSC meetings are also attended by the
Director, Editorial Policy and Standards as the Principal Adviser tothe Committee.
Ofcom
In its second annual report on the BBC, Ofcom stated that the ‘BBCFirst’ process (designed to ensure that most complaints are dealt
with directly and promptly by the BBC) was generally working well,
but that greater transparency would enhance the effectiveness of
the BBC’s complaints process.
During this accounting period, Ofcom found the BBC to be in breachof its Broadcasting Code on one occasion. An edition of Sunday
Politics broadcast on BBC One on 30 April 2017 was found to bematerially misleading, on account of a statement by the presenter
about the proportion of Scottish children who left primary school“functionally illiterate”.
In October, Ofcom published its assessment of the 17 July edition of
BBC Breakfast on BBC One, referred to above. Ofcom concluded thatit did not breach the Broadcasting Code and there were no grounds
for investigation, but expressed concern about the transparency of
the BBC’s complaints handling process and made recommendations
for improvement. At the same time, the BBC Board commissioned its
own lessons learnt report into the handling of the BBC Breakfast
complaint. Some of the recommendations resulted in changes to theComplaints Framework which, following a public consultation, arebeing adopted.
As required by Ofcom, the BBC continues to publish on a fortnightly
basis details of programme complaints which number over 100 and
fall under the remit of the Broadcasting Code. These bulletins are
published at: bbc.co.uk/contact/complaint-service-reports. Since
June 2020, this resource has been supplemented by fully reasoned
versions of upheld, partly upheld, resolved and also some not upheld
findings of particular significance. The BBC also publishes responses
to significant complaints at: bbc.co.uk/complaints.

106

Editorial complaints and lessons learned
As in previous years, the majority of BBC content complied with thestandards set by the BBC’s Editorial Guidelines. However, thefollowing serious breaches were noted by the Committee:
BBC Studios production, Inside the Foreign Office, November 2018.
This documentary charted the work of a major Government
department across a year that saw Boris Johnson resign as Foreign
Secretary. During the Conservative Party leadership race in 2019 it
was reported that the BBC, following pressure from the Foreign
Office, had removed footage of Mr Johnson accusing the French ofbeing “turds over Brexit.” Although there was no express requestfrom the Foreign Office, the decision by the programme to tone
down the sequence should have been referred to Editorial Policy andwithin BBC Studios. BBC Studios agreed to look at its own internal
escalation procedures as a result.
Edge of Science, BBC Earth YouTube, first published in December
2019. It was found that the publication of the extended version did
not go through a BBC compliance process and was therefore inbreach of the BBC Editorial Guidelines. The fact that publication wasmade by a third party and without reference to the BBC Studios
Content Compliance team was also contrary to the agreed process in
the BBC Studios Editorial Framework Guide. The programme wasalso found to be in breach of BBC Advertising and Sponsorship
Guidelines. A set of actions was put in place to ensure these issues do
not recur.
In addition to these breaches, the Executive Complaints Unit found a
total of 55 breaches of editorial standards in the year covered by thisreport (including ten cases in which the issue giving rise to thecomplaint had been resolved by action taken by the relevant division
before the complaint was escalated to the ECU). All serious editorial
breaches and upheld/partly upheld/resolved complaints arereported promptly to EGSC, together with action taken.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Nations Committee Reports
Governance

The four Nations Committees support the Board in reviewing and monitoring the output and performance of the BBC across the UK.
This section provides a report from the Chair on the work of each Committee during the year.

Wales

ScotlandIt has been a milestone year for BBC Cymru Wales with the final
stages of the organisation’s move to its new headquarters in Central
Square, Cardiff. The Committee received regular updates on
progress and, once the first teams had moved in, was able to hold its
January 2020 meeting in the new building. This coincided with the
Director-General using the building for his new year pan-BBC
address which reflected on the importance of out-of-London
production and representation.

I am delighted that BBC Scotland was the recipient of two special
awards this year. The inaugural RTS Scotland Judges’ award went to
the BBC Scotland channel in recognition of “extraordinary
achievements” in its first year. The RTS Scotland Award wasawarded to BBC Scotland Director Donalda MacKinnon for her“outstanding” contribution to Scotland’s television industry; thejudges recognised that Donalda’s work “has made a significant andlasting impact on audiences and viewers in Scotland”.

Committee members were impressed by the management of thisproject . However, an unscheduled UK General Election delayed thefinal move from Llandaff and coronavirus has impaired thetimetable further and inevitably. In addition, new ways of working
impacted on 80 posts.

The coronavirus pandemic has placed a renewed emphasis on theimportance of the BBC’s public services to audiences in Scotland.
News teams brought viewers and listeners live daily briefings fromthe First Minister and the UK Prime Minister and audiences toReporting Scotland increased by 52% for the lunchtime edition and
43% for the early evening edition. Daily educational programmes
were provided on the BBC Scotland channel and iPlayer. New
programmes such as Reflections at the Quay and The Service
responded to the needs of Scotland’s diverse religious communities,
whilst innovative production techniques were deployed to keep
audiences informed and entertained with Debate Night, Susan
Calman’s Socially Distant, and Shelf Isolation.

Wales Committee members were Ian Hargreaves, Ken MacQuarrie,
Rhodri Talfan Davies and Rhys Evans with other staff joining as
required. We met twice in Cardiff and once in Wrexham, where weheld an audience engagement session focusing on News and Radio
content. During the year we focused on the challenge of providing
quality services within budgetary constraints; addressing changing
listening and viewing habits; and securing important sports rights
at a reasonable tariff. We were pleased to see dramas such as
The Left Behind and the second series of Keeping Faith and Hidden
going out on network TV. And when Gavin and Stacey returned asa Christmas special, half of all adults in Wales watched within aseven-day period.
BBC Wales produced podcasts in both languages which wereavailable to download on BBC Sounds. Shreds – the story of the
Lynette White murder case – become a must-listen series and theaward-winning Elis James podcast, Dwy Iaith Un Ymennydd
captured the imagination as the comedian considered theimplications of bilingualism. The two national radio stations, BBCRadio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru, once again partnered with anumber of festivals to bring live music, stand-up and momentous
Welsh events to life via the radio. It’s also been a busy year for the
BBC National Orchestra of Wales. In January they worked with theWelsh National Opera to recreate the legendary four hour-longconcert that Beethoven mounted in Vienna in December 1808 tocelebrate the composer’s 250th birthday attracting a sell-out crowd.
BBC Wales continued to provide programmes for S4C including
Pobol y Cwm and Newyddion. Other creative partnerships included
the delivery of the Horizons project with the Arts Council of Wales,
It’s My Shout and Film Cymru.
At the end of this financial year, Wales went into lockdown due tocoronavirus. BBC Cymru Wales pulled together all its resources toprovide trusted news, information, entertainment and educational
materials related to the Welsh curriculum. I and my fellow members
wish to record our thanks to the Director, Wales and all his teams foradapting ways of working to reach out to the nation at this difficult
time. Our focus, for the next few months, will be to understand thechallenges BBC Cymru Wales faces as it deals with theconsequences of the coronavirus pandemic.
More detailed information on BBC performance in Wales can befound on pages 32 and 140 of this Annual Report.

The BBC Scotland channel has the highest reach in Scotland after
the five main channels and it attracts a younger, more diverse
audience than the BBC’s more established channels and therefore
adds unique reach to the BBC’s portfolio. The Nine also attracts ayounger audience than other BBC news programmes in Scotland.
And it’s not just the linear channel that’s performing well; theperformance of BBC Scotland content on iPlayer was quite
outstanding, with requests to view BBC Scotland-commissioned andco-commissioned content having more than doubled since launch.
BBC ALBA continues to connect with both Gaelic and Englishlanguage audiences, particularly through its sport and musicprogramming, and Radio Scotland has benefited from a
refreshed schedule.
Audiences have much to look forward to this autumn, including:season two of the history strand Clash of the Clans and a fly-on-thewall documentary about Hearts FC. The BBC Scotland channel
will have new episodes of Murder Case and Scot Squad, as well
as a landmark social history series looking at 1970 to 2020,
Becoming Scotland.
My fellow Scotland Committee members were: the Chairman of theBBC, David Clementi; Ken MacQuarrie, Director of Nations andRegions; Donalda McKinnon, Director of Scotland; Ian Small, Headof Public Policy and Corporate Affairs, Scotland; and Steve Carson,
Head of Multi-Platform Commissioning, Scotland. The committee
continues to engage with stakeholders throughout Scotland –including meeting with representatives from the business
community, the creative industries and academia – and wecontinued our engagement with audiences.
I would like to add my personal thanks to Donalda MacKinnon, who
is retiring at the end of this calendar year. Donalda has provided
outstanding leadership in Scotland and has also done so much tohelp women progress and develop at the BBC.
More detailed information on BBC performance in Scotland can befound on pages 33 and 144 of this Annual Report.

Elan Closs Stephens DBE
Chair, Wales Committee
2 September 2020

Steve Morrison
Chair, Scotland Committee
2 September 2020

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Nations Committee reports
Northern Ireland

England

There have been important political and other developments inNorthern Ireland throughout the year – all of which have beenreflected on the BBC’s airwaves. It has been my privilege to chair the
Board’s Northern Ireland Committee during this period.

Over the last 12 months the BBC England Committee has monitored
and reviewed the work of BBC England. I am grateful for the supportof my BBC non-executive director colleague Tom Ilube, Helen
Thomas, Director of England and other members of the Committee.
The Committee has been reviewing future plans for England.
These are aimed at enabling our operations to be more efficientand effective, ensuring we are adopting the latest technology andmost importantly further ensuring we are meeting all local
audience needs.

This year, the Committee received updates from BBC teams about
the importance of locally relevant content and its resonance andappeal for audiences in Northern Ireland. We made use of research
to inform our understanding of audience needs, interests andbehaviours in Northern Ireland. And we have taken a close interestin major editorial initiatives, including the series of programmes
about the events and legacies of The Troubles period. This output
was ambitious, editorially sensitive and of enormous public value.
As part of its work, the Committee also received updates on BBC
investment and infrastructure needs and output at local level. We
heard about a new BBC NI commissioning strategy for younger
audiences, working with the independent sector and BBC Three. The
Committee noted how this work and a range of other programming,
including drama and landmark documentaries for BBC network
television, benefits from the partnership with NI Screen.
The Committee met three times during the year, including a visit
to Lisburn to hear about the BBC’s innovative partnership with
Libraries NI and the launch of a new BBC archive-based resourcethat will be available in libraries across the region. This meeting also
provided us with an opportunity to meet key stakeholders. We got afurther insight into what local people think about BBC services
through an audience engagement session that took place in Belfast
in October.
I was joined on the Committee during the year by David Clementi,
Elan Closs Stephens, Peter Johnston and Mark Adair. Fran
Unsworth joined the Committee to replace Anne Bulford. I’m
grateful to the Committee members for their engagement andsupport, particularly Elan who has fulfilled a non-executive roleon the Committee with great commitment in addition to her other
Board responsibilities.
We know that there have been concerns about the absence of a
BBC Board Member for Northern Ireland. This appointment is the
responsibility of DCMS, but requires the involvement of theNorthern Ireland Executive. We hope that the resumption ofdevolution will allow an appointment process to get quickly
underway, bringing an important additional voice and perspective
to the Board’s work on behalf of all BBC audiences.
We also know that the BBC plays an important role in cultural andcommunity life in Northern Ireland. Its work and services arealways evolving. We had briefings this year about schedule changes
on BBC Radio Ulster, the implementation of a new sports strategy
and coverage of political developments at Stormont and elsewhere.
These and other important issues, including the impact ofcoronavirus, will be kept under review in the coming year, as we
continue to ensure that local stories, voices and talent are reflectedacross the BBC’s networks.
More detailed information on BBC performance in Northern Ireland
can be found at pages 34 and 149 of this Annual Report.

Our connection with audiences is paramount. A major part of theCommittee’s work is meeting different audience groups across thecountry to hear directly their views about our services. We havecontinued to hold regular audience insight sessions this year,
particularly with members of the public who may not traditionallyconsume large amounts of BBC content. Last year’s meetings took
place in Cumbria, Devon and London engaging with various age
ranges and socio-economic and ethnically diverse groups. This work
has provided a rich source of audience feedback and enabled greater
face-to-face engagement with local communities. In turn, this has
informed Board discussions and our overall strategy to reachunderserved audiences.
I have been encouraged by the value that existing and new
audiences assign to our output on local radio, regional television andonline and to the connection they bring to communities. Local
journalism generates original stories which impact on communities,
and is particularly valuable when responding at times of national
crisis, such as during the January floods. More recently, this has
been never more evident than during the coronavirus crisis, where
local services across England have been playing a key role inbringing safe, trusted news to audiences of all ages and haveconnected communities even more deeply than before. That value
has been reflected in audience figures. These figures demonstrate
the importance audiences place on our local services on television,
radio and online.
BBC England’s ambition will remain to serve all audiences acrossEngland. In January a number of initiatives were launched toachieve this including a raft of shows presented by new diverse
presenters who have brought different audiences to local evening
radio. Some of those presenters have gone on to present programmes
in other parts of local and national radio. We also launched BBC
Introducing Upload, which does for the spoken word what thesuccessful BBC Introducing does for music. Finally, Make A
Difference facilitates local communities to come together with theaim of helping those in need. This has been especially importantduring the coronavirus outbreak.
As a Committee we are encouraged by the early signs of audience
impact and I look forward to continued growth in the coming year.

Dr Ashley Steel
Chair, England Committee
2 September 2020

Ken MacQuarrie
Chair, Northern Ireland Committee
2 September 2020

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Fair Trading Report
Overall, we feel the BBC’s systems and processes for managing
trading and separation continue to work well. We are regularly
updated on any new or ongoing Fair Trading complaints and note
there have been no new complaints of this type to report in the year.
And our view is borne out by the work undertaken by Deloitte for
their annual, independent Fair Trading Assurance. This year wewere pleased to see they have found that the BBC has establishedand applied a system of internal controls regarding compliancewith the Fair Trading requirements. Their report is included overthe page.

The Committee’s remit is clear – to assist the Board in complying
with Ofcom’s trading and separation regulatory requirements, as set
out in its Operating Framework. We have a number of mechanisms
and processes in place to help us to do this. The Committee’sbusiness during the year has included:

I am grateful as ever to the other members of the Committee who
this year included Ian Hargreaves, Steve Morrison and Shirley
Garrood, who joined the Committee as a member in July, replacing
Elan Closs Stephens who left the Committee upon taking up her roleas Chair of the Commercial Holdings Board. We also continue to bewell supported by the Board Secretariat and by the expertise ofteams in Policy, Legal and the commercial parts of the BBC.

—— consideration of the BBC’s processes for ensuring compliancewith Ofcom’s rules and reviewing compliance with these;—— taking a quarterly management report from the Executive,
detailing specific engagement with upcoming and ongoing Fair
Trading issues across the BBC;—— providing advice to the Board on issues within our remit;—— reviewing and monitoring targets for Fair Trading training acrossthe BBC; and—— approval of all relevant publications and reports that the
BBC must provide specifically to meet Ofcom’s trading andseparation rules.
Through the year, the Committee has also focused on developing
further our assurance and risk monitoring function. We haveworked with the BBC’s internal audit function to put in place adetailed plan for assurance of the BBC’s various service levelagreements and oversight of other areas of the regime. We havebegun to review this regularly and are working with the BBC’s
Internal Audit function to ensure we monitor and assure ourselvesof compliance across the main areas of Fair Trading risk.

As you might expect, we continue to take advice and look for ways tostrengthen the role of the Committee. We have been given valuable
contributions in this regard this year both through our regular
discussions with Ofcom and also through the work of Christopher
Saul, who conducted this year’s external Board and Committee
effectiveness evaluation.
We are looking forward to the coming year when we will develop
further our work with different areas of the BBC, continue to support
the Board in delivering against Ofcom’s framework, engage more
widely with interested stakeholders across the industry, andcontinue to ensure that the BBC’s record on trading and separation
remains as robust as it has always been.

Tom Ilube CBE
Chair, Fair Trading Committee
2 September 2020

As part of this, training on Fair Trading continues to be of realimportance. We introduced new advanced online Fair Trading
training to ensure that training can be delivered across the UK
equally. We also saw that completion rates for the training were
improving through the year, based on the previous cohort. The BBC
has now moved to a new system of identifying training needs basedon different job roles, which has resulted in doubling the number ofcolleagues required to take the training, ensuring it is as effective as
possible. We keep the numbers undergoing the different levels of
training under regular review and seek to work with the business on
solutions for those areas where delivery of training is more difficult
to achieve. The focus for the coming year will be to ensure that evenwith this significant increase, completion rates remain as high as
they have been in the past.

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109

GovernanceDuring this year, I’ve been pleased to chair the Fair Trading
Committee as we have continued to deepen our oversight andassurance of the BBC’s trading and separation arrangements. As
the commercial aspects of what the BBC does become ever morecritical and substantial, the role of the Committee remains
particularly important, acting as a check point to ensure that therelevant rules and processes are being followed. We have also
continued, during the year, to broaden our relationship with
Ofcom, who rightly take a close interest in what the BBC is doingin this area.

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Fair Trading report

What do we mean by Fair Trading?
Fair Trading is the way that we describe our processes and practices,
both within the BBC and in dealing with third parties, to ensure that
our commercial and our public services remain appropriately
separate and trade with each other on a market basis. This meansthat the parts of the BBC which are funded by the licence fee are notable to give a competitive advantage to the BBC’s commercial
operations or to any other third party with which we deal. These
rules are overseen by Ofcom – who set the rules for trading andseparation as part of their overall BBC framework – and by otherparties such as the NAO, who seek to ensure that any use of licencefee funds is regular and in line with our requirement.
What does the Fair Trading Committee do?
The Fair Trading Committee (FTC) was established by the Board as ameans to monitor and assure the appropriate separation between
the BBC’s public service and commercial activities, in line with theframework for commercial activities set by Ofcom. The Committee
was put in place voluntarily by the Board, in recognition of theimportance the BBC places on transparency and commercial
efficiency in the operation of its commercial subsidiaries.
The key function of the FTC is to oversee the BBC’s compliance with
our regulatory obligations for trading and separation between the
public service and the commercial subsidiaries*. The core
responsibilities of the FTC include:—— considering reports on the extent to which the activities of the
BBC are consistent with Ofcom’s trading and separation
requirements;—— keeping under review the BBC’s compliance with Ofcom’s trading
and separation regulatory requirements;—— commissioning and receiving the annual independent assuranceof compliance controls;—— considering and approving for publication the BBC’s transfer
pricing methodologies;—— maintaining oversight of the BBC’s Fair Trading training; and—— ensuring that the BBC’s transfer pricing methodologies arereviewed regularly.
The trading and separation rules were published by Ofcom in
February 2019 and are part of Ofcom’s framework for the BBC’scommercial activities, which regulates the BBC’s interaction withthe market both through its public service activities and those of its
commercial subsidiaries.

The framework requires the BBC to ensure that:—— all commercial activities are undertaken by commercial
subsidiaries;—— any subsidiaries must have operational separation from thepublic service BBC;—— that it provides goods and services to commercial subsidiaries onarm’s length commercial terms;—— that subsidiaries achieve a commercial rate of return; and—— that the BBC ensures appropriate transparency, monitoring andreporting on the activities of the subsidiaries.
To ensure that these rules are complied with, the FTC oversees andassures the BBC’s processes and procedures to ensure thatawareness and understanding of the framework is high. To do this,the BBC’s Group Policy and Regulation team manages a targetedtraining programme for staff likely to encounter Fair Trading issues.
The training has continued to be updated, revised and made moreaccessible to all eligible staff this year, including by targeting higher
level training at those employees working in areas of highest Fair
Trading risk. The Fair Trading Committee has overseen theseprocesses and monitored compliance with them.
The Committee is briefed on relevant regulatory and Fair Trading
complaints received and handled by the BBC. Details of these arereported elsewhere in the Annual Report on page 105, though theCommittee noted that no specific Fair Trading complaints werereceived in the year.
How the Committee works
In 2019/20, the FTC comprised four non-executive directors: Tom
Ilube (Chair), Shirley Garrood, Ian Hargreaves and Steve Morrison.
Shirley Garrood joined the Committee at the start of her term as a
non-executive director, in July 2019, and replaced Elan Closs
Stephens who stepped down on assuming the role of Chair of theCommercial Holdings Board. The FTC’s meetings were attended
during the year by the Director of Policy and the Head of Regulation,
as well as the Chief Financial Officer, Group General Counsel andother advisers as necessary. Three Committee meetings were held
during the year, with papers also approved offline where necessary.
The attendance meeting table can be found on page 90.
To support the framework, and to assure the BBC’s approach toregularity and the use of public funds, the FTC continues tovoluntarily commission an annual assurance by an independent
firm. The Assurance Report is set out below.
Having received reports from relevant senior management,
and having considered the findings of the Fair Trading Assurance,
the Fair Trading Committee is satisfied that all commercial
services have met the above criteria for the period 1 April 2019
to 31 March 2020.

* In 2019/20 – BBC Studios, BBC Studioworks and Global News110

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Opinion on Fair Trading arrangements
We have assessed, in our role as the BBC’s Fair Trading reasonableassurance provider, the system of internal controls establishedwithin the BBC to comply with the Fair Trading aspects of Ofcom’s
Trading and Separation requirements for the year ended 31 March
2020 (‘the Fair Trading Arrangements’).
In our opinion the BBC has established and applied a system ofinternal controls that provide reasonable assurance that it hascomplied with the requirements of the Fair Trading Arrangements
for the year ended 31 March 2020.
Responsibilities of BBC Board
The Board is charged by Ofcom with establishing and operating asystem of internal controls designed to ensure compliance with theBBC’s Fair Trading Arrangements for the year ended 31 March 2020,
including identifying and assessing risks that could threaten Fair
Trading and designing and implementing responses to such risks.
Our independence and quality control
We have complied with the independence and other ethicalrequirements of the ICAEW Code of Ethics, which is founded on
fundamental principles of integrity, objectivity, professional
competence and due care, confidentiality and professional
behaviour.

GovernanceIndependent Fair Trading Assurance Reportto the BBC for the year ended 31 March 2020
Inherent limitations
Every internal control system is subject to limitations, andaccordingly the internal controls established by the BBC may notprevent or detect all instances of non-compliance with the Fair
Trading Arrangements. Further, because fair trading issues require
judgements which ultimately might be tested in a court of law,competition authority or elsewhere, there is always a risk ofchallenge even where the system of internal controls has been
followed and decisions have been taken with the greatest care.
Use of our report
This report has been made solely to the BBC in accordance with our
instructions which were agreed with the Fair Trading Committee on
behalf of the BBC. Our work has been undertaken so that we mightstate to the Fair Trading Committee those matters we are required tostate to them in an independent assurance report and for no otherpurpose. To the fullest extent permitted by law, we do not accept orassume responsibility to anyone other than the BBC for our work, forthis report, or for the opinions we have formed.

Deloitte LLP
London, UK
2 September 2020

Our responsibilities
Our responsibility is to express an opinion on the internal controls
established by the BBC to ensure compliance with the Fair Trading
Arrangements, based on our assurance work. We performed areasonable assurance engagement in accordance with International
Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000 (Revised),
Assurance Engagements other than Audits or Reviews of Historical
Financial Information.
We are required to plan and perform our procedures in order toobtain reasonable assurance as to whether the BBC has establishedand applied a system of internal controls that provide reasonableassurance that it has complied with the requirements of the Fair
Trading Arrangements for the year ended 31 March 2020. We
conducted a risk assessment to identify those aspects of the BBC’s
Trading and Separation control regime that were most likely toresult in non-compliance with the Fair Trading Arrangements, andfocused our detailed testing on those areas. Individual cases wereselected from the BBC’s fair trading log for review and for each we
examined written records and interviewed relevant parties. Our
work included examination of transfer pricing and separation
arrangements, use of and payment for the BBC brand, and theapplication of the Royal Charter requirement that the BBC’scommercial activities do not, as a result of their relationship with the
UK Public Services, non-service activities or trading activities,
distort the market or gain an unfair competitive advantage. We
observed, through the course of our work, a culture of consultation
and referral in respect of Fair Trading matters.

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111

Return to contentsStatement of Board responsibilities in respectof the Annual Report and Accounts
The Charter requires the BBC to prepare an audited annual
report and statement of accounts.
The Board has accepted its responsibility for the preparation of astrategic report, statements of compliance with applicable codes andregulations (including the Board remuneration report) and thestatement of accounts which are intended to give a true and fairview of the state of affairs of the BBC and its subsidiaries (the‘Group’) and of the income and expenditure for that period. The
Board has prepared the accounts in accordance with International
Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) as adopted by the EU. The
Board must not approve the statement of accounts (or ‘financial
statements’) unless it is satisfied that they give a true and fair view of
the assets, liabilities and financial position of the Group and of thesurplus or deficit for that period.
In preparing the financial statements, the Board has:—— selected suitable accounting policies and applied themconsistently;—— made judgements and estimates that are reasonable and prudent;—— stated whether they have been prepared in accordance with IFRS
as adopted by the EU; and—— prepared the financial statements on the going concern basis as
they believe that the BBC will continue in business.
The Board is responsible for keeping proper accounting records thatare sufficient to show and explain the BBC’s transactions anddisclose with reasonable accuracy at any time the financial positionof the Group and enable them to ensure that the financial statements
and the Board remuneration report comply with the Charter. It also
has a general responsibility for taking such steps as are reasonably
open to it to safeguard the assets of the BBC and to prevent anddetect fraud and other irregularities.
The responsibilities of the Board for ensuring that the BBC exercises
rigorous stewardship of public money, including responsibility forthe propriety and regularity of management of the BBC’s resources,
are set out in article 16 of the Charter.

The Board members who held office at the date of approval of theAnnual Report and Accounts, whose names and functions are listed
in the Governance section of the Annual Report and Accounts,
confirm that, to the best of each of their knowledge and belief:—— the financial statements, prepared in accordance with IFRS as
adopted by the EU, give a true and fair view of the assets,
liabilities, financial position and deficit of the Group;—— the Annual Report includes a fair review of the development andperformance of the business and the position of the Group,
together with a description of the principal risks anduncertainties that it faces; and—— the Annual Report, taken as a whole, is fair, balanced andunderstandable and provides the information necessary forlicence fee payers to assess the Group’s performance, businessmodel and strategy.
Statement of disclosure of information to auditors
The Board members who held office at the date of approval of theAnnual Report and Accounts confirm that, so far as they are eachaware, there is no relevant audit information of which the BBC’s
auditors are unaware; and each Board member has taken all thesteps that they ought to have taken as a Board member to makethemselves aware of any relevant audit information and to establishthat the BBC’s auditors are aware of that information.
Going concern
The directors have prepared cash flow forecasts for a period inexcess of a year from the date of approval of these financial
statements, and have reviewed these forecasts, together with thesensitivities and mitigating factors in the context of available funds.
The directors are satisfied that the BBC is well placed to manage therisks and has adequate resources to continue in operation for at least
the next 12 months. As a result, the going concern basis has been
adopted in the preparation of the financial statements.
This statement was approved by the Board.

The Board is responsible for the maintenance and integrity of theBBC’s website. Legislation in the UK governing the preparation anddissemination of financial statements may differ from legislation inother jurisdictions.
Sir David Clementi
Chairman
2 September 2020

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Governance

Performanceagainst public
commitments
This section sets out our progress towards
various public commitments. These
commitments come from the Charter, theAgreement, our licence obligations andcommitments we have made to deliver
services for our audiences.

Brittany Howard at the
BBC 6 Music festival 2020

121

p.

Will Young on CBeebies
Bedtime Stories

Annual Plan commitments
Detailed review of thecommitments made in the
2019/2020 Annual Plan.

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Regulatory compliance
The table below sets out the BBC’s compliance with the regulatory conditions in Ofcom’s Operating Licence. Compliance is measured acrossthe 2019/20 financial year unless otherwise stated. The requirements below are arranged by public purpose.
The BBC met all its Operating Licence obligations, with three exceptions:—— 57 minutes of news were broadcast on 1Xtra on two days in late March 2020;—— 22 hours and 50 minutes of news were broadcast on BBC Asian Network for two weeks in March 2020; and—— 172 hours of non-news content were broadcast on BBC Two Wales during 2019/20.
In all cases, these were due to the impact of coronavirus. We have engaged with Ofcom on our Operating Licence compliance throughout
the pandemic.
Purpose One: To provide impartial news and information to help people understand and engage with the world around them
Note

Quota

Achieved

BBC OneNews throughout the day
Hours of news

1

Hours of current affairs in peak

1

1,520
(280 in peak)
45

1,697
(293 in peak)
63

450(106 in peak)

569(127 in peak)

85

92

1

1

1

1 (57minutes
for two days)

17(3 in peak)17(3 in peak)

2,750

3,557

75

76

6

6

24

24 (22h50m
for two weeks)

BBC One and BBC Two
Hours of current affairs

1,2

CBBC
News throughout the day
Hours of news
BBC News
More international news than other main continuous news channels in the UK
More local/regional news than other main continuous news channels in the UK
Radio 1
Hours of news in daytime each weekday
Two extended news bulletins (one in peak) each weekday
Regular bulletins in daytime at weekends
1Xtra
Hours of news in daytime each weekday

3

Two extended news bulletins each weekday
Regular bulletins in daytime at weekends
Radio 2
Weekly hours of news and current affairs
Regular bulletins
Radio 3
News throughout the day
Radio 4
Hours of news and current affairs
Daily reports of Parliamentary proceedings when Parliament is sitting
BBC Radio 5 live
% of output that is news and current affairs
Extensive coverage of local and general elections, elections to the devolved chambers, andregular coverage of European and international politics
BBC 6 Music
Weekly hours of news
BBC Asian Network
Weekly hours of news and current affairs

4

BBC Online
Adequate links to material provided by third parties
Notes
1 Measured across the 2019 calendar year
2 Measured across the two services
3 1Xtra fulfilled the condition for all but two days of the year. However, due to schedule changes to manage the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, 1Xtra provided 57 minutes of news
a day on two days in March 2020
4 BBC Asian Network fulfilled the condition for all but two weeks of the year. However, due to schedule changes to manage the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, BBC Asian
Network provided 22 hours and 50 minutes of news and current affairs for two weeks in March 2020

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BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Note

Quota

Achieved

45

55(19 in peak)

115

146
(13 in peak)

BBC Two
Hours of arts and music, including some in peak

175

227
(68 in peak)

BBC FourNew hours of arts and music programmes

175

224

1,000
675

1,961
1,483

BBC ALBA
Original weekly hours for Gaelic language learners

512Radio 1
Number of new documentaries

40

46

1Xtra
Number of documentaries

40

47

100
130
170

121
130
191

45
440
25
35

50
942
40
42

375
200

484
203

520

542

BBC OneHours of arts and music, including some in peak
BBC One and BBC Two
Hours of religious programmes

1

CBeebies
A range of content which supports pre-school children in their learning
CBBC
Hours of drama
Hours of factual programmesRadio 2
Hours of arts programming
Hours of new documentaries
Hours of religious output covering a broad range of faiths
Radio 3% of output that is live or specially recorded music
Number of live or specially recorded performances
Number of new musical works commissioned
Number of new documentaries on arts and cultural topics
Radio 4
Hours of original documentaries
Hours of original religious programming covering a broad range of faiths
BBC 6 Music
Hours of speech-based features, documentaries and essays

2

3

2
2

BBC Online
Content which supports children and teenagers in their formal learningin all parts of the UK
Notes
1 Measured across the two services
2 Repeats are excluded
3 This year we have counted performances on Afternoon Concert and New Generation Artists toward this total

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

115

GovernancePurpose Two: To support learning for people of all ages

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Performance against public commitments
Purpose Three: To show the most creative, highest quality and distinctive output and services
Note

Television% of hours that are originations
BBC OneBBC One in peak
BBC Two
BBC Two in peak
BBC Four
BBC Four in peak
BBC News
BBC Parliament
CBBC
CBeebies
BBC ALBA
BBC Scotland

Quota

Achieved

75
90
75
90
75
60
90
90
72
70
75
75

85
99
90
95
88
86
98
97
81
74
94
98

4,000
2,200
400
100

4,258
2,749
406
120

300

354
(218 in peak)

45
50
60
175

52
52
66
182

2

2

40
20
260
1,100

51
26
260
1,249

20

21

1,2

Hours of first-run originations across daytime and peak
BBC One
BBC Two
CBBC
CBeebies
BBC One and BBC Two
Hours of comedy programmes, some in peak

2,3

4

Radio
Radio 1% of music in daytime from UK acts
% of new music in daytime, with significant proportion from new and emerging UK artists
Weekly hours of specialist music
Number of new sessions live or recorded within previous three months (excluding repeats)
Broader range of music than comparable providers
Number of major social action campaigns
Radio 2% of music in daytime from UK acts
% of new music in daytime, with significant proportion from new and emerging UK artists
Hours of live music
Hours of specialist music
Broader range of music than comparable providers
BBC Radio 5 live
Number of sports with live commentary

5

6
7

8

6
9

Notes
1 Originations include all BBC-commissioned programmes including repeats
2 Measured across the 2019 calendar year
3 First-run originations do not include repeats
4 Measured across the two services
5 41% of additions to the Radio 1 playlist during 2019 came from ‘new and emerging UK artists’
6 Taking into account both number of plays and size of playlist, in daytime and peak
7 The social action campaigns were Radio 1’s 24-Hour LOL-a-thon with Scott & Chris and Radio 1’s Teen Heroes
8 20% of additions to the Radio 2 playlist during 2019 came from ‘new and emerging UK artists’
9 The sports were: athletics, para-athletics, boxing (men’s and women’s), cricket (men’s and women’s), road cycling, football (men’s and women’s), Formula One, golf (men’s and women’s),
horse racing, MMA, netball, rugby union (men’s and women’s), rugby league, snooker, swimming and tennis

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Note

Network Television
Suitable range of programmes made outside the M25 area1

% of expenditure made in… at a suitable range of production centres
UK (outside the M25 area)
England (outside the M25 area)
Scotland
Wales
Northern Ireland

1

BBC One and BBC Two
Hours of programmes of national or regional interest
Suitable range of programmes of national or regional interest% of programmes made in the relevant location
Hours of non-news programming of national or regional interest in peak
Hours of non-news programming of national or regional interest adjacent to peak

1

1,2
1,2
1,2
1,2
1,2

BBC One Scotland
Hours of news and current affairs
Hours of non-news programmes
Range of genres that reflects Scotland’s culture
BBC One Wales
Hours of news and current affairs
Hours of non-news programmes
BBC Two Wales
Hours of non-news programmes

3

BBC One Wales and BBC Two Wales
Range of genres that reflects Wales’s culture

2

BBC One Northern Ireland
Hours of news and current affairs
Hours of non-news programmes
BBC Two Northern Ireland
Hours of non-news programmes
Irish language programming and Ulster-Scots programming
BBC One Northern Ireland and BBC Two Northern Ireland
A range of genres that reflects Northern Ireland’s culture

50
30
8
4
2

62
38
15
5
3

50
28
8
5
3

51
29
9
8
4

4,300
4,790
(2,100 in peak) (2,309 in peak)
5,969

6,334

95
579
195

99
616
297

290
155

367
237

275
65

341
223

175

172

310
90

410
108

60

177

300

518

33.3
40

38
44

2

BBC Parliament
Hours of proceedings of the Scottish Parliament, Northern Ireland Assemblyand Welsh Parliament
Network Radio% of network radio station expenditure outside the M25 area
% of Radio 3 expenditure outside the M25 area

Achieved

1% of hours made in… at a suitable range of production centres
UK (outside the M25 area)
England (outside the M25 area)
Scotland
Wales
Northern Ireland

BBC OneHours of news of national or regional interest throughout the day

Quota

GovernancePurpose Four: To reflect, represent and serve the diverse communities of the United Kingdom’s nations and regions and, in doing so,
support the creative economy across the United Kingdom

4, 5
4

BBC Online
News and information for the English regions
Coverage of sport for the English regions
News and information for Scotland
Content in Gaelic
Coverage of sport in Scotland
News and information for Wales
Content in Welsh
Coverage of sport for Wales

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Performance against public commitments
Note

Quota

Achieved

1
1
1, 6

90
212

99
273

60
100

65
100

95
80
80
70

124
112
91
107

60
100
50

90
100
63

40
100

49
100

60
100
32

71
100
42

60
100
23

68
100
25

BBC Radio Ulster
Weekly hours of news and current affairs

35

40

BBC Radio Foyle
Weekly hours of news and current affairs

20

23

60
100

71
100

240

264

News and information for Northern Ireland
Content in Irish and Ulster-Scots
Coverage of sport for Northern Ireland
Nations and Regions Services
BBC Scotland
Range of genres that reflects Scotland’s culture
Suitable range of programmes including Scottish news
% of its first-run originations made in Scotland
Hours of news in peak
BBC ALBA
Live news each weekday evening, including in peak, and a longer news review at weekends
BBC Local Radio% of daytime weekday output that is speech content% of peak breakfast output that is speech content
News and information of particular relevance to the area and communities it serves
throughout the day
Non-news content of particular relevance to the area and communities it serves
Weekly hours of original, locally made programming
BBC Radio Guernsey – weekly hours of original, locally made programming
BBC Radio Jersey – weekly hours of original, locally made programming
BBC Radio Somerset – weekly hours of original, locally made programming

7, 8
7
7
7
8, 9

BBC Radio Scotland% of daytime weekday output that is speech content% of peak breakfast output that is speech content
Weekly hours of news and current affairs
Several regional opt-outs each weekday, offering news, sport and information, including
evening community programmingContent and music of particular relevance to Scotland
BBC Radio nan Gàidheal% of daytime weekday output that is speech content% of peak breakfast output that is speech content
News frequently across the day, particularly in breakfast peak and afternoon peak on
weekdays, and peak on weekends
Content and music of particular relevance to Scotland
BBC Radio Wales% of daytime weekday output that is speech content% of peak breakfast output that is speech content
Weekly hours of news and current affairsContent and music of particular relevance to Wales

10

BBC Radio Cymru% of daytime weekday output that is speech content% of peak breakfast output that is speech content
Weekly hours of news and current affairsContent and music of particular relevance to Wales

BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle% of daytime weekday output that is speech content% of peak breakfast output that is speech content
Content and music of particular relevance to Northern Ireland
Hours of indigenous minority language programming, including Irish
and Ulster-Scots output
Notes
1 Measured across the 2019 calendar year
2 Measured across the two services
3 The cancellation of sporting events at short notice due to the coronavirus pandemic led to this shortfall
4 Radio 3 figures here include expenditure on the Performing Groups
5 This includes contributions from Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 3, Radio 4 and BBC Radio 5 live
6 Measured between 19.00-22.30 given the channel primarily operates from 19.00 in the evening
7 Applies to each BBC Local Radio station. Each station was compliant with the licence condition
8 The figure reported is the average figure across relevant stations
9 Applies to each BBC Local Radio station, except BBC Radio Guernsey, BBC Radio Jersey and BBC Radio Somerset
10 This year we have included Jason Mohammad’s phone-in show as news and current affairs content

118

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2
2
2
2

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Diversity
The BBC must report on how it has:
Had regard to the range of diverse communities of the UK

Achieved

The BBC must report workforce diversity:
The diversity of all staff employed in connection with the UK PublicServices including the number of staff by different diversity
characteristics
The job level of such staff
The job type of such staff
The extent to which the BBC has made progress towards meeting its
diversity workforce targets

Reported

See pages 30-39 and the Diversity
Commissioning Code of Practice(DCCOP) report
See pages 30-39/DCCOP report1Served and delivered content for the range of diverse communitiesof the UK
Accurately represented the diverse communities of the UK
Authentically portrayed the diverse communities of the UK
Raised awareness of the different cultures and alternative viewpointsof the diverse communities of the UK
The BBC must report on audience satisfaction:
How the BBC represents, portrays and serves diverse audiences
How the BBC reflects the whole of the UK population on screen andon air
How the BBC raises awareness of different cultures and viewpoints
Steps it will take to improve audience satisfaction where specificaudience groups are dissatisfied with the BBC’s performance in theseareas
Steps it has taken and the effect of those steps to improve audiencesatisfaction where specific audience groups were dissatisfied with theBBC’s performance in these areas in the previous year

Governance

Note

See pages 30-39/DCCOP report
See pages 30-39/DCCOP report
See pages 30-39/DCCOP report

See pages 30-39 and 119
See pages 30-39 and 119

2
2

N/A

See pages 30-39 and 119
See page 119

N/A

N/A

2

1

3,4
3,5

The BBC must report:
Its progress towards its on-screen and on-air representation andportrayal targets
Its compliance with the Diversity Commissioning code of practiceSee Equality Information Report(EIR)
See EIRSee EIRSee pages 59-60 and EIR

See pages 37-38/DCCOP report
See DCCOP report

Notes
1 Including age, disability, gender reassignment, race, religion and belief, sex, sexual orientation and socioeconomic background2 With particular regard to first-run content across all genres
3 We have submitted further reporting to Ofcom specifically on the UK Public Services to satisfy these conditions
4 The BBC is required to report on such staff by the following categories: Board members and non-executives, senior managers, middle/junior managers, and non-management. There
are too few Board members and non-executives for us to report on their diversity in line with paragraph 2.51 of the Operating Licence. We report the job level of our staff in the EIR
and through further submission to Ofcom by pay band, and map onto Ofcom’s categories as follows: A-C – non-management; D-E – middle/junior managers; F-SL – senior managers.
5 The BBC is required to report on such staff by the following categories: programming, commissioning, technical/engineering, sales/marketing, and support functions/administrative

Audience satisfaction with the reflection, representation and serving of the diverse communities in the UK
The BBC needs to measure audience satisfaction during the financial year with the reflection, representation and serving of the diverse
communities of the whole of the United Kingdom. The survey findings from 2019/20 show that by age band, gender, social grade, area of theUK, and amongst white audiences and black, Asian and minority ethnic audiences, the proportion rating the BBC as effective on thesemeasures most frequently outnumbers those saying ineffective. In some audience groups, whilst the majority or plurality of people surveyed
rated the BBC as effective, this proportion of people saying the BBC was effective was lower than in their comparator group. This indicatesthat some audience groups have less satisfaction with the BBC in this regard than others. This was the case for C2DE compared with ABC1
audiences; BAME audiences compared with white audiences; under 55s compared with 55+; in the North of England compared withEngland overall; and for some measures in Scotland and Northern Ireland compared with the England average, and people who are disabledcompared with people who are not disabled. In addition, people in Wales were split on how effectively the BBC reflects their part of the UK.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

119

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Other regulatory matters
Changes to the BBC’s UK Public Services
Under the Charter and Agreement, the BBC has to assess whether changes to UK Public Services are material. If the changes are material,
we are required to carry out a Public Interest Test, which must then be approved by Ofcom before the change can be made.
In April 2019, the BBC Board approved the Public Interest Test for the plans to extent the availability of content on BBC iPlayer. Following its
competition assessment, Ofcom determined in August 2019 that the BBC could proceed with its plans.
During 2019/20, we have conducted three detailed materiality assessments of changes to UK Public Services. Of these, the BBC decided none
was material:—— The launch of the Own It app to support young people online;—— The BBC’s new digital voice assistant ‘OK Beeb’; and—— Further development of BBC Sounds, including aggregating third-party podcasts and a limited music streaming service.
Changes to the BBC’s commercial activities
Under the Charter and Agreement, the BBC has to assess whether changes to its commercial activities are material. During 2019/20, we
assessed whether the BBC’s involvement in BritBox was a material change to the BBC’s commercial activities. The BBC Board decided in
May 2019 that this was not a material change. In September 2019, following a consultation, Ofcom agreed that a Commercial Test was
not required.
Regulatory complaints
Under the Charter and Agreement, the BBC is responsible for handling complaints, in a BBC First approach. This year we received one
complaint regarding competition issues. We received no complaints regarding other non-editorial relevant requirements.
Issue

Service

Date of complaint

Outcome and remedy

Date of outcome

Acquisition of sports
rightsRadio 5 live and 5 live
sports extra

8 August 2019

No breach of competition
requirements

2 October 2019

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BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Annual Plan Commitments

PurposeBBC commitment

Achieved

A mix of different
genres and output

Broadcast a demonstrably broader range of genres in peak time than any comparable
channelYES

Creative ambition

Broadcast at least two ambitious new factual landmarks series (subject to delivery timing)

YES – 3

Broadcast at least three new popular factual series

YES – 3

Broadcast at least 25 new drama series

YES – 26

Broadcast at least ten new comedy series

YES – 15

Broadcast at least 220 hours of arts and music programmes (including repeats andacquisitions), some in peak viewing time

YES – 282

Broadcast at least 90 hours of new documentaries

YES – 121

UK original output

More than 90% of long-form commissions will be UK originations

YES – 98%

Creative ambition

Broadcast at least two new unscripted series

YES – 6

Broadcast at least 60 hours of originated factual programmes

YES – 106

A mix of different
genres and output

Broadcast a broader range of genres than other children’s television channels

YES

Deliver new programming to serve the youngest and oldest cohorts of the audience: the6-9s and the over-10s

YES

Creative ambition

Support the mental health and wellbeing of UK children via a range of content available
on CBBC, and through the Own It app

YES

Range of audiences

Reflect the diversity of UK children to ensure everyone sees themselves and their lives
represented on screen

YES

A mix of different
genres and output

Broadcast a broader range of genres than other children’s television channels

YES

Creative ambition

Deliver new programming to spark an interest in the natural world amongst
young viewers

YES

Range of audiences

Reflect the diversity of UK children to ensure everyone sees themselves and their lives
represented on screen

YES

A mix of different
genres and output

We will continue our commitment to daily in-depth sports news

YES

Range of audiences

BBC News will be the UK news channel with the biggest reach

YES

A mix of different
genres and output

Fresh and innovative content and formats, along with new presenting talent, defining
the channel

YES

UK original output

Documentaries will include a series examining today’s Scotland (Modern Lives), a
celebration of 50 years of Scottish Ballet, Emeli Sandé’s Street Symphony and a uniquely
personal look at Scotland through the eyes of rapper and social commentator, Darren
McGarvey (Loki).

YES

Children of the Devolution will mark 20 years of the Scottish Parliament and day-to-day
life at the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital will be put under the microscope

YES

New comedy: Limmy’s Vines and Newsjack T

YES

The first linear transmission of the second series of the student drama series Clique

YES

BBC One

BBC Two
Creative ambition
BBC One and BBC Two
Creative ambition

BBC Three

BBC FourUK original output
CBBC

CBeebies

BBC News

BBC Scotland

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121

Governance

Under the Charter, the BBC is required to publish an Annual Plan. As part of the Annual Plan, we made 106 public commitments to make the
BBC distinctive. These commitments mainly relate to specific events or outcomes on our services that occurred over 2019/20. The BBC met
all relevant Annual Plan commitments in 2019/20.

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Performance against public commitments
PurposeBBC commitment

Achieved

Creative ambition

In addition to the new nine o’clock news programme, The Nine, we will launch a number ofother news and current affairs programmes, including Debate Night, providing a platform
for audiences to question Scotland’s decision-makers, and Seven Days, a weekly look backover the stories making the news. And we’ll turn the airwaves over to the people of
Scotland to get their take on recent events in The People’s News

YES

Range of audiences

We will showcase new stand-up talent with The Comedy Underground and introduce newformats with programmes such as May Contain Nuts, while the channel will welcome oldfavourites Scot Squad, Landward, The Beechgrove Garden and River City

YES

A mix of different
genres and output

New, regular coverage of Scottish domestic and international football and rugby, and the
Women’s Football World Cup in the summer of 2019 promises to be a highlight in a year of
women’s sport

YES

Range of audiences

Engage with younger audiences through digital media initiatives and comedy

YES

A mix of different
genres and output

Measure the overlap of the 100 most played songs on Radio 1 and key commercial stations
each month to ensure we continue offering a distinct music mix

YES – see Note 1

UK original output

Report on the range and depth of support for new music on Radio 1 and Radio 2 throughanalysis of their respective published playlists; and compare performance against theplaylists of key commercial stations

YES – see Note 2

Creative ambition

We will launch a new high-profile weekday evening specialist music programme featuring
Ricky, Melvin and Charlie in April, aiming to offer young audiences a compelling
alternative to television and visual streaming services

YES

Range of audiences

Radio 1’s playlist will showcase the UK’s most exciting new music, with support for acts
still to enjoy significant chart success. Brit List in particular will offer a continuingcommitment to emerging artists across the year

YES – see Note 3

A mix of different
genres and output

Launch a new late-night music and entertainment show presented by Snoochie Shy.
Aiming to celebrate all aspects of black music culture, the show will showcase a wide
range of new music, as well as provide opportunities for guest DJs and tastemakers to
explore their specific genres in depth

YES

UK original output

Act as a champion for new UK artists who get little mainstream media support. In
daytime, at least 35% of the music will come from UK artists, with an intention that atleast 50% of this will be new

YES – 50% by UK
artists, of which 80%
was new

Creative ambition

Look to develop new partnerships and bring new voices to network via the 1Xtra Chatstrand – our home for late-night irreverent discussion

YES

Range of audiences

1Xtra’s programmes are designed with young adults in mind, aiming in particular to
appeal to underserved black, Asian and minority ethnic audiences

YES

Measure the overlap of the 100 most played songs on Radio 2 and key commercial stations
each month to ensure we continue offering a distinct music mix

YES – see Note 4Play a more distinctive mix of music than comparable providers, with a daytime playlist
which features a greater range of songs

YES

Broadcast a broad mix of genres and programming, including 500 Words, as well as
specialist music output from jazz, folk, country, blues, soul and R&B

YES

UK original output

Act as a showcase for new and heritage UK artists as well as BBC Introducing artists

YES

Creative ambition

Continue to be a champion of new and heritage artists, with a variety of live events aroundthe UK, such as Radio 2 Live in Hyde Park, Radio 2 Folk Awards, and the Cheltenham Jazz
Festival

YES

Work in partnership with CBBC, broadcasting from its Summer Social in Liverpool for afamily audience, as well as our All Star Party, reaching new audiences around the UK

YES

Broadcast a range of landmark documentaries, including a series on songwriters with
Gary Barlow, and series on Hip Hop and Dance

YES

Broadcast a Social Action season on male and female fertility in November

YES

Maintain its editorial focus on listeners aged over 35

YES

BBC ALBA

Radio 1

1Xtra

Radio 2A mix of different
genres and output

Range of audiences

122

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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BBC commitment

Achieved

Continue to innovate with new programming within the schedule including: a newlate-night classical show for weeknights

YES

An extended Late Junction on Friday

YES

Further changes to world music and jazz programming

YES

Maintain its role in unique and challenging drama

YES

UK original output

Continue to promote new talent – whether through New Generation Artists, New
Generation Thinkers or BBC Introducing. Plans will be developed for a returning on-air
season highlighting young talent

YES

Creative ambition

Continue to broadcast dedicated performances and recordings from festivals and concert
halls around the UK, from the EFG London Jazz Festival to Huddersfield Contemporary
Music Festival and the Edinburgh International Festival to Aldeburgh

YES

In 2020 join in the worldwide Beethoven 250th anniversary celebrations with year-roundcoverage in Composer of the Week and a range of national and international broadcast
programming. Themes and seasons inspiring programming in 2019 will include nature’s
inspiration on composers and artists following the station’s successful three-part Into theForest season in 2018

YES

GovernancePurposeRadio 3A mix of different
genres and output

Radio 4 and BBC 4 Extra
A mix of different
genres and output

Creative ambition

UK original output

Commission ambitious classic and contemporary drama from new and establishedwriters both on air and digitally for an on-demand audience

YES

In a fresh take on Thackeray’s comic masterpiece Vanity Fair, comedian Al Murray, adirect descendant of Thackeray, will be the sharp but unreliable narrator. Five-part drama
Moon will be a real-time account of the most historic journey in the history of humanity. In
one day, over the summer bank holiday, on Radio 4 there will be a powerful retelling ofProust’s In Search of Lost Time

YES

Feature a Comedy Playhouse with 12 exceptional scripts from a mix of both establishedand new writers; and the Radio 4 BBC New Comedy Award will again seek out the comedy
stars of tomorrow

Comedy Playhousefeatured 11 scripts

Radio 4 and BBC Sounds will together make over 530 hours of drama and 240 hours
of comedy

YES – 534 hours ofdrama and 277 hours
of comedy

We will broadcast 55 hours of comedy and 55 hours of drama each week on Radio 4 Extra

YES – 66 hours ofdrama and 67 hours
of comedy

Continue to broadcast distinctive factual analysis and insight into what is happening in
the UK and Britain’s place in the world

YES

This autumn, broadcast a landmark series which explores the symbiotic relationshipbetween art and science, and how the two have co-existed, collaborated and clashedover centuries

YES

Commission more innovative podcasts which reveal the world in a new light. Following
the success of last year’s The Ratline, Radio 4 will feature the next programme and podcast
in the Intrigue series

YES

BBC Radio 5 live and 5 live sports extra
A mix of different
genres and output

UK original output

A broader range of sports on 5 live and Sports Extra than on any comparable service in
2019/20, including the Women’s Football World Cup, Cricket World Cup, Rugby World Cup,
Netball World Cup, Wimbledon, British Open Golf, The Ashes and Six Nations

23 sports with livecommentary – seeNote 55live will continue to tell the story of the UK’s journey to and beyond Brexit throughaccessible and entertaining politics programmes such as Question Time Extra Time, The
Emma Barnett Show, Pienaar’s Politics and Brexitcast, in outside broadcasts around the UK,
plus giving voice to our listeners’ calls and questions

YES

5 live will showcase voices from around the UK through our daily phone-in Your Call, andthrough shows such as 5 live Breakfast and Afternoon Edition going on the road

YES

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Performance against public commitments
PurposeBBC commitment

Achieved

Creative ambition

5 live will be the storyteller of the UK and will continue to tell more stories from moreplaces than any other broadcaster through a distinctive agenda, a greater diversity ofvoices, and with listeners helping to shape content every day

YES

5 live will continue to deliver big news and sports events with enthusiasm and verve,coming together across programmes to create memorable live radio

YES

In 2019/20, 5 live will continue to drive the podcast sector forward with its innovative andcreative output

YES

A new series from the winner of the Rachael Bland New Podcast Award, the return of theaward-winning You, Me and the Big C and the BBC’s podcast for black British women, The
Sista Collective, plus a new true crime investigative series

YES

5 live will continue to review its schedules, talent and on-air contributors to reflect thediversity of the UK

YES

A mix of different
genres and output

At least 30% of music in daytime will be new

YES – 43%

Remain committed to championing new and alternative music from the UK and beyond

YES

UK original output

Champion grassroots UK venues via its output including live events such as the 6 Music
Festival and Indie Venues Week

YES

Creative ambition

Showcase a range of landmarks and events including celebrations of the 50th anniversaryof the Moon Landings, a day-long celebration of UK Club Culture, a tour of UK independent
venues and coverage of the Manchester International Festival, The Great Escape Festival,
the Cheltenham Jazz Festival, Bluedot and SXSWYESExplore the arts with a number of series focusing on film, literature and the visual arts aswell as the Art is Everywhere season, during which audiences will be inspired to makeand share art of their own

YES

A mix of different
genres and output

Commission a series of entertaining and thought-provoking podcasts, including a‘bite-sized’ version of our late-night topical discussion show with Mobeen Azhar

We expanded ourplanned range of new
podcasts

UK original output

Continue to act as a showcase for the British Asian Sound, with a minimum 30% of themusic in daytime coming from UK artists and producers

YES – 37%

Creative ambition

Following successful trips to Mumbai and Karachi in 2018, we are working on a similar
week of immersive programming celebrating the Indian sub-continent in the autumn

YES

Range of audiences

Offer a broad mix of music and speech programming designed primarily to entertain andengage young British Asian audiences

YES

Creative ambition

Extend the multiplatform offering of BBC Radio Scotland’s Young Traditional Musician of
the Year brand onto the new BBC Scotland channel and continue to refresh the schedulebased on recent audience research

YES

Range of audiences

Launch a range of ‘digital first’ podcasts in line with the editorial theme of the station but
aimed at a younger audience

YES

Range of audiences

BBC 6 MusicBBC Asian Network

BBC Radio Scotland

BBC Radio nan Gàidheal
Creative ambition

Review its schedule with a view to refreshing the weekday daytime schedule, continuing
talent development and increasing audience access by creating synergies between existingand new broadcast platforms and formats

YES

Far-reaching political coverage of the Brexit debate on key programmes, including Good
Morning Wales, Good Evening Wales and Sunday Supplement

YES

Extensive coverage, including live commentary of every Wales game, of the 2019 Rugby
Union World Cup in JapanYES

Creative ambition

Continue to support Welsh culture, including partnerships with the Machynlleth Comedy
Festival and the Wales Folk Awards

YES

Range of audiences

Attract younger audiences by creating bespoke podcasts and content for BBC Sounds

YES

BBC Radio Wales
A mix of different
genres and output

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BBC commitment

Achieved

A mix of different
genres and output

Extend the promotion and editorial impact of our new, second Welsh language radio
service – BBC Radio Cymru 2 – to increase awareness of the choice of programming now
on offer for audiences

YES

UK original output

At this time of significant political and constitutional debate, provide space in our weekly
schedule for more lengthy, in-depth interviews with the most prominent political andpublic voices in Wales

YES

Range of audiences

Create bespoke, original Welsh language content for BBC Sounds, in a variety of genres,with an emphasis on appealing to 18-34 year olds

YES

GovernancePurposeBBC Radio Cymru

BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle
A mix of different
genres and output

Focus on live sport across all platforms

YES

General schedule refreshment and new talent development

YES

Creation of targeted podcast content in line with Sounds priorities

YES

Release of archive material and marking of historical anniversaries (Radio Foyle at 40 and
50th anniversary of The Troubles)

YES

UK original output

Additional output to showcase the Open Golf Championship from Royal Portrush

YES

Range of audiences

Focus on talent and contributor refreshment with particular emphasis on ensuring
diversity of voices across the station

YES

A mix of different
genres and output

Broadcast a BBC Introducing programme in each station’s schedule to offer more
opportunities to new talent

YES

UK original output

Increased focus on creating podcasts for BBC Sounds

YES

Range of audiences

Provide output rooted in faith and ethics on Sundays

YES

Capitalise on the success of The Social in Scotland and The Sesh in Wales in helping us
identify and develop new talent and ideas by rolling the model out across England in
2019/20

YES – introduced New
Voices talent initiative

New evening shows will target younger and more diverse audiences

YES

A mix of different
genres and output

Continue to offer audiences a wide range of content across all our online services. This year
we will work to make more of the relevant content from across BBC Online available on
the biggest services to give audiences a wider range of content to choose fromYES

UK original output

Continue to provide links to external stories provided by local and regional news
providers, building this into our new News topic pages due to be rolled out over this year

YES – we provide local
and regional links on
all our local pages

Look at the most effective ways to support wider industry by hosting or signposting totheir content across BBC Online. Continue to implement editorial guidelines to ensure weare linking out from our stories where editorially appropriate

YES – we are assessing
our provision ofadequate links
following Ofcom’s
review of BBC News’
output. Alongside our
Editorial Guidelines,
we have further
guidance on feeds
and links

Continue to evolve and improve iPlayer (in line with our existing plans) and our new audio
product BBC Sounds

YES

Begin to refresh the big services on BBC Online, bringing more of the content into fewer
services and giving more personalised, lively, interactive and relevant experiences toaudiences. Continue to evolve our online learning offer through the intelligent learning
capability introduced last year

YES

Continue to improve our content, focusing on the content with the greatest impact andinnovating with podcasts and other digital content

YES

BBC Local RadioBBC Online

Creative ambition

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Performance against public commitments
PurposeBBC commitment

Achieved

Range of audiences

Expand our ability to use sign-in data to personalise our offer across our digital services,surfacing the best content that is most relevant to audiences

YES

Continue to lead the way in developing what public service broadcasting looks and feels
like online, in particular exploring the characteristics of public service recommendations

YES

Notes
1 Across 2019/20, the average monthly overlap between the top 100 most played songs on Radio 1 and top 100 most played songs on Capital London, Kiss and Radio X was 26 songs
2 380 tracks were added to the Radio 1 playlist during 2019, of which 154 were by new and emerging UK artists. 145 tracks were added to the Capital Network’s playlists, of which 31
were by new and emerging UK artists
3 62% of the tracks added to the Radio 1 playlist during 2019 were by new and emerging artists. Six UK artists were added to Radio 1’s Brit List in 2019/20
4 Across 2019/20, the average overlap between the top 100 most played songs on Radio 2 and top 100 most played songs on Heart London, Magic and Smooth was seven songs
5 This specifically included commentary for the Women’s Football World Cup, Cricket World Cup, Rugby World Cup, Netball World Cup, Wimbledon, British Open Golf, The Ashes andSix Nations as well as live commentary of athletics, para-athletics, boxing (men’s and women’s), cricket (men’s and women’s), road cycling, football (men’s and women’s), Formula One,
Formula E, golf (men’s and women’s), horse racing, ice hockey, MMA, netball, rugby union (men’s and women’s), rugby league, snooker, swimming, and tennis.

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General Duties
Governance

The Charter sets out a number of General Duties that apply to the BBC. The BBC complied with all its General Duties in 2019/20.
The measures for reporting were set out in the BBC Annual Plan for 2019/20.
1. Acting in the public interest
The BBC must act in the public interest, aiming to serve its audiences not just as consumers, but as members of a wider society, with
programmes and services which, whilst seeking to inform, educate and entertain audiences, also serve wider public purposes. As a result,the BBC must ensure that the benefits (whether direct or indirect) of decisions relating to the mission or purposes outweigh the costs(whether direct or indirect); and have regard to economic, social and cultural benefits and costs.
MeasureAchieved

We will publish an Annual Plan and an Annual Report

YES

We will publish the number of complaints upheld where we have failed to comply
with the BBC’s obligations under the Charter and Agreement or with the Ofcom
Operating Framework or World Service Licence

YES – see Other Regulatory Matters

We will publish the number of complaints upheld on BBC editorial matters andoverall volumes of complaints madeYES – see Editorial Guidelines and Standards report

We will publish performance measurement data, including data on the fulfilment of
the public purposes

YES

2. Engagement with the public
The BBC must assess the views and interests of the public and audiences, including licence fee payers, across the whole of the United
Kingdom. The BBC must make arrangements to ensure that the diverse perspectives and interests of the public and audiences, including
licence fee payers, across the whole of the United Kingdom are taken into account in its decision-making.
MeasureAchieved

We will publish annually data on audiences’ views about the BBC as part of theAnnual Report

YES

We will hold around six face-to-face events with audiences and report on thefindings in the BBC’s Annual Report, four of which will be delivered by the Board’s
Nations Committees

YES – see Audience Engagement Report

3. Market impact
The BBC plays a crucial role in the UK media and broadcasting market. In addition to serving audiences directly by providing content andservices, it can contribute to the market more broadly, for example by promoting competition, supporting supply chains and encouraging
sector-wide innovation. The BBC must have particular regard to the effects of its activities on competition in the UK. In complying with thisduty the BBC must (a) seek to avoid unnecessary adverse effects on competition and (b) promote positive market impact.
MeasureAchieved

We will publish and consult on any planned material changes

YES – see Other Regulatory Matters

We will publish annually the number of regulatory complaints upheld and actions
taken in response

YES – see Other Regulatory Matters

We will publish the number of Ofcom enforcement actions in relation to compliancewith the Ofcom Operating Framework in this area

YES – none

We will publish the outcomes of any Public Interest Tests

YES – see https://www.bbc.com/aboutthebbc/
reports/consultation/iplayerpit

4. Openness, transparency and accountability
The BBC must observe high standards of openness and seek to maximise transparency and accountability. It must publish Board minutes,
important decisions concerning changes to remit/services, and minutes of Committee meetings. The Board also needs to have regard to thebenefits of consultation with interested persons.
MeasureAchieved

We will publish an Annual Plan that sets out the BBC’s strategic priorities, creativeplans, budget and any planned material changes to services

YES – see http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/aboutthebbc/
reports/annualplan/annual-plan-2020-21.pdf

We will publish the following after the relevant event:

YES – see bbc.com/aboutthebbc— Minutes of the meetings of the Board— Important decisions concerning changes to the creative remit, work plan andmaterial changes to the UK Public Services, non-service activities andcommercial activities— Summary minutes of the meetings of committees of the Board
We will publish an Annual Report and Accounts, containing a detailed summary of
performance against our regulatory quotas; full financial details and accounts; andinformation required as part of our Equality Information Report

YES

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Performance against public commitments
MeasureAchieved

We will continue to publish the salary disclosures required under the Charter
relating to pay over £150k, along with our voluntary regime of quarterly salary andexpenses disclosure for senior managers

YES – see Remuneration Report

5. Partnership
The BBC will work collaboratively and in partnership, especially in the creative economy, in the public interest. It should partner with a wide
range of organisations of all sizes, including commercial and non-commercial, throughout the UK. Partnerships should be fair and beneficial
to all with due attribution and recognition for partners.
MeasureAchieved

We will collect and publish performance data on key partnership output andactivities, including on the BBC’s range of partnerships, range of partners,
geographical breadth, and impact

YES – see Partnerships

6. Diversity
The BBC must ensure it reflects the diverse communities of the whole of the United Kingdom through its output, the means by which its
output and services are delivered, and in the organisation and management of the BBC. This includes support for the regional and minority
languages of the UK.
MeasureAchieved

We will publish detailed diversity data for all our staff, including on socio-economic
background, as part of our annual Equality Information Report

YES – see Equality Information Report

We will continue to publish gender pay gap information, and analysis of our pay gaps
for other groups

YES – see Gender Pay Gap report

We will also publish performance measurement data collected on the fulfilment of
our fourth public purpose

YES – see pages 30-39

7. Technology
The BBC must promote technological innovation, and maintain a leading role in research and development. To do this, it needs to seek towork in partnership with other organisations and share, as far as is reasonable, its research and development knowledge and technologies.
MeasureAchieved

We will continue to invest in the BBC’s Research and Development (R&D)
department in line with the BBC’s long-term objectives

YES

We will continue to share our insights from R&D, for example using industry white
papers and relevant professional gatherings, including standards bodies. We will use
our web and social presence to highlight key messages to a wider audience

YES

8. Stewardship of public money
The BBC exercises rigorous stewardship of public money in accordance with the following principles:—— Regularity – Management of all of the BBC’s resources must accord with the provisions of the Charter, Framework Agreement and otheragreements the BBC enters into with Government Ministers—— Propriety – Management of all of the BBC’s resources must meet high standards of public conduct, robust governance and duly consider
the expectations of Parliament (including those of the Public Accounts Committee), which have been formally communicated to the BBC—— Value for money – Procurement, projects and processes must be systematically evaluated and assessed to provide confidence about theeconomy, effectiveness and efficiency of the project, taking into account the wider public interest, not just that of the BBC itself—— Feasibility – Proposals using public funds should be implemented accurately, sustainably and to the intended timetable
MeasureAchieved

True and Fair audit opinion from the BBC’s external auditors

YES

We will report on our mechanisms for provision of information to the Board and the
Audit and Risk Committee on compliance with the Charter, to ensure that thetransactions reflected in the BBC’s financial statements have been applied to the
purposes as intended and conform to the relevant frameworks governing them

YES

We will comply with funding conditions as part of a separate funding agreement, e.g.
grant funding for the BBC World Service

YES

We will publish our response to Value for Money reviews conducted by the NAO orother commissioned parties

YES

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MeasureAchieved

We will audit our voluntary compliance with the UK Corporate Governance Codeand principles of good corporate governance based on a general aim of compliancewith the Code wherever possible

YES – see Governance

Our Annual Report will set out the BBC’s performance against the Code; areas where
the Code does not apply to the BBC; areas where the Charter overrides the Code; andareas where the BBC does not comply

YES – see Governance

We will also publish an annual Equality Information Report, in compliance with the
Public Sector Equality Duty

YES – see Equality Information Report

An annual statement on licence fee collection will be audited by the NAO and laid
before Parliament

YES

We will continue to comply with best practice in offering training on a range of issues
such as anti-bribery, data protection and child protection

YES

10. General duties in relation to commercial activities
The BBC’s commercial activities need to act in the public interest, engage with the public, and ensure openness and transparency. They must
not distort the market nor gain an unfair competitive advantage.
MeasureAchieved

The Fair Trading Committee will continue to: keep under review the BBC’s
compliance with Ofcom’s trading and separation requirements; commission anannual independent audit; review, consider and approve the BBC’s transfer pricing
methodologies; report progress in the BBC’s Annual Report; and review the ongoingcompliance of the commercial activities with the Four Commercial Criteria

YES

We will abide by our published policy on material changes to commercial activities

YES

Our complaints framework includes a procedure for complaints about a failure tomeet any commercial activities requirements

YES

We will publish forthcoming potential material changes to commercial services in
the BBC’s Annual Plan, subject to issues of commercial confidentiality

YES

We will carry out the commercial test for any proposed material change to ourcommercial activities, and publish the proposed change once we have done so

YES

We will continue to train key staff on compliance with the Fair Trading rules

YES

We will continue to meet our publication and information provision obligations to
Ofcom, detailing the financial performance of our commercial subsidiaries andsetting out detailed methodologies for transfer pricing within our group

YES – see Commercial Holdings Annual Report andGroup Trading Manual

We will publish the number of upheld complaints about compliance with thecommercial activities requirements under the Charter and Agreement or in the
Ofcom Operating Framework, and our response to such complaints

YES – none

We will publish the number of Ofcom enforcement actions in relation to compliancewith the Ofcom Operating Framework in this area

YES – none

The Fair Trading Committee will report annually on its work in the Annual Reportand Accounts

YES – see Fair Trading Report

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129

Governance

9. Guidance and best practice
The BBC has to have regard to general guidance concerning the management of the affairs of public bodies and generally accepted principles
of good corporate governance, where applicable and appropriate.

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Access services
Audio described
Audio described hours

Total hours

Actual for year (%)

Target for year (%)

2019/20

2018/192019/20

2019/20

2018/192019/20

2018/19

BBC One
BBC Two
BBC Four
CBBC
CBeebies
BBC Scotland

1,985
2,433
1,467
1,926
1,484
501

1,925
2,644
1,419
1,995
1,447
50

8,904
8,904
3,256
5,177
4,785
2,025

22.3
27.3
45.1
37.2
31.0
24.8

22.0
30.3
44.6
39.2
30.8
28.3

20.0
20.0
20.0
20.0
20.0
20.0

20.0
20.0
20.0
20.0
20.0
20.0

Linear total

9,797

9,479

33,050

Audio described programmes

BBC iPlayer

1

Total programmes

Actual for year (%)

Target for year (%)

2019/20

2018/192019/20

2019/20

2018/192019/20

2018/19

9,108

8,826

59,522

2

15.3

15.8

N/A

N/A

Sign interpreted
Sign interpreted hours

Total hours

Actual for year (%)

Target for year (%)

2019/20

2018/192019/20

2019/20

2018/192019/20

2018/19

BBC One
BBC Two
BBC Four
CBBC
CBeebies
BBC Scotland3
BBC News

493
458
210
266
270
102
520

458
459
202
270
252
0
507

8,904
8,904
3,256
5,177
4,785
2,025
8,904

5.5
5.1
6.4
5.1
5.6
5.0
5.8

5.2
5.3
6.4
5.3
5.4
0.0
5.8

5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0

5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0
5.0

Linear total

2,318

2,147

41,954Sign interpreted programmes

BBC iPlayer1

Total programmes

Actual for year (%)

Target for year (%)

2019/20

2018/192019/20

2019/20

2018/192019/20

2018/19

2,940

2,612

59,5222

4.9

4.7

N/A

N/A

Subtitled
Subtitled hours

Total hours

Actual for year (%)

Target for year (%)

2019/20

2018/192019/20

2019/20

2018/192019/20

2018/19

BBC One
BBC Two
BBC Four
CBBC
CBeebies
BBC Scotland
BBC News
BBC Parliament

14,577
9,335
3,255
5,175
4,785
2,024
8,902
1,504

14,354
9,492
3,178
5,089
4,699
175
8,736
1,629

14,589
9,342
3,256
5,177
4,785
2,025
8,904
8,904

99.9
99.9
100
100
100
100
100
16.9

99.9
99.9
100
100
100
100
100
18.6

100
100
100
100
100
100
100
N/A

100
100
100
100
100
100
100
N/A

Linear total

49,55747,352

56,982

Subtitled programmes

BBC iPlayer1

Total programmes

Actual for year (%)

Target for year (%)

2019/20

2018/192019/20

2019/20

2018/192019/20

2018/19

54,91551,533

71,570

76.7

76.5

N/A

N/A

Notes
1 Figures are for the total number of programmes available on BBC iPlayer excluding S4C and World Service content. For the five main broadcast channels, including nations andregional variants, 100% of content is subtitled, 20% audio-described and 5% signed. This content including subtitles, audio description and signed versions is all made available on
BBC iPlayer, and we achieve the same levels for BBC Three programming. BBC iPlayer aggregates those main broadcast channels and other channels for which lower levels of accessservices are provided, so the overall figures for BBC iPlayer are at a lower level than the main broadcast channels.
2 The total number of programmes here excludes audio described and signed versions of programmes. These versions are included in the subtitled figures.
3 Following discussions with Ofcom over scheduling, BBC Scotland began to broadcast signed programming on 29 April 2019.

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Contestability
Governance

Under the Charter and Agreement, the BBC must secure competition between BBC producers and external producers, whether
independent producers or not, for production of television, radio and online content. More information on contestability in television canbe found in the TV Supply Report, published alongside this report: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/site/bbc-commissioningsupply-report-2019.pdf.
As required under the Charter and Agreement by 31 December 2019, we have removed the in-house guarantee for children’s, sport andnon-news related current affairs television programmes.
Platform

Target to contest

Contested to dateCompletion date

Achieved1

TV

100% of relevant hours

62%

31 December 2027

In progressRadio2

60% of relevant hours

48%

31 December 2022

In progress

100% of relevant spend

62%

31 December 2027

In progress

Online3

Notes
1 The Agreement requires the BBC to ensure that it secures competition for 100% of relevant television programmes by 31 December 2027. Our outturn is based on the number ofhours broadcast or provided on BBC iPlayer in 2019, taking into account commissioning decisions made up to 31 December 2019.
2 The Agreement requires the BBC to ensure that for relevant radio programmes it secures competition for at least 60% of relevant broadcasting time by 31 December 2022. Our
outturn is based on the number of hours broadcast in 2019/20, taking into account commissioning decisions made up to 31 March 2020.
3 The Agreement requires the BBC to secure competition for 100% of relevant online material by 31 December 2027. The BBC has defined relevant online material in a way that adheresto the provisions of the Agreement and has discussed this definition with Ofcom. We measure online contestability by expenditure on content production of relevant online material.
Our outturn is based on expenditure in 2019/20. In previous years, we have reported the proportion of external spend as a proxy for contested spend, and so the figures are notdirectly comparable.

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131

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Network radio supply
The following table shows the levels of all BBC Network Radio hours from different suppliers.
Proportion of all eligible hours produced Proportion of all eligible hours produced
by independent producers forby in-house PSB producers for
BBC Network Radio (%)
BBC Network Radio (%)
2019/20

2018/192019/20

2018/19

Radio 1

26.8

19.4

73.2

80.6

1Xtra

16.0

9.6

84.0

90.4

Radio 2

47.5

46.2

52.5

53.8

Radio 3

12.9

12.7

87.1

87.3

Radio 4

19.4

20.1

80.6

79.9

BBC 4 Extra

70.9

57.8

29.1

42.2

BBC Radio 5 live and 5 live sports extra

21.6

24.7

78.4

75.3

BBC 6 Music

18.7

22.6

81.3

77.4

BBC Asian Network

12.9

13.1

87.1

86.9

Total

23.2

21.7

76.8

78.3

Notes
Eligible hours excludes repeats, simulcasts, core news, education/social action, presentation, EBU output and World Service content.
Information on our network television supply in 2019/20 is available in the TV Supply Report, published alongside this report: http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/commissioning/site/
bbc-commissioning-supply-report-2019.pdf.

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Distribution

98.5%

99%

97.5%

BBC iPlayer is available on

BBC iPlayer is available on

BBC Sounds is available on

>

>

>

types of TV device

types of device overalltypes of device overall

Digital Terrestrial Television (DTT)
coverage of UK households

2,500*

AM/FM coverage of UK households

15,000

The BBC distributes its content with the goal of providing all
audiences with full and convenient access to all of the services thatare relevant to them. In 2019/20 we have continued to ensure that:—— we provide effectively universal broadcast coverage of our TV
and radio services;—— the BBC’s video-on-demand (VOD) service is available on moreconsumer devices (from Smart TVs to games consoles andtablets) than any other VOD service in the UK;—— live and on-demand audio is widely available for audiences toaccess across an increasing number of devices; and—— we create innovative content that promotes our services, brands
and talent with audiences on popular social media platforms,
such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram.
The BBC has continued to play a leading role throughout 2019/20 in
the clearance of the 700MHz spectrum band for use by future 5G
mobile internet services. Clearance is now more than 90% completewith more than 30 million receiver retunes having taken placeacross households in the UK.

DAB coverage of UK households

11,00098%

satellite availability to UK
households

Note: The figures quoted for DTT and DAB
related to coverage for services carried on
the BBC’s multiplexes. In addition, a small
number of HD channels and nations andregions radio stations are made available
via commercial multiplexes.
* BBC iPlayer is available on over 300
platforms (groups of devices) andover 2200 different types of TVs
and Streamers

As well as widespread availability and maximising value for the
licence fee payer, it is critical that the ways in which BBC services
and content are distributed support and protect our public service
mission. The BBC’s Distribution Policy, published in June 2018
following a public consultation, sets out seven conditions that form
the basis under which the BBC will distribute its UK public services.
This has now been successfully implemented and is working
effectively to guide our distribution agreements with third parties.
In 2019, the BBC launched BBC Sounds, a dynamic new audio
product on web and mobile. In 2020, the BBC launched the
BBC Sounds TV app, and started to make BBC Sounds available onconnected TVs. In line with the third public purpose that states the
BBC should take creative risks, and develop fresh approaches andinnovative content, the BBC also offers access to news and radio
services through voice assistants and has created pioneeringinteractive experiences with news content and for children.

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133

GovernanceDistribution of BBC content is key to delivering our mission and public purposes. The Charter requires the BBC to report on how it has madeits output and services available to the public. This section sets out our progress this year.

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BBC Public Service promotions
Under the Charter and Agreement, the BBC must ensure that the promotion of any output of a UK Public Service or any such service in the
UK Public Services focuses on output contributing substantially to the fulfilment of the mission and promotion of the public purposes. The
BBC must publish information on such promotion, including:a) The number of minutes of promotions in each UK Public Service;b) The time of day of such promotions;c) Such other information it considers would be in the public interest to publish
We consider that promotion of the UK Public Services and their output is important so that our audiences are informed about the wide
variety of content the BBC offers that informs, educates and entertains. Promotional material on the UK Public Services is produced andscheduled in line with our Editorial Guidelines.
This table sets out the total minutes of promotional material broadcast on each UK Public Service by time period in 2019/20.
Morning

Daytime

Evening

Overnight

Total

BBC One

891

3,713

2,927

1,209

8,739

BBC Two

1,763

2,246

2,398

1,108

7,515

BBC Four

N/A

N/A

2,023

980

3,002

CBBC

1,525

3,237

1,227

N/A

5,989

CBeebies

1,470

2,949

15

N/A

4,434

BBC News

708

2,460

2,662

3,111

8,941

BBC Scotland

N/A

2,862

3,870

0

6,732

Radio 1

1,086

1,914

591

390

3,981

1Xtra

1,452

2,574

1,503

360

5,889

Radio 2

1,699

3,397

2,366

2,518

9,980

Radio 3

707

1,837

1,131

0

3,675

Radio 4

1,626

2,827

2,508

318

7,279

BBC 4 Extra

2,286

2,522

1,831

2,402

9,041

BBC Radio 5 live

2,695

3,137

2,106

2,712

10,650BBC 6 Music

2,184

4,368

3,276

2,574

12,402

BBC Asian Network

1,452

2,521

2,184

306

6,463

BBC Radio Scotland

2,634

2,149

1,456

0

6,240

BBC Radio Wales

2,536

2,766

1,685

751

7,738

BBC Radio Cymru

3,155

3,640

2,742

243

9,780

BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle

806

1,664

1,092

2,712

3,562

BBC Local Radio

N/A

N/A

N/A

N/A

6,492

Notes
Time periods are defined as: morning, 6am – 11:59am; daytime, 12pm – 5:59pm; evening, 6pm – 10:59pm; overnight, 11pm – 5:59am. Minutes of promotions on radio here do not include
the service trails for the programmes themselves: these figures are included in the following table. The figure for BBC Local Radio is an average figure across all local radio stations in
England. BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle join BBC Radio 5 live overnight. We do not have comparable data by daypart for these stations. Promotions on BBC Parliament,
BBC ALBA, BBC Radio 5 live sports extra and BBC Radio nan Gàidheal are not measured due to very low volume and frequency. Quantitative data is not available for promotions on
BBC Red Button or BBC Online.

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GovernanceThis table sets out the total minutes of promotional material for each platform (i.e. TV, radio or online) promoted on each UK Public Service.
‘On Service’ refers to minutes of self-promotional material, e.g. BBC One promoting BBC One, ‘TV & BBC iPlayer’ refers to minutes ofpromotions of TV and BBC iPlayer content on each service, and ‘Radio & BBC Sounds’ refers to the minutes of promotions for any radio and
BBC Sounds content on each service.
On Service

TV & BBC iPlayer

Radio & BBC
SoundsBBC One

4,079

3,910

750

BBC Two

3,669

3,334

512

BBC Four

1,829

1,029

145

CBBC

5,504

484

0

CBeebies

4,413

21

0

BBC News

7,999

1,196

416

BBC Scotland

4,981

1,653

98

Radio 1

2,896

576

509

1Xtra

4,933

471

485

Radio 2

8,493

880

606

Radio 3

3,214

105

356

Radio 4

6,209

286

785

BBC 4 Extra

8,159

221

661

BBC Radio 5 live

9,321

735

717

BBC 6 Music

11,310

390

702

BBC Asian Network

5,507

471

485

BBC Radio Scotland

5,428

644

168

BBC Radio Wales

5,416

774

1,548

BBC Radio Cymru

8,020

0

1,760

BBC Radio Ulster and BBC Radio Foyle

2,315

890

357

Notes
Promotions on BBC Parliament, BBC ALBA, BBC Radio 5 live sports extra and BBC Radio nan Gàidheal are not measured due to low volume or frequency. Quantitative data is notavailable for promotions on BBC Local Radio or BBC Red Button.

BBC iPlayer also carries promotional material. Pre-rolls, short video advertisements that automatically play directly before a featured
programme, launched on BBC iPlayer on web in December 2015, and on BBC iPlayer on connected TVs in January 2019. The promotion
consists of one pre-roll trailer before a selected programme, which solely plays on the first play in a session. Each pre-roll has a maximum
duration of 30 seconds, but each trailer varies between 10 and 30 seconds. A user will not see the same pre-roll more than four times.
Pre-rolls are placed in front of all priority titles on BBC iPlayer. The vast majority of pre-rolls on BBC iPlayer promote BBC iPlayer content,
either on demand or live. In 2019/20, there were six pre-rolls promoting podcasts on BBC Sounds, solely placed in front of the related
programme on BBC iPlayer. In March 2020, we used a pre-roll that promoted a fundraising message for Sport Relief, placed in front of several
high-profile programmes including Match of the Day and EastEnders. CBBC pre-rolls are placed solely in front of CBBC programmes, andCBeebies pre-rolls solely in front of CBeebies programmes. A non-children’s pre-roll is never placed in front of a children’s title and vice versa.
The BBC’s priority titles are promoted with the pre-roll inventory and all placements are manually scheduled based on genre, tone andaudience. All users will get the same pre-roll on the same episode.
Some BBC podcasts available through BBC Sounds and third-party platforms carry promotional material for other BBC podcast content.
Around three podcasts per week are agreed to be priority content, representing a range of genres to reflect the wide variety of BBC audio
output. Promotional trails, each with a duration of 15-45 seconds, for these podcasts are produced and inserted into other podcasts, at thestart, middle and/or end of the audio file. The choice and placement of these trails is at the discretion of the podcast producers. Some stations
also trail their own content (e.g. Radio 4 promotes its content on Radio 4 podcasts).

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Performancedata packs 144
p.

ScotlandThis section sets out audience performance
this year, including detailed performancedata by service in Wales, Scotland, Northern
Ireland and England.

BBC Two’s Only Connect

140

p.

Wales

BBC Two’s A Fresh Guide to
Florence with Fab 5 Freddy

149

p.

Northern Ireland

153

p.

England

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Performance by service
Network television

Content (£m)
We spent a total of£1,557 million on these
services in 2019/20

Reach (%)
UK population
who use the service
each week

Time spent
watching achannel each week
(hh:mm)Length of time theaverage viewer
spent each weekwith the service

Costs per user hour
How much it costs
to deliver eachservice for eachhour used

BBC One is our flagship service and the UK’s mostpopular television channel. It unites and inspires thenation with high-quality programmes across a range ofgenres that includes news and current affairs, drama,
comedy, entertainment and factual.

£1,037m 65.4% 07:00

7p

2018/19: £1,106m

2018/19: 7p

BBC Two is a mixed-genre channel with programmes ofdepth and substance. It includes the greatest amount andrange of knowledge-building programming on the BBC,
complemented by distinctive comedy, drama and arts
programming.

£337m 41.9% 03:01

8p

2018/19: £381m

2018/19: 42.5%

2018/19: 9p

BBC Four aims to be British television’s mostintellectually and culturally enriching channel, offering
an ambitious range of UK and international arts, music,
culture and factual programmes.

£38m

12.1% 01:55

5p

2018/19: £44m

2018/19: 12.5%

2018/19: 01:45

2018/19: 6p

The CBBC channel offers a distinctive mixed schedule for
6-12 year olds, with mainly UK programmes served in a
stimulating, creative and enjoyable environment.

£58m

3.5%

02:24

20p

2018/19: £62m

2018/19: 3.8%

2018/19: 02:23

2018/19: 19p

CBeebies provides a mix of high-quality, mostly
UK-produced, programmes designed to encouragelearning through play in a consistently safe environment
for children under six.

£28m

6.3%

04:21

3p

2018/19: £30m

2018/19: 6.5%

2018/19: 04:13

2018/19: 3p

The BBC News Channel is a 24-hour impartial andindependent news service offering breaking news,
analysis and insight. It provides fast and comprehensive
coverage of local, UK and international events asthey unfold.

£57m

9.3%

03:11

6p

2018/19: £53m

2018/19: 8.2%

2018/19: 02:56

2018/19: 7p

BBC Parliament is the UK’s only channel dedicated topolitics. It shows debates and committees from
Westminster, Holyrood, Stormont, Cardiff Bay andStrasbourg as well as political programmes from acrossthe UK.

£2m

0.8%

02:02

4p

2018/19: £2m

2018/19: 0.7%

2018/19: 02:07

2018/19: 4p

2018/19: 68.0%

2018/19: 07:03

2018/19: 03:00

Governance

Television performance by service

Reach definition: 15+ minutes consecutive for all services and audiences in TV-owning households aged 4+.
Sources: BARB (TV reach and time per viewer – all channels include their simulcast HD channel where applicable).
N.B. This BARB data measures TV set viewing only within 28 days of the linear broadcast, meaning that iPlayer viewing on other devices or pre-broadcast or post-28 days is not included
in any of the reach and time figures. iPlayer viewing is growing. BARB figures for 2018/19 are restated to include viewing within 28 days of the linear broadcast.
Cost per user hour data includes viewing on the TV set and other devices.
CBBC: amongst its target audience of 6-12 year olds reach was 16.6% and time spent per viewer was 02:47 (based on 15+ min reach). Based on 3+ minute reach, reach was 21.1% of 6-12
year olds and time spent per viewer was 02:11.
CBeebies: amongst its target audience of 0-6 year olds (measured as children aged 4-6 and housepersons with children aged 0-3) reach was 32.8% and time spent per viewer was 05:00(based on 15+ min reach). Based on 3+ minute reach, reach was 43.4% of 0-6 year olds and time spent per viewer was 03:47.
Three-minute reach for BBC News Channel and BBC Parliament – in line with industry standards – would be 13.0% and 1.7% respectively (14.4% and 1.9% amongst 16+ population).

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Performance data packs
Radio performance by service
Network radio

Content (£m)
We spent a total of£293 million onthese services in
2019/20

Reach (%)
UK population
who use the service
each week

Time spent
listening to aservice each week
(hh:mm)Length of time theaverage listenerspent each weekwith the service

Costs per user hour
How much it costs
to deliver eachservice for eachhour used

BBC Radio 1 broadcasts a distinctive mix of new music andentertainment for 15-29 year olds, as well as providing tailored
news, documentaries and advice campaigns for young adults.

£38m 16.6% 06:14

1p

2018/19: £40m

2018/19: 17.0%

2018/19: 06:21

2018/19: 1p

BBC 1Xtra plays the best in contemporary black music, with astrong emphasis on delivering high-quality live music andsupporting new artists.

£8m

1.9%

03:55

4p

2018/19: £7m

2018/19: 1.9%

2018/19: 04:17

2018/19: 3p

BBC Radio 2 broadcasts a unique mix of music and speechprogrammes covering a diverse mix of live pop and rock,comedy, documentaries and religious output, as well as runningsocial action campaigns to over 14 million listeners.

£49m

26.0% 11:20

1p

2018/19: £50m

2018/19: 27.2%

2018/19: 11:55

2018/19: 1p

BBC Radio 3 centres on classical music, around which it
provides a broad spectrum of jazz, world music, arts
programmes, religion and drama. There is a strong emphasis onmusical performance across the UK.

£36m

3.6%

06:40

5p

2018/19: £39m

2018/19: 3.5%

2018/19: 06:08

2018/19: 6p

BBC Radio 4 is a mixed-speech radio station, offering in-depth
news and current affairs and a wide range of other speechprogrammes including drama, readings, comedy, factual andmagazine programmes.

£88m 19.3% 10:38

1p

2018/19: £96m

2018/19: 19.3%

2018/19: 10:59

2018/19: 2p

Originally launched in 2002 as BBC 7, the station was
relaunched in April 2011 as BBC Radio 4 Extra. The digital-only
network is the principal outlet for the BBC’s archive of speechentertainment, including comedy, drama and readings.

£3m

3.8%

06:03

>1p

2018/19: £3m

2018/19: 3.8%

2018/19: 06:17

2018/19: >1p

BBC Radio 5 live broadcasts continuous news and live sports
coverage, bringing major news stories and sports events to its
listeners as they happen, and providing context throughwide-ranging analysis and discussion.

£48m

9.5%

06:21

3p

2018/19: £46m

2018/19: 9.2%

2018/19: 06:38

2018/19: 3p

BBC Radio 5 live sports extra brings a greater choice of live
action to sports fans by extending live coverage of various
sporting events.

£3m

2.4%

04:19

1p

2018/19: £3m

2018/19: 1.9%

2018/19: 03:08

2018/19: 1p

BBC 6 Music is a digital radio station that entertains lovers of
popular music with a service that celebrates the alternative
spirit of popular music from the 60s to the present day,complemented by music news and documentaries.

£12m

4.4%

09:08

1p

2018/19: £12m

2018/19: 4.4%

2018/19: 09:20

2018/19: 1p

BBC Asian Network offers speech and music appealing to
British Asians, with a focus on news and current affairs. It
broadcasts mainly in English, but does offer some programmes
in other languages.

£8m

1.1%

04:07

6p

2018/19: £8m

2018/19: 1.1%

2018/19: 05:12

2018/19: 5p

Reach definition: 15+ minutes for all services and audiences aged 15+.
Sources: RAJAR (Radio reach and time per listener).
Radio 1: amongst its target group of 15-29 year-olds reach was 30.6% and time spent per listener was 05:52.
1Xtra: amongst 15-24 year-olds reach was 5.2% and time spent per listener was 3:00.
Radio 2: amongst its target group of 35+ year-olds reach was 32.1% and time spent per listener was 12:13.
Asian Network: amongst its target group of Asians under 35 reach was 11.3% and time spent per listener was 3:31. Ethnicity definitions in RAJAR: Asian = White & Asian, Indian,Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Any Other Asian Background.

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Content (£m)
We spent a total of£238 million onthese services in
2019/20
BBC Online comprises the BBC’s portfolio of online products on
desktop, connected TV, mobile and tablet, including news, sport
and weather; our children’s services CBBC and CBeebies; andKnowledge & Learning – as well as IP-delivered TV and radio
services, with both live and on-demand programmes available
on BBC iPlayer.

Governance

Online performance by service
Reach (%)
UK population
who use the service
each week£238m 54%*
2018/19: £214m

Consumption
Average weekly
minutes viewed by
16-34sBBC Three is constantly innovating to provoke thought and toentertain audiences from 16 year olds to 30-somethings withoriginal comedy, drama and factual programming thatcelebrates new British talent.

120,367,453**
2018/19: 88,321,393* Source: Ipsos MORI. BBC Online not including Red Button. UK adults 16+.
** Source: On-platform consumption. Deduplicated viewer minutes based on BARB and Adobe Digital Analytics (to February 2019) / AT Internet (from February 2019)

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The BBC in Wales
Wales’ performance by dedicated services

Content
We spent a total of£28 million onthese services in
2019/20

Reach% of population
who use the service
each week

BBC Radio Wales is a speech-led service for adults, which offers
a wide range of genres and reflects the issues, events, culture
and interests of the people of Wales.

£14m

13.3% 08:10

9p

2018/19: £15m

2018/19: 12.6%

2018/19: 11p

BBC Radio Cymru is a speech and music radio service for Welsh
speakers, which offers a wide range of genres and reflects theissues, events, culture and interests of the people of Wales.

£14m

18.1% 11:37

23p

2018/19: £14m

2018/19: 17.5%

2018/19 23p

Time spent
watching/
listening to aservice each week
Length of time theaverage listenerspent each weekwith the service

Costs per userhour
How much it costs
to deliver eachservice for eachhour used

2018/19: 07:43

2018/19: 12:05

Reach definition; 15+ minutes for all services and audiences age 15+.
Sources: RAJAR (Radio reach and time per listener; data based on Total Survey Area – TSA).
BBC Radio Cymru: RAJAR data (reach and time per listener) based on ‘Understand Welsh’. BBC Radio Cymru reaches 4.4% of the overall 15+ population in Wales who listen for 10:17
a week on average.

Estimated income from each nation
These numbers are estimated as figures for each nation have been calculated by applying the proportion of licenced premises to the total
number of licences in force. The exact number of licences in force varies on a daily basis. The number of licenced premises are different to thenumber of licences in force as, in some cases, a premise may need more than one licence. Figures exclude concessionary licences for thoseliving in residential care.
The licence fee income received contributes towards programmes made across the whole of the UK and the world. These programmes are
consumed in each nation in addition to the nation’s local services outlined below.
2020
£m

2019
£m

3,520
175

3,690
184

2020
£m

2019
£m

Network spend
TV (inc. Sport and Children’s)Radio
Online

75
3
5

49
3
1

Total network spend

83

53

Local spend
TV – BBC One
TV – BBC Two
Radio WalesRadio Cymru
Online

29
6
14
14
11

25
8
15
14
11

Total local spend

74

73

National Orchestra of Wales
S4C*
Development
Distribution

5
22
1
22

5
22
1
25

Total

207

179

2020
Hours

2019
Hours

Drama, Comedy, Entertainment, Music & Arts
Daily, Weekly News and Current Affairs
Sport & Leisure
Education, Factual & Religion

70
380
125
199

49
395
152
129

Total

774

725

Estimated income
UKWales
The fee for a standard household TV licence was £154.50 in 2019/20.
Expenditure by service
Direct and indirect spend relating to programmes produced in the nation.

Local opt-out hours^ (including repeats) on BBC One and BBC Two^ Television content commissioned specifically for audiences in the nation.
* S4C is the Welsh language television channel.

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2020
Hours

2019
Hours

Drama, Comedy, Entertainment, Music & Arts
Daily, Weekly News and Current Affairs
Sport & Leisure
Education, Factual & Religion
Children’s

257
277
130
24
–

255
257
164
5
1

Total

688

682

* This represents the television programmes commissioned, produced and funded by BBC Wales and supplied to S4C (excluding programmes commissioned directly by S4C from otherproducers). The total of hours for 2020 includes 152 hours of repeats (2019: 126 hours). This includes repeats where BBC Wales has incurred a charge associated with the transmissionof the programmes.

BBC Radio Wales
2020
Hours

2019 *
Hours

News and Current Affairs
General

2,248
5,175

2,302
5,150

Total

7,423

7,452

2020
Hours

2019
Hours

News and Current Affairs
General

1,354
6,259

1,186
6,445

Total

7,613

7,631

2020
Number

2019
Number

1,032

990

2020
Number

2019
Number

1,281

1,231

* 2018/19 figures restated due to a programme genre reclassification.

BBC Radio Cymru

Headcount
Average headcount reflects those individuals employed to directly support the service produced in Wales.

Average number of persons employed in the year
Average headcount of individuals based in Wales across all services including support functions.

Average number of persons employed in the year

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Governance

S4C*

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Performance data packs
Wales’ performance by service – Television

Content (£m)
We spent a total of£110 million onthese services lastyear in Wales

Reach (%)
Wales population
who use the service
each week

Time spent
watching achannel each week
(hh:mm)Length of time theaverage Wales
viewer spent eachweek with thechannelBBC One is our flagship service and the UK’s most popular television channel. It unites
and inspires the nation with high-quality programmes across a range of genres which
includes news and current affairs, drama, comedy, entertainment and factual.

£92m 67%

07:39

2018/19: £66m

2018/19: 71%

2018/19: 07:50

BBC Two is a mixed-genre channel with programmes of depth and substance. It
includes the greatest amount and range of knowledge-building programming on theBBC, complemented by distinctive comedy, drama and arts programming.

£12m

43%

03:14

2018/19: £13m

2018/19: 44%

2018/19: 03:08

BBC Four aims to be British television’s most intellectually and culturally enriching
channel, offering an ambitious range of UK and international arts, music, culture andfactual programmes.

£2m

12%

01:46

2018/19: £3m

2018/19: 12%

2018/19: 01:40

The CBBC channel offers a distinctive mixed schedule for 6-12 year olds, with mainly
UK programmes served in a stimulating, creative and enjoyable environment.

£4m

4%

*

2018/19: –2018/19: 3%

2018/19: *

–

5%

*

2018/19: –2018/19: 5%

2018/19: *CBeebies provides a mix of high-quality, mostly UK-produced, programmes designed
to encourage learning through play in a consistently safe environment for children
under six.

Reach definition: 15+ minutes consecutive for all services and audiences in TV-owning households aged 4+.
Source: BARB (TV reach and time per viewer – all channels include their simulcast HD channel where applicable).
N.B. This BARB data measures TV set viewing only within 28 days of the linear broadcast, meaning that iPlayer viewing on other devices or pre-broadcast or post-28 days is not included
in any of the reach and time figures. iPlayer viewing is growing. BARB figures for 2018/19 are restated to include viewing within 28 days of the linear broadcast.
* Sample size for time per user too low to report.
Wales’ performance by service – News

Content (£m)
We spent a total of£0 million on these
services last year
in WalesReach (%)
Wales population
who use the service
each week

Time spent
watching achannel each week
(hh:mm)Length of time theaverage Wales
viewer spent eachweek with theservice

The BBC News Channel is a 24-hour impartial and independent news service offering
breaking news, analysis and insight. It provides fast and comprehensive coverage of
local, UK and international events as they unfold.

–

11%

03:46^

2018/19: –2018/19: 10%

2018/19: 03:42

BBC Parliament is the UK’s only channel dedicated to politics. It shows debates andcommittees from Westminster, Holyrood, Stormont, Cardiff Bay and Strasbourg as wellas political programmes from across the UK.

–

1%

*

2018/19: –2018/19: 1%

2018/19: *Reach definition: 15+ minutes for all services and audiences in TV-owning households aged 4+.
Source: BARB (TV reach and time per viewer). BARB figures for 2018/19 are restated to include viewing within 28 days of the linear broadcast.
Three-minute reach for BBC News Channel and BBC Parliament – in line with industry standards – would be 15% and 2% respectively (17% and 2% amongst 16+ population).
^ Lower sample size may be responsible for greater variability in the data.
* Sample size for time per user too low to report.

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Content (£m)
We spent a total of£3 million on these
services last year
in WalesReach (%)
Wales population
who use the service
each week

Time spent
listening to aservice each week
(hh:mm)Length of time theaverage Wales
listener spent eachweek with theservice

BBC Radio 1 broadcasts a distinctive mix of new music and entertainment for 15-29
year olds as well as providing tailored news, documentaries and advice campaigns foryoung adults.

–

23%**

06:49

2018/19: –2018/19: 21%

2018/19: 08:06

BBC 1Xtra plays the best in contemporary black music, with a strong emphasis ondelivering high-quality live music and supporting new artists.

–

2%+

04:31~

2018/19: –2018/19: 1%

2018/19: 03:45~

BBC Radio 2 broadcasts a unique mix of music and speech programmes covering adiverse mix of live pop and rock, comedy, documentaries and religious output, as wellas running social action campaigns to over 14 million listeners.

–

34%^

12:17

2018/19: –2018/19: 36%

2018/19: 14:05

BBC Radio 3 centres on classical music, around which it provides a broad spectrum of
jazz, world music, arts programmes, religion and drama. There is a strong emphasis onmusical performance across the UK.

£2m

3%

04:54

2018/19: £2m

2018/19: 3%

2018/19: 05:32

BBC Radio 4 is a mixed-speech radio station, offering in-depth news and current affairs
and a wide range of other speech programmes including drama, readings, comedy,
factual and magazine programmes.

£1m

17%

10:45

2018/19: £1m

2018/19: 17%

2018/19: 10:48

Originally launched in 2002 as BBC 7, the station was relaunched in April 2011 as
BBC Radio 4 extra. The digital-only network is the principal outlet for the BBC’s archiveof speech entertainment, including comedy, drama and readings.

–

4%

07:54

2018/19: –2018/19: 3%

2018/19: 08:14

BBC Radio 5 live broadcasts continuous news and live sports coverage, bringing major
news stories and sports events to its listeners as they happen, and providing context
through wide-ranging analysis and discussion.

–

8%

05:40

2018/19: –2018/19: 8%

2018/19: 06:24

BBC Radio 5 live sports extra brings a greater choice of live action to sports fans byextending live coverage of various sporting events.

–

2%

05:01

2018/19: –2018/19: 2%

2018/19: 02:51

BBC 6 Music is a digital radio station that entertains lovers of popular music with aservice that celebrates the alternative spirit of popular music from the 60s to thepresent day, complemented by music news and documentaries.

–

4%

11:54

2018/19: –2018/19: 4%

2018/19: 08:45

BBC Asian Network offers speech and music appealing to British Asians, with a focus
on news and current affairs. It broadcasts mainly in English, but does offer some
programmes in other languages.

–

1%

*

2018/19: –2018/19: <1%

2018/19: *Content (£m)
We spent a total of£16 million on these
services in Wales

Reach (%)
Wales population
who use the service
each week

£16m

60%

Governance

Wales’ performance by service – Radio

Reach definition: 15+ minutes for all services and audiences aged 15+.
Source: RAJAR (Radio reach and time per listener; data based on Total Survey Area – TSA).
* Sample size for time per user too low to report.
~ Lower sample size may be responsible for greater variability in the data.
** Radio 1: amongst its target group of 15-29 year olds reach was 44% and time spent was 06:38.
+ 1Xtra: amongst 15-24 year olds reach was 4%. Sample size of 15-24s for time per user too low to report.
^ Radio 2: amongst its target group of 35+ year olds reach was 40% and time spent was 13:21.
Wales’ performance by service – Online

BBC Online comprises the BBC’s portfolio of online products on desktop, connected TV,
mobile and tablet, including news, sport and weather; our children’s services CBBC and
CBeebies; and Knowledge & Learning - as well as IP-delivered TV and radio services,with both live and on-demand programmes available on BBC iPlayer.

2018/19: £12m

Source: Ipsos MORI. BBC Online not including Red Button. Wales adults 16+.

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The BBC in Scotland
Scotland’s performance by dedicated services

Content
We spent a total of£80 million onthese services in
2019/20

The BBC Scotland channel features a mix of documentary,
popular factual and entertainment, comedy, drama, news andcurrent affairs and sport programming reflecting Scottish lifeand culture.
BBC ALBA offers, to Gaelic speakers and learners, a distinctive
range of originated programming that reflects and supports
Gaelic culture, identity and heritage.

BBC Radio Scotland is a speech-led service for adults.
Mixed-genre programming reflects the diversity of Scottish
culture and covers national and international issues and events
relevant to listeners across the country.
BBC Radio nan Gàidheal offers a comprehensive speech andmusic radio service for Gaelic speakers. Mixed-genre
programming reflects the diversity of Scottish culture and, froma Gaelic perspective and through the medium of the Gaelic
language, covers national and international issues and events
relevant to listeners across the country.

Reach% of population
who use the service
each week

Time spent
watching/
listening to aservice each week
Length of time theaverage viewer or
listener spent eachweek with theserviceCosts per userhour
How much it costs
to deliver eachservice for eachhour used£44m* 17.7%

01:30

41p**

2018/19: £12m§

2018/19: n/a

2018/19: n/a

2018/19: n/a£8m*** 57.4%^† 03:20

18p~

2018/19: £9m

2018/19: 19p

2018/19: 59.3%

2018/19: 03:33£24m 16.9% 05:52

10p

2018/19: £25m

2018/19: 17.5%

2018/19: 8p£4m

57.9%† 06:31

26p

2018/19: £4m

2018/19: 56.0%

2018/19: 27p

2018/19: 06:49

2018/19: 06:39

BBC Scotland: Reach definition: 15+ minutes consecutive and audiences in TV-owning households aged 4+. Source: BARB (TV reach and time per viewer). N.B. This BARB data measures
TV set viewing only within 28 days of the linear broadcast, meaning that iPlayer viewing on other devices or pre-broadcast or post-28 days is not included in any of the reach and time
figures. iPlayer viewing is growing.
Cost per user hour data includes viewing on the TV set and other devices.
* £44 million represents the total costs associated with the Scotland channel in 2019/20. £35 million of this was spent on programming, including a ‘programme inventory’ from2018/19 of £4 million. The rest of the cost relates to support costs (£8 million) and presentation and commissioning costs (£1 million)§ BBC Scotland launched on 24 February 2019. The channel was only in operation for five weeks in 2018/19.
** These CPUH figures are not comparable with figures elsewhere in this report, due to very different population sizes.
*** This represents BBC spend only. It does not take account of the contribution of our partner MG ALBA as published within their Annual Report.
~ This CPUH figure refers only to the BBC contribution.
^ BBC ALBA: TRP Panel based on Gaelic-speaking 16+ population in Scotland. BBC ALBA reaches 10% of the overall 16+ population in Scotland who use the service for 01:53 a week
on average. (source: TNS Scottish Opinion Survey based on all adults aged 16+ in Scotland).
† Reach is measured as the % reach amongst the Gaelic speaking community in Scotland.
BBC Radio Scotland: Reach definition: 15+ minutes and audiences aged 15+. Sources: RAJAR (Radio reach and time per listener; data based on Total Survey Area – TSA).
BBC Radio nan Gàidheal: TRP Panel based on Gaelic-speaking 16+ population in Scotland.

144

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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The licence fee income received contributes towards programmes made across the whole of the UK and the world. These programmes are
consumed in each nation in addition to the nation’s local services outlined below.
2020
£m

2019
£m

3,520
294

3,690
311

2020
£m

2019
£m

Network spend
TV (inc. Sport and Childrens)Radio
Online

71
3
3

80
3
2

Estimated income
UK
ScotlandThe fee for a standard household TV licence was £154.50 in 2019/20.
Expenditure by service
Direct and indirect spend relating to programmes produced in the nation.

Total network spend

77

85

Local spend
TV – BBC One
TV – BBC Two
TV – BBC ALBA
BBC Scotland*Radio Scotland
Radio nan Gàidhael
Online

35
–
8
44
24
4
10

40
11
9
12
25
4
11

Total local spend

125

112

National Orchestra
Development
Distribution

5
7
37

5
6
41

Total

251

249

2020
Hours

2019**
Hours

Drama, Comedy, Entertainment, Music & Arts
Daily, Weekly News and Current Affairs
Sport & Leisure
Education, Factual & Religion

65
367
86
86

129
417
201
113

Total

604

860

2020
Hours

2019*
Hours

496
438
180
877

55
48
20
65

Total

1,991

188

Total hours of BBC Scotland television content (local opt-outs and BBC Scotland channel)

2,595 1041010 1,048

Local opt-out hours^ (including repeats) on BBC One and BBC Two^ Television content commissioned specifically for audiences in the nation.
* Please see footnote on the previous page for a breakdown of BBC Scotland channel costs.
** With the launch of the BBC Scotland channel, Scotland opt-outs on BBC Two ceased in February 2019.

BBC Scotland (total hours broadcast on the BBC Scotland channel)

Drama, Comedy, Entertainment, Music & Arts
Daily, Weekly News and Current Affairs
Sport & Leisure
Education, Factual & Religion* BBC Scotland launched on 24 February 2019. The channel was only in operation for five weeks in 2018/19.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

145

Governance

Estimated income from each nation
These numbers are estimated as figures for each nation have been calculated by applying the proportion of licenced premises to the total
number of licences in force. The exact number of licences in force varies on a daily basis. The number of licenced premises are different to thenumber of licences in force as, in some cases, a premise may need more than one licence. Figures exclude concessionary licences for thoseliving in residential care.

Return to contents

Performance data packs
BBC ALBA±

Drama, Comedy, Entertainment, Music & Arts
Daily, Weekly News and Current Affairs
Sport & Leisure
Education, Factual & Religion
Children’s
Total

2020
Hours

2019
Hours

684
211
241
901
558

605
201
250
934
621

2,595

2,611

± In addition to the hours above, 183 hours were classed as continuity hours (2019 – 149 hours). These 183 hours include 70 hours of Children’s content, produced by BBC Scotland,(2019 – 26 hours).

Radio Scotland
2020
Hours

2019
Hours

News and Current Affairs
General

3,262
5,377

3,227
5,455

Total

8,639

8,682

2020
Hours

2019
Hours

News and Current Affairs
General

664
4,263

643
4,240

Total

4,927

4,883

2020
Number

2019
Number

1,039

988

2020
Number

2019
Number

1,310

1,203

Radio nan Gàidheal

Headcount
Average headcount reflects those individuals employed to directly support the service produced in Scotland.

Average number of persons employed in the year
Average headcount of individuals based in Scotland across all services including support functions.

Average number of persons employed in the year

146

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Content (£m)
We spent a total of£106 million onthese services lastyear in Scotland

Reach (%)
Scottish population
who use the service
each week

Time spent
watching achannel each week
(hh:mm)Length of time theaverage Scotland
viewer spent eachweek with thechannelBBC One is our flagship service and the UK’s most popular television channel. It unites
and inspires the nation with high-quality programmes across a range of genres which
includes news and current affairs, drama, comedy, entertainment and factual.

£75m

68%

07:24

2018/19: £87m

2018/19: 71%

2018/19: 07:44

BBC Two is a mixed-genre channel with programmes of depth and substance. It
includes the greatest amount and range of knowledge-building programming on theBBC, complemented by distinctive comedy, drama and arts programming.

£17m

44%

02:59

2018/19: £30m

2018/19: 47%

2018/19: 03:02

BBC Four aims to be British television’s most intellectually and culturally enriching
channel, offering an ambitious range of UK and international arts, music, culture andfactual programmes.

£4m

10%

01:56

2018/19: £4m

2018/19: 12%

2018/19: 01:48

The CBBC channel offers a distinctive mixed schedule for 6-12 year olds, with mainly
UK programmes served in a stimulating, creative and enjoyable environment.

£6m

2%

*

2018/19: £6m

2018/19: 2%

2018/19: *

£4m

5%

04:34^

2018/19: £4m

2018/19: 6%

2018/19: 04:18^

CBeebies provides a mix of high-quality, mostly UK-produced, programmes designed toencourage learning through play in a consistently safe environment for children
under six.

Governance

Scotland’s performance by service – Television

Reach definition: 15+ minutes consecutive for all services and audiences in TV-owning households aged 4+.
Source: BARB (TV reach and time per viewer – all channels include their simulcast HD channel where applicable).
N.B. This BARB data measures TV set viewing only within 28 days of the linear broadcast, meaning that iPlayer viewing on other devices or pre-broadcast or post-28 days is not included
in any of the reach and time figures. iPlayer viewing is growing. BARB figures for 2018/19 are restated to include viewing within 28 days of the linear broadcast.
* Sample size for time per user too low to report.
^ Lower sample size may be responsible for greater variability in the data.
Scotland’s performance by service – News

Content (£m)
We spent a total of£0 million on these
services last year
in Scotland

Reach (%)
Scotland
population who
use the service
each week

Time spent
watching achannel each week
(hh:mm)Length of time theaverage Scotland
viewer spent eachweek with theservice

The BBC News Channel is a 24-hour impartial and independent news service offering
breaking news, analysis and insight. It provides fast and comprehensive coverage of
local, UK and international events as they unfold.

–

10%

03:26

2018/19: –2018/19: 9%

2018/19: 03:33

BBC Parliament is the UK’s only channel dedicated to politics. It shows debates andcommittees from Westminster, Holyrood, Stormont, Cardiff Bay and Strasbourg as wellas political programmes from across the UK.

–

1%

*

2018/19: –2018/19: 1%

2018/19: *Reach definition: 15+ minutes for all services and audiences in TV-owning households aged 4+.
Source: BARB (TV reach and time per viewer). BARB figures for 2018/19 are restated to include viewing within 28 days of the linear broadcast.
Three-minute reach for BBC News Channel and BBC Parliament – in line with industry standards – would be 13% and 2% respectively (14% and 2% amongst 16+ population)* Sample size for time per user too low to report.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

147

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Performance data packs
Scotland’s performance by service – Radio

Content (£m)
We spent a total of£3 million on these
services last year
in Scotland

Reach (%)
Scotland
population who
use the service
each week

Time spent
watching achannel each week
(hh:mm)Length of time theaverage Scotland
listener spent eachweek with theservice

BBC Radio 1 broadcasts a distinctive mix of new music and entertainment for 15-29
year olds as well as providing tailored news, documentaries and advice campaigns foryoung adults.

–

14%**

05:39

2018/19: –2018/19: 15%

2018/19: 06:10

BBC 1Xtra plays the best in contemporary black music, with a strong emphasis ondelivering high-quality live music and supporting new artists.

–

1%+

*

2018/19: –2018/19: 1%

2018/19: *BBC Radio 2 broadcasts a unique mix of music and speech programmes covering adiverse mix of live pop and rock, comedy, documentaries and religious output, as wellas running social action campaigns to over 14 million listeners.

–

25%^

11:14

2018/19: –2018/19: 24%

2018/19: 10:53

BBC Radio 3 centres on classical music, around which it provides a broad spectrum of
jazz, world music, arts programmes, religion and drama. There is a strong emphasis onmusical performance across the UK.

£2m

2%

06:28

2018/19: 2m

2018/19: 3%

2018/19: 05:32

BBC Radio 4 is a mixed-speech radio station, offering in-depth news and current affairs
and a wide range of other speech programmes including drama, readings, comedy,
factual and magazine programmes.

£1m

12%

09:41

2018/19: £1m

2018/19: 12%

2018/19: 10:19

Originally launched in 2002 as BBC 7, the station was relaunched in April 2011 as
BBC Radio 4 extra. The digital-only network is the principal outlet for the BBC’s archiveof speech entertainment, including comedy, drama and readings.

–

2%

05:11

2018/19: –2018/19: 3%

2018/19: 07:32

BBC Radio 5 live broadcasts continuous news and live sports coverage, bringing major
news stories and sports events to its listeners as they happen, and providing context
through wide-ranging analysis and discussion.

–

6%

06:02

2018/19: –2018/19: 6%

2018/19: 05:55

BBC Radio 5 live sports extra brings a greater choice of live action to sports fans byextending live coverage of various sporting events.

–

1%

02:38

2018/19: –2018/19: 1%

2018/19: 02:13~

BBC 6 Music is a digital radio station that entertains lovers of popular music with aservice that celebrates the alternative spirit of popular music from the 60s to thepresent day, complemented by music news and documentaries.

–

4%

07:16

2018/19: –2018/19: 4%

2018/19: 09:01

BBC Asian Network offers speech and music appealing to British Asians, with a focus
on news and current affairs. It broadcasts mainly in English, but does offer some
programmes in other languages.

–

1%

*

2018/19: –2018/19: 1%

2018/19: *Content (£m)
We spent a total of£13 million on these
services last year in
ScotlandReach (%)
Scotland
population who
use the service
each week

£13m

58%

Reach definition: 15+ minutes for all services and audiences aged 15+.
Source: RAJAR (Radio reach and time per listener; data based on Total Survey Area – TSA).
* Sample size for time per user too low to report.
~ Lower sample size may be responsible for greater variability in the data.
** Radio 1: amongst its target group of 15-29 year-olds reach was 26% and time spent was 05:41.
+ 1Xtra: amongst 15-24 year-olds reach was 1%. Sample size of 15-24s for time per user too low to report.
^ Radio 2: amongst its target group of 35+ year-olds reach was 30% and time spent was 11:35.
Scotland’s performance by service – Online

BBC Online comprises the BBC’s portfolio of online products on desktop, connected TV,
mobile and tablet, including news, sport and weather; our children’s services CBBC and
CBeebies; and Knowledge & Learning - as well as IP-delivered TV and radio services,with both live and on-demand programmes available on BBC iPlayer.

2018/19: £13m

Source: Ipsos MORI. BBC Online not including Red Button. Scotland adults 16+.

148

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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The BBC in Northern Ireland
Content
We spent a total of£18 million on these
services in 2019/20

BBC Radio Ulster is a speech-led service, providing a mix ofprogrammes that reflect news, events and community life in allits different aspects and diversity.
BBC Radio Foyle is a speech-led service for audiences in thenorth-west of Northern Ireland. It provides a mix of news andother programming which complements, and contributes to,
BBC Radio Ulster’s region-wide service.

Reach% of population
who use the service
each week

Time spent
listening to aservice each week
Length of time theaverage listenerspent each weekwith the service

Costs per userhour
How much it costs
to deliver eachservice for eachhour used£18m 34.1% 09:51

7p

2018/19: £18m

2018/19: 6p

2018/19: 34.0%

GovernanceNorthern Ireland’s performance by dedicated services

2018/19: 10:38

Reach definition: 15+ minutes and audiences aged 15+.
Sources: RAJAR (Radio reach and time per listener; data based on Total Survey Area – TSA).

Estimated income from each nation
These numbers are estimated as figures for each nation have been calculated by applying the proportion of licenced premises to the total
number of licences in force. The exact number of licences in force varies on a daily basis. The number of licenced premises are different to thenumber of licences in force as, in some cases, a premise may need more than one licence. Figures exclude concessionary licences for thoseliving in residential care.
The licence fee income received contributes towards programmes made across the whole of the UK and the world. These programmes are
consumed in each nation in addition to the nation’s local services outlined below.
2020
£m

2019
£m

3,520
93

3,690
97

2020
£m

2019
£m

Network spend
TV (inc. Sport and Children’s)Radio
Online

29
2
3

24
2
1

Total network spend

34

27

Local spend
TV – BBC One
TV – BBC Two
Radio Ulster/Foyle
Online

29
4
18
8

24
5
18
8

Total local spend

59

55

Distribution

12

12

Total

105

94

Estimated income
UK
Northern Ireland
The fee for a standard household TV licence was £154.50 in 2019/20.
Expenditure by service
Direct and indirect spend relating to programmes produced in the nation.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

149

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Performance data packs
Local opt-out hours^ (including repeats) on BBC One and BBC Two
2020
Hours

2019
Hours

Drama, Comedy, Entertainment, Music & Arts
Daily, Weekly News and Current Affairs
Sport & Leisure
Education, Factual & Religion

44
458
74
169

39
412
70
161

Total

745

682

2020
Hours

2019
Hours

News and Current Affairs
General

3,259
4,977

3,210
4,985

Total

8,236

8,195

2020
Number

2019
Number

643

648

2020
Number

2019
Number680

685^ Television content commissioned specifically for audiences in the nation.

BBC Radio Foyle/Ulster

Headcount
Average headcount reflects those individuals employed to directly support the service produced in Northern Ireland

Average number of persons employed in the year
Average headcount of individuals based in Northern Ireland across all services including support functions

Average number of persons employed in the year

150

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Content (£m)
We spent a total of£62 million onthese services lastyear in Northern
IrelandReach (%)
Northern Ireland
population who
use the service
each week

Time spent
watching achannel each week
(hh:mm)Length of time theaverage Northern
Ireland viewer
spent each weekwith the channel

BBC One is our flagship service and the UK’s most popular television channel. It unites
and inspires the nation with high-quality programmes across a range of genres which
includes news and current affairs, drama, comedy, entertainment and factual.

£48m

66%

06:11

2018/19: £38m

2018/19: 70%

2018/19: 06:06

BBC Two is a mixed-genre channel with programmes of depth and substance. It
includes the greatest amount and range of knowledge-building programming on theBBC, complemented by distinctive comedy, drama and arts programming.

£8m

39%

02:36

2018/19: £10m

2018/19: 39%

2018/19: 02:34

BBC Four aims to be British television’s most intellectually and culturally enriching
channel, offering an ambitious range of UK and international arts, music, culture andfactual programmes.

£3m

11%

01:46^

2018/19: £1m

2018/19: 11%

2018/19: 01:35^

The CBBC channel offers a distinctive mixed schedule for 6-12 year olds, with mainly
UK programmes served in a stimulating, creative and enjoyable environment.

£3m

4%

*

2018/19: £3m

2018/19: 5%

2018/19: *–

7%

04:07^

2018/19: £1m

2018/19: 8%

2018/19: 04:08^

CBeebies provides a mix of high-quality, mostly UK-produced, programmes designed
to encourage learning through play in a consistently safe environment for children
under six.

GovernanceNorthern Ireland’s performance by service – Television

Reach definition: 15+ minutes consecutive for all services and audiences in TV-owning households aged 4+.
Source: BARB (TV reach and time per viewer – all channels include their simulcast HD channel where applicable).
N.B. This BARB data measures TV set viewing only within 28 days of the linear broadcast, meaning that iPlayer viewing on other devices or pre-broadcast or post-28 days is not included
in any of the reach and time figures. iPlayer viewing is growing. BARB figures for 2018/19 are restated to include viewing within 28 days of the linear broadcast.
^ Lower sample size may be responsible for greater variability in the data.
* Sample size for time per user too low to report.
Northern Ireland’s performance by service – News

Content (£m)
We spent a total of£0 million on these
services inNorthern Ireland

Reach (%)
Northern Ireland
population who
use the service
each week

Time spent
watching achannel each week
(hh:mm)Length of time theaverage Northern
Ireland viewer
spent each weekwith the channel

The BBC News Channel is a 24-hour impartial and independent news service offering
breaking news, analysis and insight. It provides fast and comprehensive coverage of
local, UK and international events as they unfold.

–7%

02:46^

2018/19: –2018/19: 6%

2018/19: 02:35^

BBC Parliament is the UK’s only channel dedicated to politics. It shows debates andcommittees from Westminster, Holyrood, Stormont, Cardiff Bay and Strasbourg as wellas political programmes from across the UK.

–

1%

*

2018/19: –2018/19: 1%

2018/19: *Reach definition: 15+ minutes for all services and audiences in TV-owning households aged 4+.
Source: BARB (TV reach and time per viewer). BARB figures for 2018/19 are restated to include viewing within 28 days of the linear broadcast.		
Three-minute reach for BBC News Channel and BBC Parliament – in line with industry standards – would be 11% and 2% respectively (13% and 2% amongst 16+ population.
^ Lower sample size may be responsible for greater variability in the data.			
* Sample size for time per user too low to report.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

151

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Performance data packs
Northern Ireland’s performance by service – Radio

Content (£m)
We spent a total of£2 million on these
services last year in
Northern Ireland

Reach (%)
Northern Ireland
population who
use the service
each week

Time spent
listening to aservice each week
(hh:mm)Length of time theaverage Northern
Ireland listenerspent each weekwith the service

BBC Radio 1 broadcasts a distinctive mix of new music and entertainment for 15-29
year olds as well as providing tailored news, documentaries and advice campaigns foryoung adults.

–

16%**

04:39

2018/19: –2018/19: 17%

2018/19: 05:13

BBC 1Xtra plays the best in contemporary black music, with a strong emphasis ondelivering high-quality live music and supporting new artists.

–

<1%+

*

2018/19: –2018/19: <1%

2018/19: *BBC Radio 2 broadcasts a unique mix of music and speech programmes covering adiverse mix of live pop and rock, comedy, documentaries and religious output, as wellas running social action campaigns to over 14 million listeners.

–

13%^

06:57

2018/19: –2018/19: 14%

2018/19: 07:46

BBC Radio 3 centres on classical music, around which it provides a broad spectrum of
jazz, world music, arts programmes, religion and drama. There is a strong emphasis onmusical performance across the UK.

£1m

2%

06:18~

2018/19: £1m

2018/19: 2%

2018/19: 04:16~

BBC Radio 4 is a mixed-speech radio station, offering in-depth news and current affairs
and a wide range of other speech programmes including drama, readings, comedy,
factual and magazine programmes.

£1m

10%

07:27

2018/19: £1m

2018/19: 11%

2018/19: 07:18

Originally launched in 2002 as BBC 7, the station was relaunched in April 2011 as
BBC Radio 4 extra. The digital-only network is the principal outlet for the BBC’s archiveof speech entertainment, including comedy, drama and readings.

–

2%

04:05~

2018/19: –2018/19: 2%

2018/19: 04:16~

BBC Radio 5 live broadcasts continuous news and live sports coverage, bringing major
news stories and sports events to its listeners as they happen, and providing context
through wide-ranging analysis and discussion.

–

9%

06:03

2018/19: –2018/19: 9%

2018/19: 05:55

BBC Radio 5 live sports extra brings a greater choice of live action to sports fans byextending live coverage of various sporting events.

–

2%

01:43~

2018/19: –2018/19: 2%

2018/19: *BBC 6 Music is a digital radio station that entertains lovers of popular music with aservice that celebrates the alternative spirit of popular music from the 60s to thepresent day, complemented by music news and documentaries.

–

2%

08:34~

2018/19: –2018/19: 2%

2018/19: 07:26~

BBC Asian Network offers speech and music appealing to British Asians, with a focus
on news and current affairs. It broadcasts mainly in English, but does offer some
programmes in other languages.

–

<1%

*

2018/19: –2018/19: <1%

2018/19: *Content (£m)
We spent a total of£11 million on these
services last year in
Northern Ireland

Reach (%)
Northern Ireland
population who use
the service each
week

£11m

45%

Reach definition: 15+ minutes for all services and audiences aged 15+.
Source: RAJAR (Radio reach and time per listener; data based on Total Survey Area – TSA).
* Sample size for time per user too low to report.
~ Lower sample size may be responsible for greater variability in the data.
** Radio 1: amongst its target group of 15-29 year olds reach was 31% and time spent was 04:54.
+ 1Xtra: amongst 15-24 year olds was 2%. Sample size of 15-24s for time per user too low to report.
^ Radio 2: amongst its target group of 35+ year olds reach was 15% and time spent was 07:34.
Northern Ireland’s performance by service – Online

BBC Online comprises the BBC’s portfolio of online products on desktop, connected TV,
mobile and tablet, including news, sport and weather; our children’s services CBBC and
CBeebies; and Knowledge & Learning – as well as IP-delivered TV and radio services,with both live and on-demand programmes available on BBC iPlayer.

2018/19: £9m

Source: Ipsos MORI. BBC Online not including Red Button. Northern Ireland adults 16+.

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BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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The BBC in EnglandContent
We spent a total of£127 million onthese services in
2019/20

BBC Local Radio is a primarily speech-based service of news,
information and debate, with a strong emphasis on interactivity.

Reach% of population
who use the service
each week

Time spent
listening to aservice each week
Length of time theaverage listenerspent each weekwith the service

Costs per userhour
How much it costs
to deliver eachservice for eachhour used£127m 12.7%

08:13

5p

2018/19: £124m

2018/19: 08:36

2018/19: 5p

2018/19: 13.0%

GovernanceEngland’s performance by dedicated services

Reach definition: 15+ minutes for audiences aged 15+.
Sources: RAJAR (Radio reach and time per listener; data based on Total Survey Area – TSA).

Estimated income from each nation
These numbers are estimated as figures for each nation have been calculated by applying the proportion of licenced premises to the total
number of licences in force. The exact number of licences in force varies on a daily basis. The number of licenced premises are different to thenumber of licences in force as, in some cases, a premise may need more than one licence. Figures exclude concessionary licences for thoseliving in residential care.
The licence fee income received contributes towards programmes made across the whole of the UK and the world. These programmes are
consumed in each nation in addition to the nation’s local services outlined below.
2020
£m

2019
£m

3,520
2,946

3,690
3,085

2020
£m

2019
£m

Network spend
TV (inc. Sport and Children’s)Radio
Online

1,124
280
177

1,246
290
160

Total network spend

1,581

1,696

Local spend
TV – BBC One
Radio – English Regions
Online

101
127
17

105
124
16

Total local spend

245

245

Orchestras and performing groups
Development
Distribution

19
62
121

19
60
116

2,028

2,136

Estimated income
UK
England
The fee for a standard household TV licence was £154.50 in 2019/20.
Expenditure by service
Direct and indirect spend relating to programmes produced in the nation.

Total

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Performance data packs
Local opt-out hours^ (including repeats) on BBC One and BBC Two
2020
Hours

2019
Hours

Daily, Weekly News and Current Affairs
Sport & Leisure
Education, Factual & Religion

4,154
23
38

4,115
23
26

Total

4,215

4,164

2020
Hours

2019
Hours

General

243,570

230,223

Total

243,570

230,223

2020
Number

2019
Number

2,694

2,656

2020
Number

2019
Number14,436

14,320^ Television content commissioned specifically for audiences in the nation.

BBC English Regions

Headcount
Average headcount reflects those individuals employed to directly support the service produced in England

Average number of persons employed in the year
Average headcount of individuals based in England across all services including support functions

Average number of persons employed in the year

154

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Content (£m)
We spent a total of£1,174 million onthese services lastyear in England

Reach (%)
England population
who use the service
each week

Time spent
watching achannel each week
(hh:mm)Length of time theaverage Englandviewer spent eachweek with thechannelBBC One is our flagship service and the UK’s most popular television channel. It unites
and inspires the nation with high-quality programmes across a range of genres which
includes news and current affairs, drama, comedy, entertainment and factual.

£792m 65%

06:57

2018/19: £868m

2018/19: 06:57

BBC Two is a mixed-genre channel with programmes of depth and substance. It
includes the greatest amount and range of knowledge-building programming on theBBC, complemented by distinctive comedy, drama and arts programming.

£288m 42%

03:01

2018/19: £325m

2018/19: 03:00

BBC Four aims to be British television’s most intellectually and culturally enriching
channel, offering an ambitious range of UK and international arts, music, culture andfactual programmes.

£28m 12%01:55

2018/19: £35m

2018/19: 13%

2018/19: 01:45

The CBBC channel offers a distinctive mixed schedule for 6-12 year olds, with mainly
UK programmes served in a stimulating, creative and enjoyable environment.

£43m

4%

02:27

2018/19: £50m

2018/19: 4%

2018/19: 02:24

£23m

6%

04:18

2018/19: £25m

2018/19: 7%

2018/19: 04:10

CBeebies provides a mix of high-quality, mostly UK-produced, programmes designed
to encourage learning through play in a consistently safe environment for children
under six.

2018/19: 67%

2018/19: 42%

GovernanceEngland’s performance by service – Television

Reach definition: 15+ minutes consecutive for all services and audiences in TV-owning households aged 4+.
Source: BARB (TV reach and time per viewer – all channels include their simulcast HD channel where applicable).
N.B. This BARB data measures TV set viewing only within 28 days of the linear broadcast, meaning that iPlayer viewing on other devices or pre-broadcast or post-28 days is not included
in any of the reach and time figures. iPlayer viewing is growing. BARB figures for 2018/19 are restated to include viewing within 28 days of the linear broadcast.
England’s performance by service – News

Content (£m)
We spent a total of£51 million on these
services last year in
EnglandReach (%)
England population
who use the service
each week

Time spent
watching achannel each week
(hh:mm)Length of time theaverage Englandviewer spent eachweek with theservice

The BBC News Channel is a 24-hour impartial and independent news service offering
breaking news, analysis and insight. It provides fast and comprehensive coverage of
local, UK and international events as they unfold.

£49m

9%

03:08

2018/19: £46m

2018/19: 8%

2018/19: 02:49

BBC Parliament is the UK’s only channel dedicated to politics. It shows debates andcommittees from Westminster, Holyrood, Stormont, Cardiff Bay and Strasbourg as wellas political programmes from across the UK.

£2m

1%

02:06^

2018/19: £2m

2018/19: 1%

2018/19: 02:01^

Reach definition: 15+ minutes for all services and audiences in TV-owning households aged 4+.
Source: BARB (TV reach and time per viewer). BARB figures for 2018/19 are restated to include viewing within 28 days of the linear broadcast.
Three-minute reach for BBC News Channel and BBC Parliament – in line with industry standards – would be 13% and 2% respectively (14% and 2% amongst 16+ population).
^ Lower sample size may be responsible for greater variability in the data.

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Performance data packs
England’s performance by service – Radio

Content (£m)
We spent a total of£280 million onthese services lastyear in England

Reach (%)
England population
who use the service
each week

BBC Radio 1 broadcasts a distinctive mix of new music and entertainment for 15-29
year olds as well as providing tailored news, documentaries and advice campaigns foryoung adults.

£38m 16%**

06:14

2018/19: £41m

2018/19: 17%

2018/19: 06:13

BBC 1Xtra plays the best in contemporary black music, with a strong emphasis ondelivering high-quality live music and supporting new artists.

£8m

2%+

03:57

2018/19: £7m

2018/19: 2%

2018/19: 04:16

BBC Radio 2 broadcasts a unique mix of music and speech programmes covering adiverse mix of live pop and rock, comedy, documentaries and religious output, as wellas running social action campaigns to over 14 million listeners.

£49m

26%^

11:20

2018/19: £49m

2018/19: 27%

2018/19: 11:56

BBC Radio 3 centres on classical music, around which it provides a broad spectrum of
jazz, world music, arts programmes, religion and drama. There is a strong emphasis onmusical performance across the UK.

£31m

4%

06:48

2018/19: £33m

2018/19: 4%

2018/19: 06:12

BBC Radio 4 is a mixed-speech radio station, offering in-depth news and current affairs
and a wide range of other speech programmes including drama, readings, comedy,
factual and magazine programmes.

£81m

20%

10:42

2018/19: £89m

2018/19: 20%

2018/19: 11:05

Originally launched in 2002 as BBC 7, the station was relaunched in April 2011 as
BBC Radio 4 extra. The digital-only network is the principal outlet for the BBC’s archiveof speech entertainment, including comedy, drama and readings.

£3m

4%

06:04

2018/19: £3m

2018/19: 4%

2018/19: 06:10

BBC Radio 5 live broadcasts continuous news and live sports coverage, bringing major
news stories and sports events to its listeners as they happen, and providing context
through wide-ranging analysis and discussion.

£47m

10%

06:23

2018/19: £45m

2018/19: 10%

2018/19: 06:43

BBC Radio 5 live sports extra brings a greater choice of live action to sports fans byextending live coverage of various sporting events.

£3m

3%

04:26

2018/19: £3m

2018/19: 2%

2018/19: 03:15

BBC 6 Music is a digital radio station that entertains lovers of popular music with aservice that celebrates the alternative spirit of popular music from the 60s to thepresent day, complemented by music news and documentaries.

£12m

5%

09:11

2018/19: £12m

2018/19: 5%

2018/19: 09:24

BBC Asian Network offers speech and music appealing to British Asians, with a focus
on news and current affairs. It broadcasts mainly in English, but does offer some
programmes in other languages.

£8m

1%

04:22

2018/19: £8m

2018/19: 1%

2018/19: 05:16

Content (£m)
We spent a total of£194 million onthese services lastyear in England

Reach (%)
England population
who use the service
each week

Reach definition: 15+ minutes for all services and audiences aged 15+.
Source: RAJAR (Radio reach and time per listener; data based on Total Survey Area – TSA).
** Radio 1: amongst its target group of 15-29 year olds reach was 30% and time spent was 5:45
+ 1Xtra: amongst 15-24 year olds reach was 6% and time spent per user was 3:04.
^ Radio 2: amongst its target group of 35+ year olds reach was 32% and time spent was 12:16.
England’s performance by service – Online

BBC Online comprises the BBC’s portfolio of online products on desktop, connected TV,
mobile and tablet, including news, sport and weather; our children’s services CBBC and
CBeebies; and Knowledge & Learning – as well as IP delivered TV and radio services,with both live and on-demand programmes available on BBC iPlayer.

£194m 53%
2018/19: £176m

Source: Ipsos MORI. BBC Online not including Red Button. England adults 16+.

156

Time spent
listening to aservice each week
(hh:mm)Length of time theaverage Englandlistener spent eachweek with theservice

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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I have conducted independent assurance procedures on thedisclosures included in the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)Annual Report arising from the requirement under the Royal
Charter for the continuance of the BBC (the Royal Charter) to publish
the provision for the United Kingdom’s nations and regions,
including how the BBC delivered the creative remit in the nations
and regions. These disclosures comprise performance against theBBC’s public purpose to reflect, represent and serve the diverse
communities of the United Kingdom’s nations and regions andsupport the creative economy, as set out on pages 136 to 156 of theBBC’s Annual Report.
My work is conducted in accordance with International Standards
on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000 Assurance Engagements
Other Than Audits or Reviews of Historic Financial Information.
Respective responsibilities of the BBC Board and the Comptroller
and Auditor General
For the reporting year covered by this report, the BBC Board was
responsible for publishing information required by the Royal
Charter as follows: the provision for the United Kingdom’s nations
and regions, including how the BBC delivered the creative remit in
the nations and regions for the year ended 31 March 2020 (thesubject matter) (“Nations Report”).
I am responsible for providing an opinion on whether, in all material
respects, the subject matter is complete and accurate and has been
properly prepared in accordance with the basis set out therein.

Inherent limitations
My assurance procedures have been designed to provide reasonableassurance. The objective of a reasonable assurance engagement is to
reduce engagement risk to an acceptably low level in thecircumstances of the engagement as the basis for a positive form of
expression of my conclusion. It does not, however, eliminate this risk
entirely. In particular, in preparing the disclosures, the BBC Board isrequired to make a number of judgements which inherently
introduces an element of risk.
My work has been undertaken so that I might state to the BBC Board
and Parliament those matters I am required to in this report and forno other purpose.
OpinionBased on the results of my procedures, in my opinion, in allmaterial respects the Nations Report set out on pages 136 to 156
is complete and accurate and has been properly prepared inaccordance with the basis set out therein. This opinion has been
formed on the basis of the matters outlined elsewhere in thisindependent assurance report.

Gareth Davies
Comptroller & Auditor General
National Audit Office157-197 Buckingham Palace Road
London SW1W 9SP
3 September 2020

In conducting this work, my staff and I have complied with the
Financial Reporting Council’s Revised Ethical Standard 2016. I am
independent of the BBC in accordance with the ethical requirementsthat are relevant to my assurance engagement. My staff and I havefulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with theserequirements.
My staff and I have applied International Standard on Quality
Control 1 and accordingly maintain a comprehensive system of
quality control including documented policies and procedures
regarding compliance with ethical requirements, professional
standards and applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
My approach
I have performed a reasonable assurance engagement as defined in
ISAE 3000. A reasonable assurance engagement is to perform suchprocedures as to obtain information and explanations which I
consider necessary to express an opinion on whether, in all material
respects, the Nations Report (the subject matter) is complete andaccurate and has been properly prepared in accordance with thebasis set out therein.
My work consisted of understanding the process adopted by the BBC
to derive the disclosures, in particular the completeness andaccuracy of information used. This enabled me to design proceduresin response to risks identified. I performed procedures in relation to
the figures disclosed which included: agreement to third party
evidence such as data issued by the Broadcasters Audience Research
Board (BARB); agreement to scheduling reports; cross-reference todisclosures made in the BBC Group financial statements;
recalculation and confirmation of mathematical accuracy;
recalculation of restated prior year figures; and agreement ofheadcount data to payroll reports.

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157

GovernanceIndependent Assurance Report to the Board of the British
Broadcasting Corporation, acknowledging that Parliament also
places reliance on the Group Accounts and ReportReturn to contents

Financial Statements

Financial
Statements
170p.

The BBC’s consolidated
financial statements

BBC Two comedy
Defending the Guilty

159

p.

The Certificate and Reportof the Comptroller and
Auditor General

BBC One drama The Capture

158

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Opinion on financial statements
I certify I have audited the financial statements of the British
Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) for the year ended 31 March 2020,
which comprise:—— the consolidated income statement;—— the consolidated statement of comprehensive income/loss;—— the consolidated balance sheet;—— the consolidated statement of changes in equity;—— the consolidated cash flow statement; and—— the related notes, including the significant accounting policies.
The financial reporting framework that has been applied in their
preparation is the Royal Charter for the continuance of the British
Broadcasting Corporation and International Financial ReportingStandards as adopted by the European Union. I have also audited theinformation in the Remuneration Report that is described as having
been audited.
In my opinion the consolidated financial statements:—— give a true and fair view of the state of the group’s affairs as at
31 March 2020 and of its deficit for the year then ended; and—— have been properly prepared in accordance with International
Financial Reporting Standards as adopted by the European Union.
Opinion on regularity
In my opinion, in all material respects, the expenditure and income
recorded in the financial statements have been applied to the
purposes intended by Parliament and the financial transactions
recorded in the financial statements conform to the authorities whichgovern them.
Conclusions relating to principal risks, going concern andviability statement
I have nothing to report in respect of the following information in theannual report, in relation to which the ISAs (UK) require me to report
to you whether I have anything material to add or draw attention to:—— the disclosures in the annual report that describe the principal
risks and explain how they are being managed or mitigated—— the Board’s confirmation in the annual report that they havecarried out a robust assessment of the principal risks facing theBBC, including those that would threaten its business model,
future performance, solvency or liquidity;—— the Board’s statement in the financial statements about whether
the directors considered it appropriate to adopt the going concern
basis of accounting in preparing the financial statements and the
directors’ identification of any material uncertainties to the BBC’s
ability to continue to do so over a period of at least twelve months
from the date of approval of the financial statements;—— whether the Board’s statement relating to going concern required
under the Listing Rules in accordance with Listing Rule 9.8.6R(3)is materially inconsistent with my knowledge obtained in theaudit; and;—— the Board’s explanation in the annual report as to how they haveassessed the prospects of the group, over what period they havedone so and why they consider that period to be appropriate, andtheir statement as to whether they have a reasonable expectationthat the BBC will be able to continue in operation and meet its
liabilities as they fall due over the period of their assessment,
including any related disclosures drawing attention to any
necessary qualifications or assumptions.

Basis of opinions
I conducted my audit in accordance with International Standards on
Auditing (ISAs) (UK) and Practice Note 10 ‘Audit of Financial
Statements of Public Sector Entities in the United Kingdom’. My
responsibilities under those standards are further described in the
Respective Responsibilities of the BBC Board and the Comptroller and
Auditor General section of my certificate. Those standards require me
and my staff to comply with the Financial Reporting Council’s
Revised Ethical Standard 2016. I am independent of the BBC inaccordance with the ethical requirements that are relevant to myaudit and the financial statements in the UK. My staff and I havefulfilled our other ethical responsibilities in accordance with theserequirements. I believe that the audit evidence I have obtained issufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for my opinion.
The regularity framework that has been applied comprises:—— the Royal Charter for the continuance of the British Broadcasting
Corporation;—— the Agreement between Her Majesty’s Secretary of State for
Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the British Broadcasting
Corporation; and—— other agreements the BBC has entered into with Government
Ministers.
Overview of my audit approach
Key audit matters
Key audit matters are those matters that, in my professional
judgement, were of most significance in my audit of the financial
statements of the current period and include the most significant
assessed risks of material misstatement (whether or not due to fraud)that I identified.
I consider the following areas of particular audit focus to be thoseareas that had the greatest effect on my overall audit strategy, theallocation of resources in my audit and directing the efforts of theaudit team in the current year. These matters were addressed in thecontext of my audit of the financial statements as a whole, and informing my opinion thereon, and I do not provide a separate opinion
on these matters.
This is not a complete list of all risks identified by my audit but only
those areas that had the greatest effect on my overall audit strategy,
allocation of resources and direction of effort. I have not, for example,
included detailed information relating to the general work I have
performed around the presumed risk of management override ofcontrols, which are areas where my work has not identified any
matters to report.
The areas of focus were discussed with the Audit and Risk
Committee; their report on matters that they considered to besignificant to the financial statements is set out on pages 91-94. The
description of the risks below should be read in conjunction with the
Audit and Risk Committee’s report.
I identified three key audit matters in 2018/19 which are no longer
applicable in 2019/20. These are:—— Accounting for employment-related matters. In 2017/18, a
number of matters relating to pay at the BBC rose to prominence
which continued to develop in 2018/19. Whilst these matters
continue to have an accounting impact in 2019/20, the number of
new and emerging issues has decreased and therefore no longer
represent the level of risk to financial reporting or regularity seen
previously.
—— Capitalisation and impairment of major projects. Audit focus on
the BBC’s more general management of major projects has beenrefined to consider specific projects, particularly complex propertytransactions and implementing new IT systems; and—— Investments in associates, joint ventures and subsidiaries. Thishas been largely superseded by the new key audit mattersidentified in 2019/20 relating to accounting for UKTV.

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159

Financial Statements

The Certificate and Report of the Comptroller
and Auditor General to the Board of the
British Broadcasting Corporation,
acknowledging that Parliament also places
reliance on the Group Accounts and ReportReturn to contents

Financial Statements
Coronavirus
The impact of the coronavirus pandemic during the latter part of thefinancial year has had a pervasive effect on the key audit matters I
have identified. This caused me to revisit my planned procedures inrespect of key audit matters. When describing key audit matters, I
have outlined the impact that coronavirus has had on my overall audit
strategy, allocation of resources and direction of effort.
In addition, I revisited my planned procedures in respect of viability
and going concern, evaluating the BBC’s assessment and supporting
cash-flow forecasts, key assumptions and sensitivities applied tomodels, actions taken by management and sources of liquidity andfinance. I describe my findings and my conclusions on viability andgoing concern.
The lockdown arising from the coronavirus pandemic required myteam to undertake remote audit working and performing alternative
procedures to gain the necessary assurances where physicalverification had been planned. This included engagement withcomponent auditors, which I explain further in the scope of Groupaudit procedures section.
I have communicated the impact of the coronavirus pandemic inrespect of the audit to the Audit & Risk Committee and concluded
that I have obtained the necessary assurances to support myaudit opinions

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Complex property transactions and the implementation of IFRS 16
Total net book value of property, plant and equipment – £2,152 million(2018/19: £1,028 million). Refer to notes D1 and D2 (financial disclosures)and note H (accounting policies) and the risks set out in the Audit andRisk Committee report on page 91.
The BBC has a large and diverse portfolio of properties which
includes owned assets, investment properties and assets held underleasing arrangements. In 2019/20, the BBC has adopted IFRS 16,
Leases, which replaces the existing standard IAS 17, Leases, and has
material implications for the recognition, measurement anddisclosure of leases. IFRS 16 provides a single lessee accounting
model, requiring lessees to recognise assets and liabilities for allleases unless the lease term is 12 months or less or the underlying
asset has a low value.
In managing its property portfolio and related financing
arrangements, certain past transactions have given rise toaccounting treatments which are not straightforward and require
the application of judgement. This includes sale and leaseback
arrangements where the borrowing limit set by the Secretary ofState for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has affected the way inwhich the BBC can finance major projects.
The following complex property transactions represent a significant
risk for my audit and have been key areas of focus for my work:

A: The impact of IFRS 16 on properties held under leasingarrangements on adoption of the new standard and accounting forproperties recognised under finance leasing arrangements—— The BBC has applied judgement in determining the appropriate
accounting treatment for leased properties under IFRS 16 ontransition to the new accounting standard. This includes thevaluation of assets and liabilities previously recognised as
operating leases under IAS 17; accounting for repurchase options
at the end of the lease term; and the treatment of contingent rent
arrangements.
—— The valuation of the BBC’s major lease assets and liabilities
involves the use of complex models to calculate the valuations,and judgement over the appropriate inputs into the valuations.
B: New Broadcasting House re-financing—— The valuation of the series of significant derivative cash flow
swaps which form the basis of the 2016/17 refinancing of the
New Broadcasting House sale and lease back arrangement. The
valuation of these swaps involves judgement and is highly
sensitive to the assumptions made.
C: Other property transactions—— The classification, completeness and valuation of property
available-for-sale which could have a material impact on thefinancial statements.
—— The valuation of new properties in the course of construction or
brought into use during the year.

The scope of my audit work in response
I have carried out work to understand the BBC’s overall property
strategy and any changes that could have a consequent financial
statement impact.
My procedures included making enquiries of management; review ofBoard minutes and business plans and visiting certain key
properties.
A: The impact of IFRS 16 on properties held under leasingarrangements on adoption of the new standard—— Testing the calculation of lease assets and liabilities of significant
leases for both the opening and closing balance sheet positions,by recalculating these values. In respect of the opening balance
sheet position, this included testing the IFRS 16 transitional
impact recognised in equity.
—— Considering the reasonableness of inputs into management’s
lease calculations and management’s key assumptions andjudgements, checking these for consistency with the underlying
contractual documentation and industry practice.
—— Reviewing the BBC’s processes and controls to identify leases andtest for completeness, particularly focusing on where the BBC hasdecided contracts do not meet the definition of a lease.
—— Assessing whether disclosures relating to the adoption andimpact of IFRS 16, and disclosure of the accounting policies
adopted by management in relation to leases, are sufficient.

B: New Broadcasting House re-financing
I have assessed the reasonableness of the accounting treatment inrelation to the classification and valuation of the cash flow swaps
used in the past re-financing of the New Broadcasting House saleand leaseback. My audit procedures included assessing thereasonableness of management’s key valuation assumptions andjudgements. Using corporate finance specialists, I checked
management’s key assumptions and judgements for consistency
with underlying contracts, published rates and market practice; andI assessed the sensitivity of management’s valuations to changes in
key assumptions.
C: Other property transactions
I have considered management’s key judgements in relation to theaccounting treatments adopted for certain planned disposals ofproperty. My audit procedures included reviewing Board minutes
and business plans to confirm the completeness of property
disclosed as held for sale.
I have reviewed the accounting treatment in relation to newproperties in the course of construction or brought into use during
the year to consider whether costs have been appropriately
capitalised and whether any impairment is necessary.

Key observations and the findings I communicated to the Audit
and Risk Committee
I am content that, in respect of IFRS 16, the financial statements
appropriately reflect the impact of adopting the new accounting
standard. I requested enhancements were made to the disclosure of
the key judgements applied in adopting IFRS 16 which were
processed by management.

On the basis of the procedures performed, I consider that theaccounting treatment adopted for these complex propertytransactions is appropriate.

In reviewing the treatment of New Broadcasting House, a number ofassumptions used to determine the valuation of cash-flow swaps
required updating to reflect market conditions as at the year-end as
a result of the coronavirus pandemic. Management adjusted theunderlying models accordingly.

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Financial Statements

Key audit matter description

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Financial Statements
Key audit matter description

Risk of fraud in revenue recognition
Total revenue recognised – £4,943 million (2018/19: £4,889 million).
Refer to note A1 (financial disclosures) and note H (accounting policies)
and the risks set out in the Audit and Risk Committee report on page 91.
International Standards on Auditing (UK) require me to consider
whether or not there is a risk of fraud in respect of revenue
recognition. Given the scale and nature of the BBC’s income
streams, I have not rebutted this risk. My scoping work has
identified the following transactions streams as areas of specificfocus for my audit:
Licence fee revenue (£3,520 million (2018/19: £3,690 million)
The BBC’s primary source of funding is derived from the Television
Licence Fee (the ‘licence fee’). The Telecommunications Act 2003
requires that licence fees must be paid to the BBC which, in turn,
must remit the amounts collected to the Consolidated Fund. The
BBC Licence Fee Unit uses an outsourced service provider, Capita, tocollect licence fees on its behalf.
Licence fees collected are brought to account within the BBC
Television Licence Fee Trust Statement (‘the Trust Statement’). Thisis a separate account, which I also audit. The licence fee revenue
recorded in the BBC consolidated financial statements is a grant-inaid funding settlement, paid directly to the BBC from the Secretaryof State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport from sums drawn
down for the Consolidated Fund in respect of licence fees issued in
the year. The funding arrangements are agreed for the duration of
the licence fee settlement between the BBC and the Secretary ofState. The current licence fee settlement ends in 2022.

Licence fee revenue is an area of Parliamentary and public interest,
in light of changes to the provision of free television licences toover-75s and the decision by the Government to launch aconsultation into decriminalising licence fee evasion in February
2020. The ongoing viability of the BBC is dependent upon thecollection of licence fee revenue.
There are two key considerations arising from this risk assessment:—— I consider that there may be an incentive to manage andreport licence fee revenue in ways that meet management’s
or licence fee payers’ expectations. This might involve theBBC or other parties involved in the licence fee revenue
collection and reporting process. I consider that there is aheightened risk around the year end of revenue recognition
being managed to achieve particular results and this has
been a key focus of my testing in this area. I consider this risk
to be heightened in 2019/20 given greater challenges overcollecting licence fee revenue around the year end as a resultof the coronavirus outbreak.
—— Licence fee funding includes a settlement of £253 million in
2019/20 from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), in
relation to the provision of free Television Licences to over-75s.
From 2020/21, no further funding will be provided by DWP and
the BBC is implementing a new scheme for the collection oflicence fee revenue from over-75s. The implementation of the newscheme, which was originally scheduled for June 2020, has beendeferred as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, and the BBC isabsorbing the financial impact of deferring the scheme.

The scope of my audit work in response
In relation to the licence fee revenue grant recognised in the BBC’s
consolidated financial statements, I have assessed thereasonableness of the BBC’s licence fee revenue recognition policy. I
have substantively tested the amounts and the timing of licence feerevenue funding paid to the BBC by the Secretary of State for Digital,
Culture, Media and Sport; and the amounts and timing of payments
made by the Department for Work & Pensions to the BBC in respectof television licences issued free of charge to over-75s.

I have also obtained assurance over the proper operation of cut-off
by examining evidence showing cash receipts and licences issued
around the year end.
I have considered whether there are any implications for
management judgements and incentives regarding licence fee
recognition arising from the reduction in DWP funding year-on-year
and the decision to defer the new scheme for collecting revenue fromover-75s.

Given that the licence fee revenue and balances recorded in the
Trust Statement provide an authoritative expectation as to therelated licence fee grant funding and balances recorded in the
consolidated financial statements, I have carried out audit
procedures on the BBC Licence Fee Unit collection systems andprocesses and on related transactions and balances reported in the
Trust Statement. These included obtaining assurance on thecompleteness and occurrence of licence fee income recorded in the
Trust Statement by using IT audit procedures on key licence feecollection systems and testing a sample of in-year transactions andyear-end balances.
Key observations and the findings I communicated to the Audit
and Risk Committee
On the basis of the procedures I have performed I consider licencefee revenue funding and related balances to be appropriately
recognised and reported. I have considered the recognition point oflicence fee revenue within the BBC’s consolidated financial
statements and consider this to be appropriate.

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Risk of fraud in revenue recognition
Commercial revenue and profit recognition (£1,423 million (2018/19:£1,199 million))

In addition, management must exercise judgement in the following
areas which could have a material impact on profit:

There are a number of revenue streams from different sources
within the BBC’s commercial subsidiaries, including subscriber
revenues, distribution, and sale of BBC branded products. Audit riskarises from the level of judgement in respect of the completeness andcut-off of revenue. This risk is particularly relevant within BBC
Studios as the largest commercial subsidiary and where mostrevenue is earned from outside of the BBC Group.

—— the amortisation and impairment of commercial distribution
rights. Amortisation is based on the expected revenue profile ofthe programme portfolio. As a key area of judgement, risks arise
as changes in assumptions could have a material impact on profit;—— revenue associated with productions. Although most production
revenue is generated from within the BBC Group, a material
amount is derived from outside the group. There are risks aroundcompleteness, cut-off and recoverability of this revenue; and—— impairment of investments.

One of the largest revenue streams within BBC Studios relates tothe distribution of content. Commercial distribution rights
acquired by the BBC relating to this content are treated as
intangible assets within BBC Studios’ financial statements. When
content is distributed, revenue is recognised and, in a number ofcases, the contracts underpinning distribution sales can cover anumber of financial years. BBC Studios’ revenue is affected byjudgements in relation to the point at which revenue relating to the
distribution of content arises and the timing and nature of theagreements with third parties represent risks around cut-off andcompleteness of revenue.

Commercial revenue has been affected by trading conditions as aresult of the coronavirus outbreak, in particular revenue earned in
territories and regions affected at earlier stages of the pandemic.
This heightens the risk around recoverability of revenue duefrom third parties; and the going concern and viability ofcommercial operations.

The scope of my audit work in response
I have carried out work to understand the nature of the BBC’scommercial profits including reviewing contractual documentationand management reporting, making enquires of management
responsible for BBC commercial activities (both within the UK andat significant territories overseas, both by value and by risk). I havealso researched wider market practice in relation to revenue
recognition in the media sector. I used this understanding to assess
the reasonableness of revenue recognition policies adopted by theBBC’s commercial subsidiaries, focusing my attention on the highest
risk and most significant revenue streams: channels, distribution,and format sales.

I reviewed recoverability by assessing the nature of contractual
arrangements, confirming amounts received after the reporting
date, and reviewing management’s assessment of the need toprovide for non-recovery.
I have also assessed the judgements made in respect of amortisionand impairment of commercial distribution rights. I reviewed thebasis on which the amortisation principles were determined,
comparing these to the known and forecast timing of the realisationof the value of these rights. I considered whether any amendments
were required to the policy in light of developments in BBC Studios’
business, and wider market practice, during the reporting period.

My testing included: undertaking detailed analysis of key revenue
streams and identifying transactions with the greatest risk forfurther analysis, reviewing significant revenue contracts tounderstand the key features and confirming that they have beentreated appropriately in the financial statements (with particularfocus on the requirements of IFRS 15, Revenue from Contracts with
Customers); and, considering transactions arising around the year
end, for evidence of delivery and licence period start dates. I haveparticularly focused on the year end, as the timing of BBC Studios’revenue is skewed towards March to coincide with the BBC
Showcase event.
Key observations and the findings I communicated to the Audit
and Risk Committee
I have concluded that commercial revenue and profit is appropriately
recognised and reported.
Whilst considering management’s initial proposals to amend theamortisation profile for distribution rights, we agreed that evidence
did not support changing the profile. Accordingly, I am content thatmanagement has determined an appropriate amortisation profileand this is reflected in the accounting treatment adopted. Where
management has determined commercial distribution rights
should be impaired, I have reviewed and concluded this
impairment is appropriate.

I have considered risks around the recoverability of revenue andconcluded that management has made appropriate provision toaccount for the risk of non-recovery.

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Financial Statements

Key audit matter description

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Financial Statements
Key audit matter description

Accounting for the acquisition of UKTV
Total value of £268 million. Consideration paid of £100million, with anadditional £73million payable in the form of a loan. Refer to note E4.
In June 2019, BBC Studios completed its acquisition of UKTV Media
Holdings Limited (UKTV). BBC Studios previously held 50% of theshare capital of UKTV and accounted for UKTV as a joint venture.
Prior to acquisition, UKTV was restructured to separate therespective lifestyle and entertainment channels and UKTV Play,with the entertainment channels and UKTV Play becoming fully
owned by BBC Studios.

In addition, for the first time in 2019/20, the BBC Group accounts for
UKTV as a wholly owned subsidiary. Additional significant risks ofmaterial misstatement arise in relation to the completeness andaccuracy of the consolidation of UKTV into the BBC Group.

The acquisition of UKTV has been accounted for under IFRS 3,
Business Combinations. Judgement has been applied in determining
the value of the BBC’s investment, the associated goodwill, and theconsideration paid. Assumptions have been made to value intangible
assets such as UKTV customer relationships and the revenue
generating potential of UKTV’s Electronic Programme Guide (EPG)
slots. Judgements are applied in the context of market and operating
conditions in place at the date of acquisition, and the year end. Thereis a significant risk of material misstatement that, should thesejudgements be inappropriately applied, the UKTV investment may
be misstated.
The scope of my audit work in response
I have understood the nature of the acquisition and undertaken
testing as follows:—— I have assessed the judgements and assumptions made regarding
the value of the BBC’s investment in UKTV, the associatedintangible assets and consideration paid. I drew on media-sector
and corporate finance expertise to challenge and assess thereasonableness of the assumptions made by management;—— I have tested the mechanical accuracy of models used bymanagement in preparing the journals underpinning theacquisition accounting, including corroborating inputs into themodel to legal documentation;—— I have reviewed the disclosures made against the requirementsof IFRS 3.

I have, separately, been appointed as the auditor of UKTV from thedate of acquisition. I have treated UKTV as a component of the BBCGroup and taken assurance from the work performed on the UKTV
financial statements by my audit team from the date of acquisition
in forming my BBC Group audit opinion.

The findings I communicated to the Audit and Risk Committee
In reviewing the complex accounting for the calculation of theconsideration paid and the fair value of the BBC’s previously held
investment in UKTV as a joint venture, I agreed adjustments withmanagement. I am satisfied the acquisition of UKTV has been
properly accounted for in the financial statements, and the resultsof UKTV have been completely and accurately consolidated into
the BBC Group financial statements

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Valuation of the pension scheme asset
Total value of pension scheme asset – £247 million (2018/19: £530
million liability). Refer to note C6 (financial disclosures) and note H(accounting policies) and the risks set out in the Audit and Risk
Committee report on page 91.

The BBC accounts for a defined benefit pension scheme. For funding
purposes, the scheme was subject to triennial valuation as at 1 April
2019, and the BBC and pension scheme trustees have agreed arevised repayment plan to reduce the scheme deficit. However, foraccounting purposes the scheme has been assessed by the BBC’s
actuaries as being in a net asset position. The valuation of the net
pension asset reported in the accounts is highly judgemental, andchanges to assumptions can result in material changes to thevaluation. Given this, I have assessed the valuation of the pension
asset as a significant risk to my audit.

The scope of my audit work in response
I have understood the BBC’s pension scheme arrangements andassessed the processes and controls used by management to accountfor them.
Using actuarial experts, I have assessed the reasonableness of key
assumptions used in determining the scheme liability,
benchmarking them against other schemes; and I have assessed thenature and appropriateness of BBC context-specific assumptions.
I have also assessed the expertise and independence of theBBC’s actuaries.

I have taken assurance from the work of the BBC Pension Scheme
auditors in relation to the valuation of scheme assets.
I have tested data inputs used in determining the valuation,
including employer contributions and scheme membership data.
I have tested the accounting entries recognised to the underlying
work performed by the BBC’s actuaries and reviewed disclosures
made to confirm these are in accordance with accounting standards.

Key observations and the findings I communicated to the Audit
and Risk Committee
I am satisfied that the methodology and approach adopted by the
BBC is appropriate for the valuation of the pension scheme asset in
the BBC’s consolidated financial statements.

My challenge of the reasonableness of assumptions has found thatthese all sit within the range I would expect when compared tomarket practice. I consider that the disclosures relating to pension
assets and liabilities comply with the requirements of accounting
standards. Following my audit, management has enhanced
disclosures around the uncertainties inherent in the valuation of thepension scheme assets, in Note C7.

Key audit matter description

Implementing an IT systems upgradeThis key audit matter has a pervasive impact across the transactions
and balances relating to BBC Studios Distribution and the BBC Global
News entities.
In November 2019, BBC Studios Distribution (and several of its
subsidiaries) and BBC Global News implemented a general ledger
upgrade. This upgrade took place as part of an overall financetransformation project which also included changes to existingprocesses and controls, including the system used for preparing theconsolidated financial results of BBC Studios Distribution and its
subsidiaries. Although BBC Studios Distribution does not prepare
consolidated financial statements, the consolidated results areincluded in the BBC Group financial statements.

A change in IT systems and associated processes and controls
inherently creates a pervasive risk around the completeness andaccuracy of underlying records used to prepare the financial
statements, including the consolidation of components andI therefore consider it a significant risk for my audit.

The scope of my audit work in response
I performed testing on the migration of data from the old generalledger system to the upgraded system, including:— understanding the governance arrangements put in place aroundthe finance transformation project;— testing the controls put in place by management to provide
assurance over the complete and accurate migration of data, suchas key reconciliations between the two versions of the generalledger; and— substantively tested opening balances and transactions fromboth versions of the general ledger to gain assurance that
underlying transactions had been appropriately reflected in thefinancial statements.

In respect of the new consolidation system, I tested the processes
put in place by management to provide assurance that theconsolidation process worked using the new system, andsubstantively tested the consolidation including intra-groupeliminations to gain assurance the consolidation had been
appropriately undertaken.

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Financial Statements

Key audit matter description

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Financial Statements
Key audit matter description

Implementing an IT systems upgrade
Key observations and the findings I communicated to the Audit
and Risk Committee
I have concluded that data has been completely and accurately
migrated onto the new general ledger and the consolidation of BBC
Studios Distribution and its subsidiaries has been appropriatelyreflected in the financial statements.
Key audit matter description

Accounting for programme assets
Total value of programme assets – £837 million (2018/19: £743 million).
Refer to note B3 (financial disclosures) and note H (accounting policies)
and the risks set out in the Audit and Risk Committee report on page 91.
The BBC capitalises the costs associated with making a
programme as work-in-progress during the course of a production,and releases these assets from the Statement of Financial Positionat the point a programme is delivered (in the case of BBC Studios)or transmitted (in the case of the Public Service Broadcaster).
Where the rights to broadcast content are acquired, assets andliabilities relating to acquired content are recognised at the pointof payment or commencement of the licence period, whicheveris earlier. The costs of acquired content are expensed on firsttransmission except to the extent that the number of further
showings is contractually agreed, when they are expensed
according to the expected transmission profile.

At the point these programme assets are released, revenue andcosts are recognised in the Consolidated Income Statement as
appropriate. Where costs have been capitalised and remain as
programme assets at the year end, management must consider
whether there are any indicators of impairment: for example,
where a programme may no longer be broadcast. The coronavirus
pandemic has resulted in a number of productions being paused or
sporting and live events being postponed or cancelled. This could
indicate impairment is necessary.
The valuation of programme assets is a highly material estimate in
the accounts, and there is a significant amount of judgement overboth the initial value and the impairment of these assets.
There is a risk that the approach to valuation will result in material
misstatement of the balance sheet, or that the processes to identify
impairment of programme assets are not sufficient to identify
material overstatement of the balance sheet.

The scope of my audit work in response
I have assessed the policy adopted by management in respect ofprogramme assets as a key accounting judgement, including anassessment against IFRS and the wider practice within the media
industry. This included undertaking walkthroughs of the process forvaluing programme assets and the end-to-end process following a
programme lifecycle through the various BBC entities, to ensure a
consistent approach to the recognition of costs and revenue and that
this is appropriately addressed on consolidation.
I substantively tested a sample of programme assets to confirm thatthese had been accounted for in accordance with the policy adopted
by management.

I understood and evaluated the approach to managing production
costs and identifying indicators of impairment and consideredpotential indicators of impairment of programme assets throughmy wider understanding of the business. This included a review
of Board minutes, considering wider information, and holding
discussions with the programme and production accounting teams
to assess the controls over programme spend. I have considered theimplications of coronavirus and whether this has indicated any
impairment is necessary.

The findings I communicated to the Audit and Risk Committee
I consider programme assets to be appropriately accounted for in the
BBC’s consolidated financial statements.

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BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contentsGroup materiality

Benchmark

Overall materiality£25 million(2018/19: same)

0.5% of Group revenue(2018/19: same)

Performancemateriality£18.75 million(2018/19: same)

75% of overallmateriality(2018/19: same)

Reporting threshold£250,000(2018/19; same)

Based on my professional judgement, I determined that overallmateriality for the BBC’s consolidated financial statements at £25
million, which is approximately 0.5% of BBC Group revenue. I chose
this benchmark because, in my professional judgement, income is
the key driver of the BBC’s business; in particular licence fee revenue
and commercial income generated by the BBC is a key driver ofstakeholder interest. Parliament and the public have an interest in
the way in which the BBC is funded and how it spends its funds. The
level of licence fee revenue and commercial income determines theresources available to the BBC and drives strategic decisions aroundspending and investment.
In addition, in those areas of greatest sensitivity and therefore
greatest stakeholder interest I have applied a lower level ofqualitative materiality. These are certain matters that, by theirvery nature, would if not corrected influence the decisions of users,
for example:—— remuneration disclosures;—— matters that could result in a modification of the regularity
opinion; and—— any adjustment that would affect the overall position of the
primary statements at the margin; for example, that would resultin the deficit reported in the consolidated income statement
becoming a surplus or vice-versa.
Assessment of such matters would need to have regard to the natureof the misstatement and the applicable legal and reporting
framework, as well as the size of the misstatement.
I applied the same concept of materiality to my audit of regularity. In
planning and performing audit work in support of my opinion on
regularity and evaluating the impact of any irregular transactions, I
took into account both quantitative and qualitative aspects that I
consider would reasonably influence the decisions of users of thefinancial statements.
I have also reported any unadjusted misstatements exceeding myreporting threshold of £250,000 to the BBC Audit and Risk
Committee, as well as differences below this threshold that, in myview, warranted reporting on qualitative grounds.
Total unadjusted audit differences reported to the Audit Committee
would have decreased net expenditure and increased net assets by£1 million.

Responsibilities of the BBC Board
As explained more fully in the Statement of Board Responsibilities,
the Board is responsible for:—— the preparation of the BBC’s financial statements and for being
satisfied that they give a true and fair view and conform to theauthorities which govern them;—— such internal control as management determines is necessary toenable the preparation of financial statements that are free frommaterial misstatement, whether due to fraud or error;—— assessing the BBC’s ability to continue as a going concern,
disclosing, if applicable, matters relating to going concern andusing the going concern basis of accounting unless the directors
either intend to liquidate the BBC or to cease operations, or haveno realistic alternative but to do so.
Comptroller and Auditor General’s responsibilities for the audit of
the financial statements
My responsibility is to audit, certify and report on the financial
statements in accordance with applicable law and International
Standards on Auditing (ISAs) (UK).
An audit involves obtaining evidence about the amounts anddisclosures in the financial statements sufficient to give reasonableassurance that the financial statements are free from material
misstatement, whether caused by fraud or error. Reasonableassurance is a high level of assurance, but is not a guaranteethat an audit conducted in accordance with ISAs (UK) will always
detect a material misstatement when it exists. Misstatements
can arise from fraud or error and are considered material if,
individually or in the aggregate, they could reasonably be expected
to influence the economic decisions of users taken on the basis ofthese financial statements.
As part of an audit in accordance with ISAs (UK), I exercise
professional judgement and maintain professional scepticism
throughout the audit. I also:—— identify and assess the risks of material misstatement of thefinancial statements, whether due to fraud or error, design andperform audit procedures responsive to those risks, and obtain
audit evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis
for my opinion. The risk of not detecting a material misstatement
resulting from fraud is higher than for one resulting from error, as
fraud may involve collusion, forgery, intentional omissions;misrepresentations, or the override of internal control.
—— obtain an understanding of internal control relevant to the audit
in order to design audit procedures that are appropriate in thecircumstances, but not for the purpose of expressing an opinion
on the effectiveness of the BBC’s internal control;—— evaluate the appropriateness of accounting policies used and thereasonableness of accounting estimates and related disclosures
made by management;—— evaluate the overall presentation, structure and content of thefinancial statements, including the disclosures, and whether the
consolidated financial statements represent the underlying
transactions and events in a manner that achieves fairpresentation; and—— obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence regarding thefinancial information of the entities or business activities within
the group to express an opinion on the consolidated financial
statements. I am responsible for the direction, supervision andperformance of the group audit. I remain solely responsible formy audit opinion.
I communicate with those charged with governance regarding,amongst other matters, the planned scope and timing of the audit
and significant audit findings, including any significant deficiencies
in internal control that I identify during my audit.

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167

Financial Statements

Application of materiality
I applied the concept of materiality in both planning and performing
my audit, and in evaluating the effect of misstatements on my audit
and on the financial statements. This approach recognises that
financial statements are rarely absolutely correct, and that an audit
is designed to provide reasonable, rather than absolute, assurance
that the financial statements are free from material misstatement or
irregularity. A matter is material if its omission or misstatement
would, in the judgement of the auditor, reasonably influence thedecisions of users of the financial statements.

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Financial Statements
I also provide those charged with governance with a statement that I
and my team have complied with relevant ethical requirements
regarding independence, and to communicate with them all
relationships and other matters that may reasonably be thought tobear on our independence, and where applicable, related safeguards.
From the matters communicated with those charged withgovernance, I determine those matters that were of mostsignificance in the audit of the financial statements of the current
period and are therefore the key audit matters. I describe thesematters in my auditor’s report unless law or regulation precludes
public disclosure about the matter or when, in extremely rare
circumstances, I determine that a matter should not be
communicated in my report because the adverse consequences ofdoing so would reasonably be expected to outweigh the public
interest benefits of such communication.
In addition, I am required to obtain evidence sufficient to givereasonable assurance that the income and expenditure reported
in the financial statements conform to the authorities whichgovern them.
Audit scope
The scope of my Group audit was determined by obtaining an
understanding of the Group and its environment, includingGroup-wide controls, and assessing the risks of material
misstatement at the Group level.
The BBC Group comprises over 100 subsidiaries, along with anumber of associates and joint ventures. There are two levels of
consolidation within the BBC Group:—— Level 1: BBC Group, comprising the BBC Public Service
Broadcaster (PSB), PSB subsidiaries, and BBC Commercial
Holdings Group;—— Level 2: BBC Commercial Holdings Group, comprising BBC
Commercial Holdings Limited and subsidiary companies,
including BBC Studios Productions Limited, BBC Studios
Distribution Limited and subsidiary companies; BBC Global
News companies; BBC Studioworks Limited; and BBC Children’s
Productions Limited.
This audit opinion relates to the BBC Group, at level 1. My groupaudit approach has been designed to enable me to form an opinion
on these consolidated financial statements, and my assessment ofsignificant components and the nature of the work I have performed
is as follows:

Level 1: BBC Group
Significant components and auditors— BBC Public Service Broadcaster (NAO)— BBC Commercial Holdings Group(NAO)
Sampled non-significant components— None – due to coverage achieved fromsignificant components
Analytical procedures on nonsignificant components
We performed analytical procedures on
the remaining components.

Level 2: BBC Commercial HoldingsGroup
Significant components and auditors— BBC Global News Ltd (NAO)— BBC Commercial Holdings Ltd (NAO)— BBC Studios Distribution Ltd (NAO)— 2 Entertain Video Ltd (NAO)— UKTV Media Ltd (NAO)— BBC Studios Productions Ltd (NAO)
Sampled non-significant components— BBC Studioworks Ltd (NAO)— Sid Gentle Films Ltd (Ross Bennet
Smith)— BBC Comedy Productions Ltd (NAO)— BBC Studios Productions (Clifton) Ltd(NAO)— BBC Grafton House Productions Ltd(NAO)— BBC Studios Ltd (NAO)— BBC Studios France Sarl (KPMG)— BBC Studios Americas Inc (NAO)— Lookout Point Ltd (Grant Thornton)— BBC Natural History and Factual
Productions Ltd (NAO)— BBC Children’s Productions Ltd (NAO)— BBC Studios Australia Pty Ltd (Grant
Thornton)— New Video Channel America LLC(KPMG)
Analytical procedures on nonsignificant components
We performed analytical procedures on
the remaining components.

168

Total revenue £4,943

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Full scope audit
Analyticalprocedures

98%
2%

Total revenue £1,570

Full scope audit
Analyticalprocedures

95%
5%

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For other components I have undertaken other procedures to gain
the necessary assurances for my audit opinion on the BBC’s
consolidated financial statements. This included evaluating andtesting the BBC’s group-wide controls and performing analyticaland enquiry procedures to address the risk of residual misstatement.
Other information
The BBC Board is responsible for the other information. The otherinformation comprises information included in the Annual Report,other than the parts of the Remuneration Report described in thatreport as having been audited, the financial statements and myauditor’s report thereon. My opinion on the financial statements
does not cover the other information and I do not express any formof assurance conclusion thereon. In connection with my audit of thefinancial statements, my responsibility is to read the otherinformation and, in doing so, consider whether the other information
is materially inconsistent with the financial statements or myknowledge obtained in the audit or otherwise appears to bematerially misstated. If, based on the work I have performed, I
conclude that there is a material misstatement of this otherinformation, I am required to report that fact. I have nothing toreport in this regard.
I am specifically required to address the following items and toreport uncorrected material misstatements in the other information,
where I conclude that those items meet the following conditions:—— fair, balanced and understandable: the statement given by the
directors that the Annual Report and Accounts taken as a whole
are fair, balanced and understandable and provide the necessary
information to enable users to assess the entity’s performance,business model and strategy, is materially inconsistent with myknowledge obtained in the audit; or—— Audit and Risk Committee reporting: the section describing thework of the Group Audit and Risk Committee does not
appropriately address matters communicated by me to the Audit
and Risk Committee.
I also have nothing to report in this regard.
Other matters prescribed by the terms of my engagement
Remuneration
In addition to my audit of the BBC’s consolidated financial
statements, the Board has engaged me to audit the information in
the Board Remuneration Report that is described as having been
audited, which the Board has decided to prepare as if the BBC wererequired to comply with the requirements of Schedule 8 to The
Large and Medium-sized Companies and Groups (Accounts andReports) Regulation 2008 (SI 2008 No 410) made under theCompanies Act 2006.

Financial Statements

I have had direct involvement in the audit strategy of the BBC’ssignificant components, including those significant components
where I have not been appointed as auditor. I have issued Group
Audit Instructions to all significant components by size and risk andto a sample of other components, which enable me to obtain thenecessary assurances required for my audit opinion on the BBC’s
consolidated financial statements. For significant components where
I have not been appointed as auditor, I have met and discussed theaudit strategy, significant audit risks and findings from component
auditors’ work. For these component audits I have also met withcomponent management and attended planning and closing
meetings. The restrictions on travel relating to the coronavirus
pandemic have, in some instances, prevented my team fromphysically attending these meetings and therefore alternative
procedures have been designed to enable the remote review of thework of component auditors by my team. Under the terms of theGroup Audit Instructions I issued, full statutory audit procedures inaccordance with local adaptations of International Standards on
Auditing have been conducted and I have satisfied myself thatsufficient work has been undertaken to provide the necessary
assurances for my audit opinion on the BBC’s consolidated financial
statements. The components subject to these procedures aredescribed as ‘full scope audit’ components in the table above.

In my opinion the parts of the Board Remuneration Report which
I have been engaged to audit have been properly prepared inaccordance with Schedule 8 to the Large and Medium-sizedCompanies and Groups (Accounts and Reports) Regulation 2008,
as if those requirements were to apply to the BBC Group.
I also report to you if, in my opinion, certain disclosures of directors’
remuneration required have not been made. I have nothing to reportarising from this duty.
The strategic and governance reports
In my opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of theaudit, the information given in the Strategic and Governance reports
for the financial year are consistent with the financial statements
and have been prepared in accordance with applicable law.
Based on my knowledge and understanding of the BBC and its
environment obtained during the audit, I have identified no material
misstatements in these reports.
The corporate governance statement
In my opinion, based on the work undertaken in the course of
the audit:—— the information given in the corporate governance statement, incompliance with rules 7.2.5 and 7.2.6 in the Disclosure Rules andTransparency Rules sourcebook made by Financial Conduct
Authority (the FCA Rules), in respect of internal control and risk
management systems in relation to financial reporting processes,
and about share capital structures, is consistent with theaccounts and has been prepared in accordance with applicablelegal requirements.
—— rules 7.2.2, 7.2.3 and 7.2.7 of the FCA Rules about the Group’s
corporate governance code and practices and about its
administrative, management and supervisory bodies and theircommittees have been complied with.
Based on my knowledge and understanding of the Group and its
environment obtained during the course of the audit, I haveidentified no material misstatements in this information.
Matters on which I report by exception
Adequacy of accounting records information and explanations
received
I report to you if, in my opinion:—— adequate accounting records have not been kept, or returns
adequate for my audit have not been received from branches not
visited by my staff;—— the financial statements and the part of the Remuneration Report
to be audited are not in agreement with the accounting records
and returns;—— certain disclosures of directors’ remuneration specified by law
are not made;—— I have not received all the information and explanations I require
for my audit; or—— a corporate governance statement has not been prepared.
I have nothing to report arising from this duty.
ReportI have no matters to report.

Gareth Davies
Comptroller and Auditor General
National Audit Office157-197 Buckingham Palace Road
London, SW1W 9SP
3 September 2020

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169

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The BBC’s consolidated financial statements
These financial statements comprise boththe primary statements and additional
supporting disclosure notes. The primarystatements are:Consolidated income statement
The income received and expenditure incurred by the BBC Group’s
operations during the financial year.
Consolidated statement of comprehensive income/(loss)
Items of income and expense, including reclassification adjustments,that are not directly recognised in the income statement and hence
are charged or credited directly to reserves.
Consolidated balance sheet
The statement of the assets and liabilities of the BBC Group at a
specific point in time, the financial year end.
Consolidated statement of changes in equity
Components that make up the capital and reserves of the BBC Groupand the changes to each component during the financial year.
Consolidated cash flow statement
Cash generated by the BBC Group from its operations and how thosecash flows have been used.

170

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Consolidated income statement
2020
£m

2019
£m

Licence fee income
Other income

A1
A1

3,520
1,423

3,690
1,199

Total income

A1

4,943

4,889

Total operating costs
Share of results of associates and joint ventures

A1
E3(5,093)28(4,977)36

Group operating deficit
Gains on disposal
Other gains and losses
Net financing costs

G4
G5
F11

(122)
118
(6)
(100)

(52)
36
7
(65)

Deficit before taxation
Taxation

G1.1

(110)
(9)

(74)
5

Deficit for the year

(119)

(69)

Attributable to:BBC
Non-controlling interests

(122)
3

(70)
1

Deficit for the year

(119)

(69)

2020
£m

2019
£m

(119)

(69)

862

38

862

38

9
(9)
–

15
2
(1)

–

16

Other comprehensive income net of tax

862

54

Total comprehensive income/(loss) for the year

743

(15)

Attributable to:BBC
Non-controlling interests

740
3

(16)
1

Total comprehensive income/(loss) for the year

743

(15)

Consolidated statement of comprehensive
income/(loss)
Note

Deficit for the year
Other comprehensive income:Remeasurement on defined benefit pension schemes

C6.2

Total items that will not be reclassified to the income statement in the future
Currency translation adjustment(Loss)/gain on cash flow hedges
Deferred tax charge on financial instruments

G7.3
G7.2

Total items that may be reclassified to the income statement in the future

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171

Financial Statements

NoteReturn to contents

Consolidated balance sheet
As at 31 March
2020
£m

2019
£m

438
584
1,568
33
243
245
2
397
15
247

247
1,028
–
70
257
38
–
449
8
–

3,772

2,097

837
1,075
5
2
9
44
401

743
1,131
4
–
2
29
468

2,373

2,377

(1,082)
(137)
(308)
(70)
(14)
(9)

(1,014)
(119)
(30)
(83)
(3)
(7)

(1,620)(1,256)(88)(36)(1,738)
(83)
(548)
(39)
–

(43)
(21)
(824)
(60)
(552)
(16)
(530)

(2,532)(2,046)

1,993

1,172

1,983
(8)
43
(27)

1,162
1
34
(27)

Non-controlling interests

1,991
2

1,170
2

Total capital and reserves

1,993

1,172

Note

Non-current assets
Intangible assets (including goodwill)
Property, plant and equipment
Right-of-use assets
Investment properties
Interests in associates and joint ventures
Trade and other receivables
Investments
Derivative financial instruments
Deferred tax assets
Pension assets

E1
D1
D2
D3
E3
F7.1
G3.2
G1.5
C6.1

Current assets
Programme-related assets and other inventories
Trade and other receivables
Contract assets
Assets classified as held for sale
Derivative financial instruments
Current tax assets
Cash and cash equivalents

Current liabilities
Trade and other payables
Contract liabilities
Borrowings
Provisions
Derivative financial instruments
Current tax liabilities

B3
F7.2
A4.2
D5
G3.2
G1.4
F1

F9.2
A4.2
F4.1
F10
G3.2
G1.6

Non-current liabilities
Trade and other payables
Contract liabilities
Borrowings
Provisions
Derivative financial instruments
Deferred tax liabilities
Pension liabilities

F9.1
A4.2
F4.2
F10
G3.2
G1.5
C6.1

Net assets
Attributable to the BBC:Operating reserve
Hedging reserve
Translation reserve
Other reserves

G7.1
G7.2
G7.3
G7.4

The financial statements were approved by the Board and authorised for issue on 2 September 2020, and signed on their behalf by:

Tim Davie
Director-General

172

Glyn Isherwood
Chief Financial Officer

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Consolidated statement of changes in equity

At 1 April 2018
(Deficit)/surplus for the year
Currency translation adjustment
Cash flow hedges
Deferred tax on financial instruments
Remeasurement of defined benefit pension
scheme

G7.3
G7.2

C6.2

Total
£m

Total
£m

(27)

1,186

2

1,188

–
15
–
–

–
–
–
–

(70)
15
2
(1)

1
–
–
–

(69)
15
2
(1)

Hedging
reserve£m

Translation
reserve£m

Otherreserves
£m

1,194

–

19

(70)
–
–
–

–
–
2
(1)

38

–

–

–

38

–

38

(32)
–

1
–

15
–

–
–

(16)
–

1
(1)

(15)
(1)

At 31 March 2019 as previously stated*
First-time adoption of IFRS 16*

1,162
81

1
–

34
–

(27)
–

1,170
81

2
–

1,172
81

At 31 March 2019 restated

1,243

1

34

(27)

1,251

2

1,253

G7.3
G7.2

(122)
–
–

–
–
(9)

–
9
–

–
–
–

(122)
9
(9)

3
–
–

(119)
9
(9)

C6.2

862

–

–

–

862

–

862

740
–

(9)
–

9
–

–
–

740
–

3
(3)

743
(3)

1,983

(8)

43

(27)

1,991

2

1,993

Total comprehensive (loss)/income for the year
Dividends declared in year

(Deficit)/surplus for the year
Currency translation adjustment
Cash flow hedges
Remeasurement of defined benefit
pension scheme
Total comprehensive income/(loss) for the year
Dividends declared in year
At 31 March 2020

* The Group has applied IFRS 16 using the modified retrospective approach. Under this method, the comparative information is not restated. See accounting policies in section H for
further details.

Consolidated cash flow statement
Note

Operating activities
Cash generated from operations
Tax (paid)/reimbursed

F6

Net cash from operations
Investing activities
Interest received
Financing income relating to swap transactions
Dividends received from associates and joint ventures
Dividends paid to non-controlling interests
Proceeds from sale of operations
Acquisition of other investments
Acquisition of interests in associates and joint ventures
Acquisition of subsidiary net of cash acquired
Purchases of other intangible assets
Purchases of property, plant and equipment

F11
E3

E4

Net cash used in investing activities
Financing activities
Interest paid
Proceeds from increase in borrowings
Repayments of borrowings
Payment of obligations under leases

F11

Net cash used in financing activities

2020
£m

2019
£m

392
(29)

255
6

363

261

8
12
8
(3)
–
(2)
(4)
37
(212)
(110)

9
11
27
(1)
32
–
(4)
(2)
(192)
(130)

(266)

(250)

(4)
–
(8)
(152)

(4)
11
(2)
(73)

(164)

(68)

(67)

(57)

Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of the year
Effect of foreign exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents

F1

468
–

523
2

Cash and cash equivalents at the end of the year

F1

401

468

Net decrease in cash and cash equivalents

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

173

Financial Statements

Note

Noncontrollinginterests£mOperatingreserve£mReturn to contents

Key themes for the BBC
Page

A. Where the BBC’s income comes from
Income and operating results
Licence fee income

Income analysis
Contribution of commercial activities

175

Analysis of total operating costs by commercial activities

179

Group pension plans
Related party transactions with key management personnel

180

B. How the BBC spends the funds
Total operating costs
Programme-related assets and other inventories
C. What the BBC spends on its people
Key management personnel compensation
Persons employed
Employee costs

D. The property, technology and equipment used by the BBC to make and distribute its programmes
Property, plant and equipment
Right-of-use assets
Assets held for sale

Investment properties

185

Lease income received as a lessor

E. Investments in the BBC’s commercial activities
Intangible assets
GoodwillInterests in associates and joint ventures
Acquisitions

187

Trade and other payables
Experience credit losses
Provisions and contingent liabilities
Net financing costs
Long-term commitments not reflected in the balance sheet

190

F. Managing funding (including future costs)
Cash and cash equivalents
Analysis of net funds
Borrowings and borrowing facilities
Cash generated from operations
Trade and other receivables

174

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Notes to the accounts
Financial Statements

A. Where the BBC’s income comes fromThe BBC generates its income from a number of key sources, each source funding different parts of the BBC’s activity. The notes in thissection provide information on the performance in the year for each segment of the BBC Group.
The distinction between the various income sources is important as the BBC must not cross-subsidise its commercial activities through its
PSB Group or grant-funded activities. However, the performance of the Group’s commercial activities aim to generate profits that are
distributed back to the BBC and contribute towards the funding of PSB Group activities.
The BBC’s operating segments are reported in a manner consistent with the internal reports provided to the BBC Board, who are responsible
for making strategic decisions, allocating resources and assessing performance of the operating segments.
Segmental information provided to the BBC Board is aligned to the BBC’s income sources. The reportable segments are:—— PSB Group – Primarily receives licence fee income and is responsible for the Group’s Public Service activities;—— BBC Studios – Generates income from exploiting the various assets of the BBC, for example by licensing programme formats, sellinginternational rights, merchandising and production facilities. Income is also generated through subscription fees from the broadcast of
the group’s channels on pay television platforms and from the production of programme content across factual, drama, comedy andentertainment genres; and—— Other commercials – These have been aggregated for reporting purposes as they meet the conditions set out in IFRS 8 Operating
Segments. This includes the Global News group, BBC Studioworks Limited, BBC Childrens Productions Limited and the commercial
holding companies.
Group adjustments reflect eliminations required for trading activity between the segments detailed above.
The prices charged for services provided between the PSB Group and the commercial activities are determined on an arm’s length basis inaccordance with Ofcom’s Trading and Separation Obligations and the BBC’s published transfer pricing methodologies.
Included within this section is additional information to comply with Ofcom’s Commercial and Trading Reporting requirements.
A1 Income and operating results
2020

Note

PSB Group£m

BBC Studios
£m

Other
commercials
£m

Group
adjustments
£m

Group
£m

Licence fee income

A2

3,520

–

–

–

3,520

A4.1

182
87
30
4

1,388
–
–
–

197
–
–
–

(450)
–
(15)
–

1,317
87
15
4

303

1,388

197

(465)

1,423

Total income from contracts withcustomers
Grant income
Rental and associated income
Other income
Total other income
Total income

A3

3,823

1,388

197

(465)

4,943

Depreciation and amortisation
Other operating costs

B1

(183)
(3,812)(221)(1,089)

(5)
(234)

2
449

(407)
(4,686)

Total operating costs
Share of results of associates and joint
venturesB2(3,995)(1,310)

(239)

451

(5,093)

E3

–

28

–

–

28

G5

(172)
–
–

106
118
(5)

(42)
–
(1)

(14)
–
–

(122)
118
(6)

(172)

219

(43)

(14)

(10)

Group operating (deficit)/surplus
Gains on disposal
Other losses
Operating segment result
Financing income
Financing costs

F11
F11

29
(129)

Net financing costs

F11

(100)

Deficit before taxation
Taxation

G1.1

(110)
(9)
(119)

Deficit for the year

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

175Return to contents

Notes to the accounts
A. Where the BBC’s income comes from continued
A1 Income and operating results continued
BBC Studios
£m

Other
commercials
£m

Group
adjustments
£m

Group
£m

2019

Note

PSB Group£m

Licence fee income

A2

3,690

–

–

–

3,690

A4.1

187
89
46
5

1,189
–
–
–

183
–
–
–

(484)
–
(16)
–

1,075
89
30
5

327

1,189

183

(500)

1,199

Total income from contracts withcustomers
Grant income
Rental and associated income
Other income
Total other income
Total income

A3

4,017

1,189

183

(500)

4,889

Depreciation and amortisation
Other operating costs

B1

(151)
(3,925)

(173)
(967)

(3)
(175)

–
417

(327)
(4,650)Total operating costs
Share of results of associates and joint
venturesB2(4,076)(1,140)

(178)

417

(4,977)

E3

–

36

–

–

36

G5

(59)
–
–

85
36
15

5
–
(8)

(83)
–
–

(52)
36
7

(59)

136

(3)

(83)

(9)

Group operating (deficit)/surplus
Gain on disposal of non-current assets
Other gains/(losses)
Operating segment result
Financing income
Financing costs

F11
F11

23
(88)

Net financing costs

F11

(65)

Deficit before taxation
Taxation

G1.1

(74)
5

Deficit for the year

(69)

A2 Licence fee income
Licences in force
2020
Number‘000

Total income
2020£m

Licence fee
2019£

Licences in force
2019
Number‘000

Total income
2019£m21,128
5
144
4,669

3,250
–
1
253

150.50
50.50
7.50
–

21,408
5
167
4,603

3,205
–
1
468

25,9463,504
16

26,183

Quarterly payment scheme premium

3,674
16

Total licence fee income

3,520

Licence fee
2020£

Colour
Monochrome
Concessionary
Over-75s

154.50
52.00
7.50

3,690

During the year, 3 million (2019: 3 million) colour licences were issued under the quarterly payment scheme at a premium of £5 each(2019: £5).
Households in which one or more persons over the age of 75 reside, as their primary residence, were entitled to a free licence in 2019/20. The
BBC is not reimbursed for these free licences but received a fixed amount of £247 million (2019: £468 million) from the Department for Workand Pensions (DWP). Income of £6 million has also been received from the DWP to reimburse refunds of over-75 licences paid for by the
BBC (2019: £nil). The obligation for the BBC to take over the funding for free TV licences for the over-75s was phased in from April 2018 andwas handed over in full during 2020. For 2020/21 and onwards, the BBC will not receive any funding from the DWP for over-75s licences.
The BBC has decided to collect over-75s income from 1 August 2020 for those not on pension credit.

176

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

2020

2019

External income£mIntra-group
income£m

Total income£mExternal income£mIntra-group
income£m

Total income
£m

3,520

–

3,520

3,690

–

3,690

Content and format sales
Production income
Royalties
Advertising income
Consumer products (including ticket sales)
Other contract income

9
28
22
2
16
12

29
7
22
–
1
34

38
35
44
2
17
46

11
29
16
2
21
20

32
8
16
–
1
31

43
37
32
2
22
51

Total income from contracts withcustomers

89

93

182

99

88

187

Grant income
Rental and associated income
Other income

87
15
4

–
15
–

87
30
4

89
30
5

–
16
–

89
46
5

Licence fee income

Total other income
Total income

106

15

121

124

16

140

3,715

108

3,823

3,913

104

4,017

A4 Income from contracts with customers
A4.1 Disaggregation of income
In the following table, income is disaggregated by segment, income streams and timing of income recognition. See note G10 for ageographical split of total income which differs to contract income primarily by licence fee income (see note A2).

2020

PSB Group£m

BBC Studios
£m

Other
commercials
£m

Group
adjustments
£m

Group
£m

38
35
44
2
–
17
46

447
442
33
168
209
89
–

–
82
–
69
46
–
–

(29)
(363)
(22)
(2)
–
(1)
(33)

456
196
55
237
255
105
13

182

1,388

197

(450)

1,317

119
63

1,179
209

157
40

(406)
(44)

1,049
268

A1

182

1,388

197

(450)

1,317

Note

PSB Group£m

BBC Studios
£m

Other
commercials
£m

Group
adjustments
£m

Group
£m

43
37
32
2
–
22
51

412
492
32
23
141
89
–

–
69
–
68
46
–
–

(32)
(403)
(16)
(1)
–
(1)
(31)

423
195
48
92
187
110
20

187

1,189

183

(484)

1,075

138
49

1,048
141

147
36

(450)
(34)

883
192

187

1,189

183

(484)

1,075

Note

Income streams
Content and format sales
Production income
Royalties
Advertising income
Subscription fees
Consumer products (including ticket sales)
Other contract income
A1, A3
Timing of transfer of goods and services
Point in time
Over time

2019

Income streams
Content and format sales
Production income
Royalties
Advertising income
Subscription fees
Consumer products (including ticket sales)
Other contract income
A1, A3
Timing of transfer of goods and services
Point in time
Over timeA1

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

177

Financial Statements

A. Where the BBC’s income comes from continued
A3 PSB income

Return to contents

Notes to the accounts
A. Where the BBC’s income comes from continued
A4 Income from contracts with customers continued
A4.2 Contract balances
Contract assets (accrued income) primarily relate to the BBC’s right to consideration for work completed but not billed at the reporting date.
Contract liabilities (deferred income) primarily relate to the consideration received from customers in advance of transferring a good orservice. The following table provides analysis on significant changes to contract assets and liabilities during the year:
Contract assets

Contract liabilities

2020
£m

2019
£m

2020
£m

2019
£m

At 1 April
Balance transferred following adoption of IFRS 15
Decrease due to balance transferred to trade receivables
Decrease due to income recognised in the period
New contract assets
Increase due to cash received in advance and not recognised as income
during the year

4
–
(4)
–
5

–
3
(3)
–
4

(140)
–
–
104
–

–
(64)
–
50
–

–

–

(137)

(126)

At 31 March

5

4

(173)

(140)

Presented within:
Current
Non-current

5
–

4
–

(137)
(36)

(119)
(21)

5

4

(173)

(140)

A4.3 Transaction price allocated to the remaining performance obligations
The following table includes income expected to be recognised in the future related to the performance obligations that are unsatisfied (orpartially unsatisfied) at the reporting date.

Content and format sales
Production income
Royalties
Advertising income
Subscription fees
Consumer products (including ticket sales)

2021
£m

2022
£m

2023
£m

Beyond
£m

160
128
7
137
192
7

95
182
6
171
140
7

40
96
4
158
50
–

147
245
4
736
47
–

631

601

348

1,179

No consideration from contracts with customers is excluded from the amounts presented above.
The BBC applies the practical expedient allowable by paragraph 121 of IFRS 15 and does not disclose information about the remaining
performance obligations that have original expected durations of one year or less.
A4.4 Contract costs
There were no capitalised commission fees or any other contract costs in the current year or prior year.
Applying the practical expedient in paragraph 94 of IFRS 15 Revenue from Contracts with Customers, the BBC recognises the incremental
costs of obtaining contracts as an expense when incurred if the amortisation period of the assets that the BBC otherwise would haverecognised is one year or less.
A5 Contribution of commercial activities
A dividend of £3 million (2019: £73 million) was declared by BBC Commercial Holdings Limited to the PSB Group.
In the year ended 31 March 2020, the following dividends were declared to BBC Commercial Holdings Ltd:—— £71 million by BBC Studios (2019: £65 million);—— £3 million by BBC Childrens Productions Limited (2019: £nil).
In the year ended 31 March 2019, the following dividends were also declared to BBC Commercial Holdings Ltd:—— £43 million by BBC Global News of which £41 million was a dividend in specie; and—— £1 million by BBC Studioworks.
The dividends above are not identifiable in the consolidated primary statements as they are eliminated during the consolidation process.

178

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

B1 Total operating costs
Total operating costs have been arrived at after charging the following items:

Intangible fixed assets, property, plant and equipment and other investments
Depreciation– owned assets– leased assets
Amortisation of intangible fixed assets
Impairment of investments in associates and joint ventures
Impairment of intangible assets
Inventories
Write-downs of programme-related assets recognised as an expense
Other operating costs
Expenses relating to short-term leases
Expenses relating to leases of low value assets, excluding short-term leases
Audit fees (see below)
Research costs1
Online and TV development
Net exchange differences on settled transactions
Impairment of trade receivables
Staff costs

Note

2020
£m

2019
£m

D1, D3
D2, D3
E1
E3
E1

93
87
227
2
4

101
35
191
1
21

1

2

8
1
2
20
62
(15)
1
1,532

–
–
2
21
76
(8)
7
1,480

F8
C2

The National Audit Office served as independent external auditor for the years ended 31 March 2020 and 31 March 2019.
The following table presents the aggregate fees for professional services and other services rendered by the external auditors to the BBC:
2020
£m

2019
£m

For the audit of the BBC’s annual accounts
For the audit of subsidiaries of the BBC

1
1

1
1

Total fees paid22Non-audit services with other auditors (primarily taxation compliance services) totalled £0.3 million (2019: £0.2 million).
B2 Analysis of total operating costs by commercial activities
BBC Studios

Cost of sales
Distribution costs
Administration expenses
Total operating costs

Other commercials

Total commercials

2020
£m

2019
£m

2020
£m

2019
£m

2020
£m

2019
£m

998
114
198

880
54
206

181
–
58

166
–
12

1,179
114
256

1,046
54
218

1,310

1,140

239

178

1,549

1,318

Administration expenses included impairment costs of £4 million (2019: £21 million) as detailed within note B1. A further £36 millionof intra-group impairment costs was also recognised within administration expenses, but then eliminated on consolidation of thegroup results.

1 See Glossary for further details.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

179

Financial Statements

B. How the BBC spends the funds
This section analyses the total operating costs incurred by the BBC.

Return to contents

Notes to the accounts
B. How the BBC spends the funds continued
B3 Programme-related assets and other inventories
The main output of the BBC is the production of programmes for broadcast and the sale of rights for others to broadcast. This note discloses
the amounts for those programmes that are in production, completed programmes that are ready for broadcast but not yet aired, and rights
secured to broadcast programmes produced independently of the BBC. Inventory for the BBC’s commercial activities are also contained inthis note.
2020
£m

2019
£m

Programme-related assets– Rights to broadcast acquired programmes and films– Prepayments to acquire future programme-related rights– Completed programmes– Programmes in production

175
451
59
146

99
432
67
139

Total programme-related assets
Other inventories

831
6

737
6

Total programme-related assets and other inventories

837

743

C. What the BBC spends on its people
The BBC employs a significant number of people. It also provides pension benefits to both current and past employees. This section is broken
into two main parts; the first details employee numbers (excluding freelancers and agency staff), costs and transactions with members of the
BBC Board and BBC Executive Committee who served during the year. The second presents the key information relating to the BBC Group’s
pension plans.
The analysis provided in the pension notes is based on the IAS 19 Employee Benefits estimate of the scheme’s assets and liabilities as at
31 March 2020. The most recent actuarial valuation of the pension scheme completed by Willis Towers Watson showed a funding shortfallof £1,138 million at 1 April 2019. See note C6 for further details.
Further information on the analysis of the BBC Pension Scheme assets and the assumptions underlying the liabilities are set out in note G2.
C1 Persons employed
The average number of persons employed in the year was:Average for the year

At 31 March

2020
Number

2019*
Number

2020
Number

2019
NumberPSB Group
BBC Studios
Other commercials

19,572
2,672
505

19,231
2,641
456

19,4302,768
520

19,4782,536
468

Group total

22,74922,32822,71822,482* The comparatives for BBC Studios have been restated to better reflect the average headcount for the prior year.

Within the averages above, 3,085 (2019: 2,907) part-time employees have been included at their full-time equivalent of 1,971 (2019: 1,840).
In addition to the above, the BBC employed an average full-time equivalent of 1,372 (2019: 1,350) persons on a casual contract.
C2 Employee remuneration
Note

Salaries and wages
Social security costs
Pension costs
Main scheme (defined benefit)
Other schemes

C6.3
C6.3

2020
£m

2019
£m

1,115
135

1,078
132

226
56

224
46

1,532

1,480

The employer cash contributions to the defined benefit pension scheme are borne by each business.
Employee pension contributions made via salary sacrifice are included within pension costs, with a corresponding reduction in salaries
and wages.
C3 Remuneration of the BBC Board
The total emoluments of the members of the BBC Board and BBC Executive Committee are disclosed in the remuneration report.

180

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Financial Statements

C. What the BBC spends on its people continued
C4 Key management personnel compensation
Key management personnel are those people who have authority and responsibility for planning, directing and controlling the activitiesof the BBC. This includes members of the BBC Board and BBC Executive Committee, including the non-executive directors (see theBBC executive remuneration report). At 31 March 2020, 27 individuals were classified as key management personnel (2019: 24).
Information about the BBC’s structure, senior staff salaries and expenses are published on the BBC’s website.
Key management personnel compensation is as follows:

Short-term employee benefits
Post-employment benefits

2020
£m

2019
£m

6.2
0.3

5.8
0.2

6.5

6.0

C5 Related party1 transactions with key management personnel
Charlotte Moore (executive director) has a close family member who is a director of Perry Images Limited. During the year, this company
provided an immaterial amount of service to the BBC. There were no outstanding balances as at 31 March 2020 relating to this company.
Tanni Grey-Thompson (non-executive director) received a trivial amount as an on-air contributor during the year.
C6 Group pension plans
The following section includes the key notes relating to BBC Group pension plans and, more specifically, the BBC Pension Scheme1. Further
supplementary notes on the assumptions underpinning the value of the BBC Pension Scheme assets and liabilities are disclosed in note G2.
As the BBC Group has two defined benefit pension schemes, the BBC Pension Scheme and the Unfunded Scheme, the information in thissection analyses the asset/liability and income statement charge between the two schemes (note C6). Separate analysis follows in respect of
the BBC Pension Scheme to highlight the points outlined below (note C7).
The defined benefit pension schemes give rise to net assets/liabilities which are included on the BBC Group balance sheet as the BBC bears
the risks of investment returns, life expectancies and inflation, which impact the future pension payment amounts. The net position consistsof two parts:—— scheme liabilities: the present value of the future pension payments the BBC is required to pay in respect of employee service performed
up to the balance sheet date; and—— scheme assets: the assets held by the pension fund, into which the BBC pays annual contributions. These assets are used to fund thepayments to retired members and to generate returns to fund future pension payments.
The analysis provided in the following notes is based on the IAS 19 estimate of the Scheme’s assets and liabilities as at 31 March 2020. The
most recent triennial actuarial valuation of the pension scheme as at 1 April 2019 by Wilson Towers Watson showed a funding shortfall of£1,138 million. The next triennial valuation is due 1 April 2022.
The BBC Group’s defined contribution pension plans do not give rise to balance sheet pension assets/liabilities as there is no ongoing liability
for the employer from these plans once the contributions due for the year have been settled. The expenditure on the defined contribution
scheme shown in these accounts represents the BBC’s contributions during the financial year.
C6.1 Pension assets/(liabilities) included in the balance sheet
The pension assets/liabilities included in the BBC Group balance sheet comprise both the BBC Pension Scheme and the Unfunded Scheme
and are analysed below:
Pension assets/(liabilities)
2020
£m

2019
£m

BBC Pension Scheme
Unfunded Scheme

255
(8)

(522)
(8)

Total

247

(530)

1 See Glossary for further details.

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Notes to the accounts
C. What the BBC spends on its people continued
C6.2 Group pension plans
BBC Pension
Scheme2020£m

Unfunded
Scheme
2020
£m

Total
2020
£m

BBC Pension
Scheme2019£m

Unfunded
Scheme
2019
£m

Total
2019
£m

Deficit in scheme at the start of the year
Movement in the year:
Current service cost1
Contributions (from employer)
Past service costs1
Administration costs incurred
Net finance cost1
Remeasurement1 gains

(522)

(8)

(530)

(510)

(8)

(518)

(225)
159
(1)
(8)
(10)
862

–
–
–
–
–
–

(225)
159
(1)
(8)
(10)
862

(206)
191
(18)
(7)
(10)
38

–
–
–
–
–
–

(206)
191
(18)
(7)
(10)
38

Surplus/(deficit) in scheme at the endof the year

255

(8)

247

(522)

(8)

(530)

The assumptions for pension scheme liabilities of the Unfunded Scheme are the same as the main scheme. As the scheme is unfunded there
are no assets.
C6.3 Pension charges in consolidated income statement
Defined benefit schemes

Note

2020
Current service cost
Past service costs
Administration costs

C2
C2

Total operating charge
Net finance cost

F11

Net cost in consolidated income statement
2019
Current service cost
Past service costs
Administration costs

C2
C2

Total operating charge
Net finance cost
Net cost in consolidated income statement

F11

BBC Pension
Scheme£m

Unfunded
Scheme£m

Definedcontribution
scheme£m

All schemes
£m

(225)
(1)
(8)

–
–
–

(56)
–
–

(281)
(1)
(8)

(234)

–

(56)

(290)

(10)

–

–

(10)

(244)

–

(56)

(300)

(206)
(18)
(7)

–
–
–

(46)
–
–

(252)
(18)
(7)

(231)

–

(46)

(277)

(10)

–

–

(10)

(241)

–

(46)

(287)

C7 BBC Pension Scheme
The BBC Pension Scheme is closed to new entrants. It provides pensionable salary-related benefits on a defined benefit basis.
The pension scheme is administered by a fund that is legally separated from the BBC Group. The Trustees of the pension fund are requiredby law to act in the interest of the fund and of all relevant stakeholders of the scheme. The pension scheme Trustees manage the plan in the
short, medium and long term. They make funding decisions based on valuations which take a longer-term view of the assets required to fundthe scheme’s liabilities.

1 See Glossary for further details.

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Financial Statements

C. What the BBC spends on its people continued
C7 BBC Pension Scheme continued
The pension scheme exposes the BBC to the following actuarial risks:
Risk

Description

Investment risk

Actual returns may differ from expected returns. Investments are diversified, across and within asset classes, toavoid over-exposure to any one asset class or market.

Currency risk

Scheme assets are subject to currency risk because some of the Scheme’s investments are held in overseas
markets, either as segregated investments or via pooled investment vehicles (PIV). The Trustees limit overseas
currency exposure through a currency hedging policy which seeks to partially hedge the major currency
exposures (Euro and US dollar).

Counterparty risk

A counterparty may default whilst owing money to the scheme. Collateral is posted by the counterparty forlong-term transactions when the valuation of the transaction is favourable to the scheme.

Interest risk

A fall in interest rates would cause the present value of liabilities to rise. To mitigate this risk, the scheme’s Trustees
invest in bonds, derivatives and other investments with predictable long-term cash flows that will tend to rise in
price if interest rates fall.

Longevity risk

Longer life expectancy would increase the scheme’s liabilities. The scheme’s Trustees regularly assess thepossibility and value of hedging the scheme’s longevity risk.

Inflation risk

An increase in expected inflation will cause the present value of liabilities to rise if it is not accompanied by a risein interest rates. To mitigate this risk, the scheme’s Trustees invest in index-linked bonds, derivatives and otherassets whose value is likely to increase if inflation rises.

Liquidity risk

The scheme may not have sufficient liquid assets to allow it to meet its liabilities and other obligations as they falldue. The amount of cash held to pay benefits is assessed well in advance to minimise unforeseen sales andtransaction costs and the large majority of the scheme’s assets are invested in highly liquid assets.

Custody risk

The collapse of the scheme’s custodian could result in a significant proportion of the scheme’s assets being frozen
or put at risk of loss. The scheme undertakes rigorous due diligence of the custodian relationship and conducts
regular service level reviews.

Current and ongoing economic uncertainty arising from the coronavirus pandemic means that asset valuation techniques that rely on
unobservable inputs are reported on the basis of ‘material valuation uncertainty’ as transactional activity in the market is currently below
normal levels. Level 3 assets are valued in line with industry standard guidelines, including RICS methodology for Property and IPEV
guidelines for Private Equity. At 31 March 2020 Direct and Pooled property was valued at £1,572 million and a 5% reduction would equate to£79 million. Private Equity mandates were valued at £800 million and a 5% reduction would equate to £40 million.
C7.1 Scheme financial position
Accounting valuations of the scheme are performed by Willis Towers Watson, consulting actuaries. Formal actuarial valuations areundertaken at least every three years.
IAS 19 valuation1

Note

2020
£m

2019
£m

Scheme assets
Scheme liabilities

G2.2
G2.1

17,203(16,948)

17,183(17,705)

255

(522)

102%

97%

Surplus/(deficit)
Percentage by which scheme assets cover liabilities
Key movements in the year are shown in notes G2.1 and G2.2.

A deferred tax asset or liability in relation to the scheme does not arise for the BBC because most of the BBC’s public service activity is not
subject to taxation.
The sensitivities of the scheme’s liabilities to changes in the principal assumptions are set out below:

2020

Assumption used

Movement

Impact on scheme
liabilities%

Discount rate
Discount rate
Retail price inflation rate
Retail price inflation rate
Mortality rate
Mortality rate

2.2%
2.2%
2.8%
2.8%
See note G2.5
See note G2.5

decrease 0.1%
increase 0.1%
decrease 0.1%
increase 0.1%
decrease 1 year
increase 1 year

2.0%
1.7%
1.7%
1.8%
4.8%
4.5%

(Increase)/decrease on
scheme liabilities
£m

(339)
295
296
(304)
813
(760)

1 See Glossary for further details.

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Notes to the accounts
C. What the BBC spends on its people continued
C7 BBC Pension Scheme continued
C7.1 Scheme financial position continued

2019

Assumption used

Movement

Impact on scheme
liabilities%

Discount rate
Discount rate
Retail price inflation rate
Retail price inflation rate
Mortality rate
Mortality rate

2.3%
2.3%
3.2%
3.2%
See note G2.5
See note G2.5

decrease 0.1%
increase 0.1%
decrease 0.1%
increase 0.1%
decrease 1 year
increase 1 year

2.2%
1.7%
1.7%
1.8%
4.6%
4.4%

(Increase)/decrease on
scheme liabilities
£m

(398)
299
304
(312)
808
(771)

The sensitivity analysis presented above may not be representative of the actual change in the defined benefit obligation due to thelikelihood of some linkage between assumptions.
In presenting the above sensitivity analysis, the present value of the defined benefit obligation has been calculated using the projected unit
credit method at the end of the reporting period, which is the same as that applied in calculating the defined benefit obligation liability
recognised in the statement of financial position.
C7.2 Funding the scheme
The 2019 actuarial valuation of the pension scheme by Willis Towers Watson showed a funding shortfall of £1,138 million. A recovery plan
was agreed between the BBC and the pension scheme Trustees which details the additional contributions to be paid by the BBC through to
December 2028. The deficit recovery payments agreed are as follows:Due date

31 March 2021
31 March 2022
31 March 2023
31 March 2024
31 March 2025

Amount
£m

48
47
75
87
94

Amount£m

Due date

31 March 2026
31 March 2027
31 March 2028
31 December 2028

102
110
118
83

The next formal actuarial valuation is to be performed as at 1 April 2022.

Contribution rates

Employer
Employee (Old and New Benefits)
Employee (Career Average Benefits 2006)
Employee (Career Average Benefits 2011)

Projection
2021
%

2020
%

2019
%

31.4
7.5
4.0
6.0

31.4
7.5
4.0
6.0

31.4
7.5
4.0
6.0

The member contributions to the scheme are mainly paid via a salary sacrifice arrangement. These have been treated as employer
contributions.
On the basis of the pension assumptions above, contributions totalling £175 million are expected to be paid in 2020/21.
C7.3 Scheme cash flows (day-to-day liquidity)
Below are the cash flows related to the BBC Pension Scheme (not included in the Group results). As the scheme is closed to new entrants,
the level of contribution from employees will decrease (as members retire, there are no new entrants to replace the reduction in employee
contributions).
2020
£m

2019
£m

Contributions including additional voluntary (employer and employee)
Investment income

162
291

194
292

Cash inflows
Payments of pensions and transfers out
Expenses

453
(507)
(31)

486
(511)
(29)

Net cash outflow

(85)

(54)

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D1 Property, plant and equipment
Land andbuildings*£mPlant andmachinery£m

Furniture andfittings£m

Assets underconstruction
£m

Total
£m

1,020
–
–
30
(6)

1,122
6
–
62
(66)

133
–
–
10
(1)

103
124
(8)
(102)
–

2,378
130
(8)
–
(73)

1,044
2
–
(8)

1,124
11
–
(7)

142
6
–
–

117
93
(5)
–

2,427
112
(5)
(15)

(734)
10
(2)
1

(6)
63
(105)
(5)

–
5
(14)
1

–
(78)
–
–

(740)
–
(121)
(3)

At 31 March 2020

313

1,075

140

127

1,655

Depreciation
At 1 April 2018
Charge for the year
Disposals

406
47
(6)

838
76
(66)

96
9
(1)

–
–
–

1,340
132
(73)

Cost
At 1 April 2018
Additions
Reclassification to intangible assets
Brought into service
Disposals
At 31 March 2019
Additions
Reclassification to intangible assets
Reclassification to asset held for sale
Reclassification to right-of-use assets on adoption of
IFRS16
Brought into service
Disposals
Exchange movements

At 31 March 2019
Charge for the year
Reclassification to asset held for sale
Disposals
Reclassification to right-of-use assets on adoption of
IFRS 16
Exchange movements

447
15
(7)
(2)

848
68
(6)
(99)

104
10
–
(11)

–
–
–
–

1,399
93
(13)
(112)

(291)
(1)

(4)
(2)

–
2

–
–

(295)
(1)

At 31 March 2020

161

805

105

–

1,071

Net book value
At 31 March 2020

152

270

35

127

584

At 31 March 2019

597

276

38

117

1,028

Land andbuildings*£mPlant andmachinery
£m

Total
£m

Cost
At 1 April 2019
Recognition of right-of-use asset on initial application of IFRS 16
Additions
Change in contract

–
1,878
16
40

–
8
3
–

–
1,886
19
40

At 31 March 2020

1,934

11

1,945

Depreciation
At 1 April 2019
Recognition of right-of-use asset on initial application of IFRS 16
Charge for the year

–
290
83

–
1
3

–
291
86

At 31 March 2020

373

4

377

Net book value
At 31 March 2020

1,561

7

1,568

* Land and buildings are not separable and therefore reported collectively.

D2 Right-of-use assets* Land and buildings are not separable and therefore reported collectively.

1 See Glossary for further details.

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185

Financial Statements

D. The property, technology and equipment used by the BBC to make and distribute its programmes
In providing the range of services to audiences, the BBC makes use of a significant number of assets in its operations. This section sets out
those assets the BBC intends to continue to use, those to be disposed of and any disposals made during the year.

Return to contents

Notes to the accounts
D. The property, technology and equipment used by the BBC to make and distribute its programmes continued
D3 Investment properties
Right of use
assets£m

Owned assets
£m

Total
£m

Cost
At 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2019
Recognition of right-of-use asset on initial application of IFRS 16
Reclassification to net investment in a lease on initial application of IFRS 16
Reclassification

–
34
–
2

131
–
(129)
(2)

131
34
(129)
–

At 31 March 2020

36

–

36

Depreciation
At 1 April 2018
Charge for the year

–
–

57
4

57
4

At 31 March 2019
Reclassification to net investment in a lease on initial application of IFRS 16
Reclassification
Charge for the year

–
1
1
1

61
(60)
(1)
–

61
(59)
–
1

At 31 March 2020

3

–

3

Net book value
At 31 March 2020

33

–

33

At 31 March 2019

–

70

70

At 31 March 2020, the BBC held investment properties valued at £5 million (2019: £176 million). The valuation of these investment
properties was carried out by independent valuers Lambert Smith Hampton, in accordance with the Royal Institution of Chartered
Surveyors (RICS) Valuation Professional Standards. In estimating the fair value1 of the properties, the highest and best use of the properties
is their current use.
The property rental income earned by the BBC from its investment properties, which are leased out under operating leases, amounted to£2 million (2019: £20 million). Direct operating expenses incurred on the investment properties, which generated rental income during theyear, amounted to £3 million (2019: £20 million). There were no direct operating expenses incurred on the investment properties which did
not generate rental income during the year (2019: nil).
D4 Lease income received as a lessor
The Group received less than £1 million lease income from finance lease contracts in which the Group acts as a lessor. The following sets out
a maturity analysis of lease payments, showing the undiscounted lease payments to be received after the reporting date:2020£m

Within one year
Between one and five years
Over five years

18
73
202

Total undiscounted finance lease payments

293

Unearned finance income(96)

Net investment in the lease197

D5 Assets classified as held for saleNon-current assets are classified as held for sale if their carrying amount will be recovered principally through sale rather than continuinguse, they are available for immediate sale and the sale is highly probable, normally within the next 12 months.
2020£m

Property, plant and equipment

2

Total assets classified as held for sale

2

The BBC reclassified its Broadcasting House, Cardiff site as held for sale at 31 March 2020. No assets were classified as such in the prior year.

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E1 Intangible assets
Goodwill1£m

Programmerights1£m

Software£m

Customer
Relationships
£m

Other
intangibles
£m

Total
£m

37
19
–

1,020
169
(5)

180
22
(5)

9
–
–

15
9
–

1,261
219
(10)

–
–

–
2

8
–

–
–

–
–

8
2

At 31 March 2019
Additions
Disposals
Transfers
Reclassification from property, plant andequipment
Prior period reclass
Exchange movements

56
–
–
–

1,186
170
(50)
–

205
59
(18)
–

9
54
–
3

24
131
(1)
(3)

1,480
414
(69)
–

–
–
(1)

–
93
1

5
–
1

–
–
(1)

–
–
1

5
93
1

At 31 March 2020

55

1,400

252

65

152

1,924

Amortisation and impairment
At 1 April 2018
Charge for the year
Disposals
Impairment
Exchange movements

1
–
–
21
–

910
152
(5)
–
2

107
29
(4)
–
–

6
1
–
–
–

4
9
–
–
–

1,028
191
(9)
21
2

At 31 March 2019
Charge for the year
Disposals
Transfers
Impairment
Prior period reclass
Exchange movements

22
–
–
–
4
–
–

1,059
176
(50)
–
–
92
(2)

132
41
(12)
–
–
–
–

7
9
–
3
–
–
(3)

13
1
(1)
(3)
–
–
(2)

1,233
227
(63)
–
4
92
(7)

Cost
At 1 April 2018
Additions
Disposals
Reclassification from property, plant andequipment
Exchange movements

At 31 March 2020

26

1,275

161

16

8

1,486

Net book value
At 31 March 2020

29

125

91

49

144

438

At 31 March 2019

34

127

73

2

11

247

2020
£m

2019
£m

–
21
8

4
21
9

29

34

E2 Goodwill1
All goodwill is recognised in BBC Studios and allocated by cash-generating unit1 (CGU) as follows:

Consumer distribution
Independent production company
Other

The Group tests goodwill for impairment in the accounting period in which a business combination takes place; thereafter annually, or more
frequently if there are indications that goodwill might be impaired.
The recoverable amounts of the CGUs are determined from value in use calculations. The key assumptions used for these calculations arethose regarding discount rates and growth rates. Management estimates discount rates using pre-tax rates that reflect current market
assessments of the time value of money and the risks specific to each CGU.

1 See Glossary for further details.

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Financial Statements

E. Investments in the BBC’s commercial activities
This section is focused on the commercial activities of the BBC and includes information on assets used to generate economic benefits for theBBC. Also included are intangible assets such as goodwill and programme rights, balances held to represent the BBC’s interest in associates
and joint ventures and the results of any sales of operations that has occurred.

Return to contents

Notes to the accounts
E. Investments in the BBC’s commercial activities continued
E2 Goodwill continued
Consumer distribution business
The goodwill in this CGU arose as a result of the acquisition of 2 Entertain Limited on 6 August 2009. The cash flow projections used indetermining value in use are based on the current business plan approved by management, which covers a five-year period, after which cash
flows have been extrapolated using an expected long-term growth rate of -42% (2019: -34%).
A discount rate of 9.6% (2019: 8.8%) has been applied to the cash flows.
The main assumption on which the forecast cash flows are based is the trends in the global DVD market. The Group performed an
operational review of the DVD business, concluding that sales are declining by an average of approximately 42% per year, which the Groupextrapolated to calculate the expected decline on EBITDA for this business.
Following the annual impairment review, as a result of changes in the global DVD market, management made the decision to impair theremaining £4 million goodwill in the consumer distribution business (2019: £21 million).
Independent production company
The goodwill balance arose as a result of the acquisition of Sid Gentle Films Limited and Lookout Point Limited in 2018.
The cash flow projections used in determining value in use for both CGUs are based on the current business plans approved by management,
which cover a five-year period, after which cash flows have been extrapolated using an expected long-term growth rate of 1% (2019: 1%).
A discount rate of 9.0% (2019: 10.4%) has been applied to the cash flows.
Management believes that no reasonable change in the key assumptions on which the value in use of these CGUs are based would result in
an impairment.
The coronavirus pandemic has had an adverse effect on the economic environment in which each CGU operates. The remaining goodwill
balance for the consumer distribution business CGU is nil, and therefore the consideration of any risk-adjusted cash flow forecasts would nothave an impact on the respective goodwill balance. For the independent production company CGU consideration has been given to downside
scenarios arising from the coronavirus pandemic in order to incorporate a market view of risk and uncertainty.
E3 Interests in associates1 and joint ventures1
This note details the BBC’s share of net assets in associates and joint ventures, along with the impact that they have on the income
statement. Details of significant associates and joint ventures along with principal subsidiary undertakings, including their activities, areprovided in note G6.
2020
£m

2019
£m

Interests in associates
Interests in joint ventures

217
26

199
58

Total interests in associates and joint ventures

243

257

Share of results of associates
Share of results of joint ventures

18
10

11
25

Total share of results of associates and joint ventures

28

36

The movements in associates and joint ventures during the year were as follows:
Associates
2020£mJoint ventures
2020
£m

Total
2020
£m

Associates
2019£mJoint ventures
2019
£m

Total
2019
£m

At 1 April
Additions
Disposals
Share of results
Adjustment to provision for unrealised
profits
Dividends receivable
Foreign exchange translation gains/(losses)
Impairment

199
–
–
18

58
8
(50)
10

257
8
(50)
28

192
3
(6)
11

48
1
–
25

240
4
(6)
36

(5)
(8)
15
(2)

2
–
(2)
–

(3)
(8)
13
(2)

1
(12)
11
(1)

(1)
(15)
–
–

–
(27)
11
(1)

At 31 March

217

26

243

199

58

257

Additions relate to an increase in ownership of BritBox in North America, which became equally split between BBC Studios and ITV.
Changes in interests in associates and joint ventures
The Group previously held a 50% share in UKTV Group, a joint venture holding in a British multi-channel broadcaster, and on 5 June 2019purchased the remaining shareholding, resulting in it converting to a 100% wholly owned subsidiary (see note E4) and the disposal
seen above.

1 See Glossary for further details.

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New Video
Channel America
LLC
2020
£m

Non-current assets
Current assets
Current liabilities
Non-current liabilities

YouView Limited
2020£m

New Video
Channel America
LLC
2019
£m

YouView Limited
2019
£m

183
115
(43)
(4)

2
5
(9)
(78)

272
105
(156)
(6)

–
5
(6)
(62)

Net assets/(liabilities)

251

(80)

215

(63)

Group’s share of net assets
Provision for unrealised profit
Goodwill

126
(5)
70

–
–
–

108
(5)
66

–
–
–

Group’s share of net assets of material associates

191

–

169

–

Income

163

9

145

10

Profit/(loss) after tax
Share attributable to other parties

35
(18)

(20)
20

24
(12)

(14)
14

Share of results of material associates

17

–

12

–

Daunus Limited
2020£m

Daunus Limited2019£m

Non-current assets
Current assets
Current liabilities
Non-current liabilities

454
63
(60)
(667)

555
61
(58)
(691)

Net (liabilities)/assets

(210)

(133)

Group’s share of net assets
Provision for unrealised profit

–
–

–
–

Group’s share of net assets of material joint ventures––

Income1017(Loss)/profit after tax
Share attributable to other parties

3
(3)

(3)
3

Share of results of material joint ventures––

The following table presents the Group’s share of material joint ventures during the year:

Daunus Limited, a company setup to facilitate the redevelopment and subsequent financing arrangements of Broadcasting House, preparesits financial statements to a 30 November accounting reference date and under Financial Reporting Standard 102. Adjustments are therefore
made to align these to the Group. The Group is unable to receive dividends from Daunus Limited until 2033 due to restrictions mandated
within this entity.

1 See Glossary for further details.

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189

Financial Statements

E. Investments in the BBC’s commercial activities continued
E3 Interests in associates1 and joint ventures1 continued
The following table presents the Group’s share of material associates during the year:

Return to contents

Notes to the accounts
E. Investments in the BBC’s commercial activities continued
E4 Acquisitions
On 5 June 2019, the UKTV Group, a British multi-channel broadcaster that was previously a joint venture owned by BBC Studios
Distribution Limited and Southbank Media Limited, was demerged and had its ownership restructured. The three life-style channels wereseparated from the Group, and BBC Studios Distribution obtained 100% ownership and control of UKTV Holdings Limited and its
remaining seven entertainment channels, as well as UKTV Play and the UKTV brand. The principal reason for this acquisition was thatthese channels are closely aligned to the Group’s own content strategy, providing financial return.
Details of the purchase consideration, the net assets acquired and goodwill are as follows:£mCash paid
Deferred consideration

2
98

Purchase consideration

100

An additional £73 million will be paid, representing the assumption of debt previously financed by Discovery and the impact of discounting
the deferred consideration.
The assets and liabilities recognised as a result of the acquisition are as follows:£m

Cash
Trade and other receivables
Trade and other payables
Rights to broadcast acquired programmes and films
Furniture and fittings
Intangible assets: Customer relationships
Intangible assets: Software
Intangible assets: Licences and trademarks
Intercompany payable
Corporation tax
Deferred tax

39
75
(64)
106
2
58
5
139
(68)
(4)
(20)

Net assets acquired

268

Business combination achieved in stages
Pre acquisition the UKTV joint venture was revalued from, £50 million to a fair value of £164 million, resulting in a profit on disposal of£114 million recognised in the income statement. Gain on bargain purchase totalled £4 million.
Acquired receivables
The fair value of acquired trade receivables is £36 million. The gross contractual amount for trade receivables due is £36 million, all of whichis expected to be collected.
Revenue and profit contribution
The acquired business contributed revenues of £236 million and net profit of £41 million to the Group for the period from 5 June 2019 to
31 March 2020.
Purchase consideration – cash inflow£mCash consideration
Add cash acquired(2)
39

Net inflow of cash – investing activities

37

Acquisition-related costs
Acquisition-related costs of £1 million that were not directly attributable to the issue of shares are included in administrative expenses
within the income statement and in operating cash flows within the statement of cash flows.
F. Managing funding (including future costs)
This section contains the notes to the balance sheet that detail the funding of the BBC as well as the assets and liabilities that are used in the
day-to-day operations of the BBC.
The BBC collects licence fees from UK households on behalf of the Consolidated Fund. This is passed up to the Fund as reflected in the BBC’s
Television Licence Fee Trust Statement1. Licence fee income, whilst derived from the amount collected directly from licence fee payers,
therefore represents a grant-in-aid from DCMS within the Group financial statements.

1 See Glossary for further details.

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Financial Statements

F. Managing funding (including future costs) continued
This section also sets out the external borrowings of the BBC and the related disclosures required by the DCMS. For 2019/20 borrowing
limits were adjusted for the accounting impact of adopting IFRS 16 Leases. For 2019/20, the BBC was subject to two specific limits to its
borrowings:—— the Public Service net borrowing limit of £2,200 million is set by the Secretary of State for the DCMS in accordance with the Framework
Agreement between the BBC and DCMS. Of this limit, £2,000 million is specifically for leases; and—— under a direction granted by the Secretary of State for the DCMS a net borrowing limit of £500 million has been set for the
BBC commercial group. Of this limit, £150 million is specifically for leases.
From 1 April 2020 the Public Service net borrowing limits detailed above remain, however a net borrowing limit of £550 million (of which£200 million is specifically for leases) has been set for the BBC commercial group.
A net borrowing limit of £1,050 million, of which £850 million was specifically for finance leases, was applied to Public Service and a net
borrowing limit of £350 million was applied to the BBC commercial group for the duration of 2018/19.
F1 Cash and cash equivalents
2020
£m

2019
£m

Cash at bank, available on demand
Short-term deposits

170
231

118
350

Total

401

468

Exchange£m

At 31 March 2020
£m

–
(9)
–
–

401
(204)
32
(1,842)F2 Analysis of net debt for DCMS borrowing limits
At 1 April 2019£m

Cash flows Non-cash changes£m£m

Total cash and cash equivalents
Loans and loan notes
Derivatives associated with borrowings
Obligations under leases

468
(203)
21
(651)

(67)
8
–
152

–
–
11
(1,343)Net debt(365)(1,613)

Made up of:
PSB Group
BBC Studios
Other commercial businesses

(382)
40
(23)

(1,548)(31)(34)

Net debt(365)(1,613)F3 Reconciliation of net funds/(debt) to the DCMS borrowing limits
Public Services1
Net funds
excluding leases
£m

Lease
borrowings**£m

2020
Net funds/(debt)
Net borrowing limit

206
(200)

BBC commercial group*
Net debt£m

Net funds
excluding leases
£m

Lease
borrowings**£m

Net (debt)/ funds£m(1,754)(2,000)(1,548)(2,200)

22
(350)

(87)
(150)

(65)
(500)

Headroom

406

246

652

372

63

435

2019
Net funds/(debt)
Net borrowing limit

269
(200)

(651)
(850)

(382)
(1,050)

17
(350)

–
–

17
(350)

Headroom

469

199

668

367

–

367

* Under the terms of the DCMS agreement, the BBC Commercial Holdings Group must satisfy two financial covenants, which need to be satisfied throughout the respective period.
During 2019/20 and 2018/19, the BBC Commercial Holdings Group was in compliance with both of these covenants.
** Lease borrowings are net of intra-group lease borrowings as these eliminate on consolidation.

F4 Borrowings
F4.1 Borrowings due within one year

Bank loan
Obligations under leases

2020
£m

2019
£m

204
104

9
21

308

30

1 See Glossary for further details.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

191

Return to contents

Notes to the accounts
F. Managing funding (including future costs) continued
F4.2 Borrowings due after more than one year

Bank loan
Obligations under leases

2020
£m

2019
£m

–
1,738

194
630

1,738

824

2020
£m

2019
£m

104
410
1,328

21
118
512

1,842

651

Expiry orreview date

Analysis of the BBC’s borrowing facilities is set out in note F5.
F4.3 Obligations under leases
The ageing of obligations under leases is as follows:

Within one year
Between one and five years
Over five years

F5 Borrowing facilities
Total available
31 March 2020£m

Drawn down at
31 March 2020£m

Total available
31 March 2019£m

Drawn down at
31 March 2019£m

LIBOR* plus 0.225% rising to
LIBOR* plus 0.375% on
utilisations over 1/3 and
LIBOR* plus 0.525% on
utilisations over 2/3

200

–

200

–

March
2023~

Uncommitted money
market lines (short-termborrowings)

The interest rates on
uncommitted money market
lines are determined when
traded with the bank

25

–

25

–

Reviewed
annually

GBP overdraft

Bank base rate plus 1.5%

5

–

5

–

Reviewed
annually

Multicurrency overdraft

Banks’ short-term offered
rates for the relevant
currency plus 1%

5

–

5

–

Reviewed
annually

Overdraft*

Bank base rate plus 1%.
Excess usage at bank baserate plus 2%

1

–

1

–

Reviewed
annually

210

–

210

–

March
2025^

20

–

20

–

Reviewed
annually

Facility

PSB Group
Sterling revolving credit
facility agreement

Interest rate

BBC Commercial Holdings Limited
Multicurrency, revolving
LIBOR* plus 0.45% rising tocredit facility agreement
LIBOR* plus 0.6% on
for loans and letters ofutilisations over 1/3 andcreditLIBOR* plus 0.75% on
utilisations over 2/3
Overdraft or money
market lines

Money market line – marginof 1.0% (2019: 1.0%)

US Private Placement

Fixed interest at 2.36%

28

28

28

28

June 2020***

US Private Placement**

Fixed interest at 2.71%

173

173

165

165

June 2020***^ The BBC has a one-year extension option which, if exercised, would take the maturity through to March 2026.
~ The BBC has two one-year extension options which, if exercised, would take the maturity through to March 2025.
* The base rate used varies according to the currency drawn. GBP drawings are linked to LIBOR.
** The US$216 million US placement was hedged to a sterling value of £143 million, valued at the time of the facility being put in place.
*** The US Private Placement was replaced in 2020/21 by a £170 million term loan. This facility matures in June 2023 with two one-year extension options potentially taking thematurity to June 2025. The interest rate on the facility is LIBOR plus 1.25%. A series of interest rate swaps have also been entered into to fix the interest rate on this facility to 1.49%.

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Facility

Interest rate

Total available
31 March 2020£m

Drawn down at
31 March 2020£m

Total available
31 March 2019£m

Drawn down at
31 March 2019£m

Expiry orreview
£m

2

–

2

–

Reviewed
annually

BBC Studios Distribution Limited
Overdraft*
Bank base rate plus 1% if
drawn down in sterling. Bank
currency overdraft rate plus a
1% margin if drawn down inother currencies
Bank loan

Three-month GBP LIBOR
plus 1.75%

9

–

9

1

November
2021

Bank loan

Three-month GBP LIBOR
plus 1%

3

3

–

–

September
2020

Bank loan

Three-month GBP LIBOR
plus 1%

–

–

3

3

August 2019

Bank loan

Three-month GBP LIBOR
plus 1%

–

–

6

6

October 2019

Note

2020
£m

2019
£m

(110)
413
75
(11)
42
15
(114)
(4)
–
4
(28)
(18)
82
11
103
(78)
10

(74)
349
41
(13)
24
–
(7)
–
(29)
(15)
(36)
(10)
74
(17)
(94)
23
39

392

255

2020
£m

2019
£m

Trade receivables
Lease receivables
Other receivables
Prepayments
Amounts owed by associates and joint ventures

41
200
2
–
2

30
–
4
2
2

Total

245

38

* The base rate used varies according to the currency drawn. GBP drawings are linked to LIBOR.

There have been no defaults or breaches of covenants on these facilities during the year (2019: none).
F6 Cash generated from operations

Group deficit before taxation
Depreciation, amortisation and impairment
Difference between pension charge and cash contribution
Fair value impact of derivatives associated with loans
Fair value impact of other derivatives
Loss on disposal of tangible and intangible fixed assets
Gain on deemed disposal of associates and joint ventures
Gain on other disposals
Gain on sale and termination of operations
Other gains and losses
Share of results of associates and joint ventures
Financing income (excluding fair value swaps)
Financing costs (excluding fair value swaps)
Decrease/(increase) in programme-related assets and inventories
Decrease/(increase) in receivables and contract assets(Decrease)/increase in payables and contract liabilities
Increase in provisions

B1

G4
G4
G4
E3

F10

Cash generated from operations
F7 Trade and other receivables
This note discloses the balances that are owed to the BBC by third parties and prepayments made by the BBC.
F7.1 Other receivables due after more than one year

Lease receivables relate to a lease of land and buildings, expiring in 2035, recognised upon the adoption of IFRS 16. The contract was enteredinto in 2015 with the BBC receiving fixed quarterly receipts, subject to inflation.

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193

Financial Statements

F. Managing funding (including future costs) continued
F5 Borrowing facilities continued

Return to contents

Notes to the accounts
F. Managing funding (including future costs) continued
F7 Trade and other receivables continued
F7.2 Trade and other receivables due within one year

Trade receivables
Licence fee receivables
Amounts owed by associates and joint ventures
VAT recoverable
Prepayments
Accrued income
Other receivables
Total

2020
£m

2019
£m

279
409
16
35
92
185
59

235
401
45
57
142
163
88

1,075

1,131

F8 Expected credit losses
Included in the BBC’s contract assets (see note A4.2) and trade and other receivables at 31 March 2020 are balances of £60 million (2019:£37 million) which are past due at the reporting date but not impaired. The aged analysis of these balances is as follows:

Up to three months
Three to six months
Over six months

2020
£m

2019
£m

33
17
10

28
3
6

60

37

In determining the recoverability (likelihood of receiving payment) of a contract asset or trade and other receivable the BBC considers any
change in the credit quality of the receivable from the date credit was initially granted up to the reporting date, as well as future
considerations around the current state of the UK and overseas economies and any industry-specific issues. Receivables are provided forbased on the probability of expected credit losses for each receivable.
Amounts charged to the impairment provision are written off when there is no expectation of recovery. Subsequent recoveries of amounts
previously written off are credited to the income statement. The impairment provision stands at £35 million at 31 March 2020 (2019:£38 million).
Movements in the BBC’s provision for impairment of licence fee receivable, trade receivables and contract assets can be shown as follows:
2020
£m

2019
£m

Balance at the beginning of the year
Charge for the year
Amounts written off as unrecoverable
Amounts recovered during the year

38
1
(3)
(1)

33
7
(1)
(1)

Balance at the end of the year

35

38

2020
£m

2019
£m

Rights creditors
Other payables

21
67

16
27

Total

88

43

F9 Trade and other payables
This note details the amounts payable to third parties by the BBC.
F9.1 Trade and other payables due after more than one year

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Licence fee payable
Accruals
Trade payables
Rights creditors
Salaries and wages payables
Licence savings stamp deposits and savings cards
Other taxation and social security
Amounts owed to associates and joint ventures
Deferred income
Other payables
Total

2020
£m

2019
£m

253
247
162
140
83
42
33
8
20
94

245
213
159
135
93
43
32
19
18
57

1,082

1,014

F10 Provisions and contingent liabilities
At 1 April 2019£m

Charge for theyear£mUtilised during
the year£m

Released during
the year£m

At 31 March 2020£m

Property
Taxation, litigation and insurance
Restructuring
Other

49
55
25
14

1
16
44
2

–
(11)
(22)
(2)

–
(6)
(5)
(7)

50
54
42
7

Total

143

63

(35)

(18)

153

Included in current liabilities
Included in non-current liabilities

83
60

70
83

Total

143

153

Property
The BBC has obligations to restore leased properties to their original condition at the end of the lease term. Property provisions are made forthe cost of such restoration works as determined by the properties’ discounted net present value or the market value of the gross square
footage.
Taxation, litigation and insurance
Taxation, litigation and insurance provisions relate to ongoing legal, insurance and compensation claims against the BBC. The BBC makes
specific provision for its best estimate of any damages and costs which may be awarded. A provision is only made to the extent that the
BBC considers it probable that there will be an outflow of economic benefits and the amount can be reliably estimated. There are a number ofprovisions within this balance, including balances connected to payments to Personal Service Companies that may be required.
Restructuring
Restructuring provisions are determined by the probable costs relating to reorganisations, relocations and redundancies in the BBC. The
restructuring balance at 31 March 2020 predominantly relates to the redundancies required by ongoing savings strategies.
Other
Other provisions include amounts relating to employment matters and other issues arising across the BBC in the normal course of business,none of which are individually material.
Contingent liabilities
There are no contingent liabilities in the current year.

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195

Financial Statements

F. Managing funding (including future costs) continued
F9.2 Trade and other payables due within one year

Return to contents

Notes to the accounts
F. Managing funding (including future costs) continued
F11 Net financing costs
Set out below is an analysis of the financing income and expenses incurred in the year. These amounts include interest relating to leaseliabilities (see note F4.3) and defined benefit pension schemes (see note C7).
Note

Financing income
Interest income
Unwinding of discounted receivables
Fair value gains on swaps classified as fair value through surplus/deficit

Financing costs
Interest expense
Unwinding of discounted payables
Exchange loss on borrowings
Change in fair value of instruments classified as fair value through surplus/deficit
Interest on obligations under leases
C6.3

Interest cost on pension plan liabilities1

Net financing costs

2020
£m

2019
£m

8
10
11

9
1
13

29

23

(4)
(4)
(9)
(47)
(55)

(4)
(2)
(12)
(14)
(46)

(119)
(10)

(78)
(10)

(129)

(88)

(100)

(65)

F12 Long-term commitments not reflected in the balance sheet – contracts placed for future expenditureThis note shows amounts to which the BBC is contractually committed, but which do not meet the criteria for inclusion in the balance sheet.
It includes fixed (but not variable) payments due under outsourcing contracts for the life of those contracts.
Functions covered by these long-term outsourcing contracts include IT support, content distribution and transmission, facilities
management and elements of finance support.

Fixed asset additions
Programme acquisitions and sports rights
Independent programmes
Other fixed payments on long-term outsourcing arrangements

2020
£m

2019*
£m

18
1,172
265
1,893

41
1,385
314
2,066

3,348

3,806

2020
£m

2019*
£m

1,008
1,726
614

1,013
1,963
830

3,348

3,806

Long-term commitments not reflected in the balance sheet are payable as follows:

Within one year
Between one and five years
Over five years* The comparatives have been restated to align the disclosure across the BBC Group.

1 See Glossary for further details.

196

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2020
£m

2019
£m

Current tax
UK corporation tax
Foreign tax
Adjustments in respect of prior years

(11)
20
4

(21)
20
(3)

Total current tax

13

(4)

Deferred tax
Origination and reversal of temporary differences
Changes in tax rate
Adjustments in respect of prior years

(5)
(1)
2

(1)
–
–

Note

1

Total deferred tax
Total taxation charge/(credit) in the consolidated income statement

G1.2

(4)

(1)

9

(5)

G1.2 Reconciliation of taxation expense
The PSB Group is liable to taxation on activities yielding a taxable profit including rent, royalties and interest receivable; it does not therefore
receive relief for all its expenditure. The commercial subsidiaries in the BBC Group are taxed in accordance with tax legislation. As the
BBC Group’s public sector ‘free-to-air’ broadcasting activities are not subject to taxation, the tax charge is primarily driven by the results ofthe commercial businesses. The items affecting the standard rate of corporation tax are explained below:
Note

Deficit before tax
Deficit before tax multiplied by standard rate of corporation tax
in the UK of 19% (2019: 19%)
Effects of:
Public service activities
Public service taxable external income
Non-taxable public service activities
Commercial activities
Disallowed expenditure (including goodwill impairment)
Losses utilised
High-end television tax relief
Tax differential on overseas earnings
Tax differential in associates and joint ventures
Changes in the tax rate
Adjustments in respect of prior years
Total tax charge/(credit) for the year

G1.1

2020
£m

2019
£m

(110)

(74)

(21)

(14)

5
42

8
45

2
–
(33)
9
–
(1)
6

3
(3)
(39)
3
(5)
–
(3)

9

(5)

G1.3 Factors that may affect future tax charges
The UK corporation tax rate is 19% and is expected to remain at this level for the immediate future.
The March 2020 Budget announced that a Corporation Tax rate of 19% would continue to apply with effect from 1 April 2020 and thischange was substantively enacted on 17 March 2020. The deferred tax liability at 31 March 2020 has been calculated based on the rateof 19%.
There are many future changes to worldwide taxation systems as a result of the potential adoption by the UK and individual territories ofmeasures relating to the OECD Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Actions. The Group continues to actively monitor any developments andevaluate their potential impact. The Group does not expect the future tax rate to be materially impacted by these changes to theinternational tax landscape.

1 See Glossary for further details.

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197

Financial Statements

G. Other
G1 Taxation
G1.1 Recognised in the income statement
The charge for the year, based on the rate of corporation tax of 19% (2019: 19%) comprised:Return to contents

Notes to the accounts
G. Other continued
G1.4 Current tax assets
The current tax assets totalling £44 million (2019: £29 million) includes £33 million (2019: £30 million) due in respect of industry film tax
credits outstanding on high-end drama, comedy, natural history and factual productions.
G1.5 Deferred tax assets/(liabilities)
Fixed asset
temporarydifferences£m

Provisions£mFinancial
instruments£m

At 1 April 2019
Net credit/(charge) to theincome statement
Acquisition of subsidiary
Exchange movements

5

6

(6)

(21)

2
–
–

(1)
–
1

(1)
–
–

At 31 March 2020

7

6

(7)

Associates andjoint ventures Programme rights
£m
£m

Other
£m

Net deferred tax(liability)/asset
£m

(7)

15

(8)

–
–
–

–
–
–

4
(20)
(1)

4
(20)
–

(21)

(7)

(2)

(24)

2020
£m

2019
£m

15
(39)

8
(16)

(24)

(8)

Deferred tax asset/(liability) presented within:

Non-current assets
Non-current liabilities

The BBC has unrecognised deferred tax assets arising on capital losses totalling £139 million (2019: £139 million) and trade losses totalling£23 million (2019: £23 million). These assets have not been recognised on the basis that there is insufficient certainty that future gains or
profits will arise against which the BBC can utilise these losses.
The BBC also has unrecognised deferred tax assets on brought forward unutilised management expenses totalling £4 million (2019:£4 million) and non-trade loan relationship losses totalling £14 million (2019: £14 million). These assets have not been recognised on the basisthat there is insufficient certainty that future gains or profits will arise against which the BBC can utilise these losses.
There is no time limit for the utilisation of either of these losses and the position is reviewed annually.
G1.6 Current tax liabilities
The current tax liabilities totalling £9 million (2019: £7 million) is due in overseas jurisdictions.
G2 Pension plans
This note sets out the additional detailed disclosures related to the BBC Pension Scheme which were not covered in note C6 or C7.
G2.1 Changes in the present value of plan liabilities1
The table below illustrates the movement on the scheme liabilities during the year. The key items which affect this are the additional year ofpension benefits earned, any gains or losses relating to participants leaving the pension scheme, changes in assumptions made and benefits
paid out during the year.
2020
£m

2019
£m

Opening present value of plan liabilities
Current service cost
Past service cost
Administration cost
Interest on pension plan liabilities
Remeasurement (gains)/losses:– Experience adjustments– Changes in financial assumptions1– Changes in demographic assumptions1
Contributions by plan participants
Benefits paid and expenses

17,705225
1
8
401

16,986
206
18
7
401

(360)
(350)
(175)
1
(508)

(64)
663
–
1
(513)

Closing present value of plan liabilities

16,94817,705

1 See Glossary for further details.

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Financial Statements

G. Other continued
G2 Pension plans continued
G2.2 Changes in the fair value of plan assets
The table below illustrates the movement on the plan assets during the year. The key items which affect this are the additional year ofcontributions made, changes in the value of the pension plan assets (including the investment return) and benefits paid during the year.
The employee contributions to the scheme by members are mainly paid through a salary sacrifice arrangement. These have been treated as
employer contributions.
2020
£m

2019
£m

Opening fair value of plan assets
Interest income on assets
Remeasurements on plan assets1
Contributions by employer
Contributions by plan participants
Benefits paid and expenses

17,183
391
(23)
159
1
(508)

16,476
391
637
191
1
(513)

Closing fair value of plan assets

17,203

17,183G2.3 Plan assets
The allocation of assets by the pension fund Trustees is governed by the need to manage risk against the desire for high returns and any
liquidity needs. A high percentage of assets are held in equities which the Trustees expect will produce higher returns in the long term.
2020
Type of asset

Held at quoted market prices:
Equities
Pooled vehicles
Repurchase agreements
Fixed interest bonds
Index-linked bonds
Derivatives
Other assets:
Property– UK– Pooled investment vehicles
Alternatives*
Cash and other current assets
Total assets

%

£m

%

1,234
1,056
(2,440)
3,289
7,727
(155)

7
6
(14)
19
45
(1)

1,284
1,242
(2,004)
3,106
7,303
47

7
7
(12)
18
44
–

1,007
565
4,684
236

6
3
28
1

1,013
540
4,434
218

6
3
26
1

17,203100

17,183100

367

Actual return on pension plan assets**

2019

£m

1,028

* Alternatives are investments in asset classes other than the traditional quoted equities, bonds, property and cash. They include investments in private equity, private credit, hedge
funds, infrastructure and renewable energy investments. They are generally illiquid investments as some may require sufficient time to find buyers willing to pay full market value.
They are useful for managing risk as they enhance portfolio diversification and potentially reduce risk as their cash flows can be well suited to meeting the scheme’s liabilities.
** This constitutes realised gains from the receipt of investment income (e.g. dividends and rent), transactions where assets are sold and unrealised fair value changes.

A long term plan of achieving full funding on a discount rate equal to the yield on liability matching gilts plus 0.5% per annum has been
agreed. The Scheme’s strategic asset allocation is based on the Scheme’s funding ratio, with the intention of not taking more risk thannecessary to return to full funding over the horizon of the plan. Indirect currency risk exposure exists through pooled investment vehicles
held in foreign currencies, valued at £4,409 million (2019: £4,238 million).
G2.4 BBC Pension Scheme (losses)/gains in the consolidated statement of comprehensive income/(loss)
2020
£m

2019
£m

Return on plan assets (excluding amounts included within interest)
Remeasurement gains/(losses)1 arising from:– Experience adjustments– Changes in demographic assumptions– Changes in financial assumptions

(23)

637

360
175
350

64
–
(663)

Net gain recognised in the consolidated statement of comprehensive income/(loss)

862

38

1 See Glossary for further details.

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Notes to the accounts
G. Other continued
G2 Pension plans continued
G2.5 Principal actuarial assumptions
The calculation of the scheme liabilities requires a number of financial and demographic assumptions to be made. The principal assumptions
used by the actuaries at the balance sheet date were:Principal financial assumptions

Rate of increase in salaries
Rate of increase in pension payments:
Old Benefits*
New Benefits*
Career Average Benefits (2006)*
Career Average Benefits (2011)*
Inflation assumption (RPI)
Inflation assumption (CPI)
Discount rate1

2020
%

2019
%

1.0

1.0

3.0
2.8
2.4
2.0
2.8
2.0
2.2

3.2
3.0
2.4
2.1
3.2
2.2
2.3

2020
Number of years

2019
Number of years

27
29

27
30

28
31

29
31

* For more information on the different pension arrangements, please refer to the remuneration report.

The average life expectancy assumptions for members, after retiring at 60 years of age, are as follows:
Principal demographic assumptions

Retiring today:
Male
FemaleRetiring in 20 years:
Male
FemaleThe mortality assumptions have been selected to reflect the characteristics and experience of the membership of the scheme. These arebased on the assumptions used for the actuarial valuation which was carried out for funding purposes as at 1 April 2019. The standard ‘S3’
series of tables, published by the Continuous Mortality Investigation (CMI), reflect recent research into mortality experience in the UK. A
subset of these tables have been used for males and females, with a multiplier of 100% for male members and dependants and 100% forfemale members and 102% for female dependants. For the allowance for future improvements, the CMI 2016 core projection has been
adopted with a long-term trend of 1.25% for both males and females.
G2.6 Scheme membership analysis and maturity1 profile
Principal demographic assumptions

2020
Number

2019
NumberContributors
Pensioners
Dependants
Deferred pensioners

8,776
20,222
4,375
27,944

9,337
19,922
4,351
28,430

The total number of scheme beneficiaries as at 31 March 2020 was 47,764 (2019: 48,478). Membership numbers in the table above are higher
as members can hold more than one record. For example, contributing members who have transferred to the Career Average Benefits 2011section from another section of the scheme may have a deferred pensioner record for their benefits built up in the Old Benefits, New Benefits
or Career Average Benefits 2006 sections and a contributing record for their Career Average Benefits 2011 benefits.
The average duration of the benefit obligation at the end of the reporting period is 19 years (2019: 21 years). This number can be subdivided
into the duration related to:—— contributors: 25 years (2019: 26 years);—— pensioners: 13 years (2019: 14 years); and—— deferred pensioners: 25 years (2019: 28 years).

1 See Glossary for further details.

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Financial Statements

G. Other continued
G3 Financial instruments
This section details the financial instruments held by the BBC. A financial instrument is a contract that results in one entity recording afinancial asset (a contractual right to receive financial assets, e.g. cash) in their accounts and another entity recording a financial liability.
G3.1 Financial risk management
The BBC’s financial risk management operations are carried out by a BBC Group Treasury function, within parameters defined formallywithin the policies and procedures manual agreed by the Treasury Management Group which has delegated authority from the BBC Board.
The BBC Group Treasury function uses financial instruments to raise finance and to manage financial risk arising from the BBC’s operationsin accordance with its objectives, which are:—— to ensure the business of the BBC, both PSB Group and Commercial, is funded in the most efficient manner and remains compliant withborrowing ceilings;—— to protect the value of the BBC’s assets, liabilities and cash flows from the effects of adverse interest rates and foreign exchange
fluctuations; and—— to maximise the return on surplus funds, whilst ensuring sufficient cash is retained to meet foreseeable liquidity requirements.
The BBC takes a risk averse approach to the management of interest rate fluctuations and foreign currency trading and has implemented aclear economic hedging policy to minimise volatility in the financial results. A small number of the forward foreign currency contracts
entered into by the BBC were designated as hedging instruments in effective cash flow hedges. Hedge accounting is only applied where thereis appropriate designation and documentation.
The BBC is exposed to the following areas of risk arising from financial instruments:
Risk

Exposure arising from

Measurement

Management

Market risk – currency risk

Transactions and balances
denominated in foreign
currencies

Cash flow forecasting

Forward foreign currency
contracts

Market risk – interest riskLong-term borrowings at
variable rates

Projected borrowing
requirements

Interest rate swaps, caps andcollars

Liquidity risk

Borrowings and other financial
liabilities

Rolling cash flow forecasts

Monitoring cash flow forecasts
and covenant compliance

Credit risk

Counterparty default on
contractual obligations

Credit ratings and ageing
analysis

Assessment of financial
reliability, collateral and othercredit enhancements

Currency risk
Although the BBC is principally a UK-based organisation, some transactions are undertaken in currencies other than sterling.
The BBC’s commercial operations are undertaken in a range of global markets and a significant proportion of BBC Studios’ and Global News’incomes are generated outside the UK, and as a result are exposed to foreign exchange risk arising from various currencies – principally the
US dollar, the euro and the Australian dollar. Due to movements in exchange rates, the amount the BBC expects to receive or pay when it
enters into a transaction may differ from the amount that it actually receives or pays when it settles the transaction.
The BBC takes a risk averse approach to the management of currency risk and has implemented clear policy parameters for the use of
forward foreign currency contracts to minimise volatility in the financial results. A substantial proportion of the BBC’s material net foreign
currency exposures are economically hedged.
The BBC’s main exposure is to US dollars; however, due to the relative size of this exposure in comparison to the BBC’s sterling-denominatedbusiness, the BBC does not consider this to be significant. The BBC generally enters into forward currency contracts to manage, or hedge, thiscurrency risk. This allows the BBC to reduce risk by settling transactions at known exchange rates.
The overall income or expenditure to be recognised in relation to contracts denominated in foreign currencies (and the related hedges) istherefore fixed; however, where these contracts span financial years, the recognition of the fair value of the forward currency contracts
results in timing gains or losses in each financial year. These timing gains or losses are as a result of market conditions and not variances inunderlying contract value.
As the BBC has mitigated its underlying exposure to currency fluctuations there is no requirement to present sensitivity analysis as any
potential variation is insignificant.
At 31 March 2020, the BBC had entered into a net commitment to sell foreign currencies amounting to £4 million (2019: £242 million) thatmature in the period through to 2024 in order to fix the sterling cost of commitments through this period (mainly euros and US dollars).
The BBC applies hedge accounting for trades taken out by one of its commercial subsidiaries in respect of their forecast foreign currencytransactions1. Net losses (before tax and non-controlling interests) recognised in the hedging reserve on forward foreign exchange contracts
in hedge relationships at 31 March 2020 were £9 million (2019: £2 million net gains). These amounts are recognised in the income statementin the period when the hedged forecast transaction impacts the income statement.
The ineffective portion recognised in operating costs arising from such hedges was immaterial in both the current and prior year.

1 See Glossary for further details.

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Notes to the accounts
G. Other continued
G3 Financial instruments continued
G3.1 Financial risk management continued
Depending on how exchange rates and interest rates move between the time the BBC enters into the transaction and at the year end
reporting date, derivatives can either be profitable (‘in the money’) or loss-making in their own right. However, the rationale in entering into
these derivatives is not to profit from currency markets or interest rate fluctuations, but to provide stability to the BBC’s cash flows. Other
than where hedge accounting is applied, the movements relating to these derivatives (i.e. where they are either in profit or loss-making) aretaken to the BBC’s statement of income and expenditure for the year.
Interest rate risk
BBC Commercial Holdings’ 2013 private placement included a tranche of fixed rate sterling debt alongside a tranche of fixed rate US dollar
debt, with the latter swapped to fixed rate sterling throughout the period of the instrument. Since March 2003 BBC Commercial Holdings
has borrowed using its revolving credit facilities at floating rates of interest and then used interest rate swaps, caps and collars to manage theBBC’s exposure to interest rate fluctuations and provide greater certainty of cash flows. Interest rate swaps, caps and collars are entered into
based on projected borrowing requirements, therefore differences will occur between the notional amount of the swaps, caps and collars andthe actual borrowing requirements. By taking out the interest rate swaps, caps and collars the BBC has mitigated underlying exposure tointerest rate fluctuations and hence no sensitivity analysis has been presented as any potential variation is insignificant.
Sterling fixed rate borrowings are achieved by entering into interest rate swap transactions; all outstanding swaps mature by the end of June
2020. In total, £174 million (2019: £165 million) of swaps were entered into. The coverage is £27 million lower (2019: £28 million lower) thanthe current level of bank loans of £201 million (2019: £193 million).
The private placement debt matured in June 2020 and was therefore replaced by a £170 million term loan. A series of interest rate swaps
have also been entered into to fix the interest rate on this facility. See note F5 for further details.
Other price risk of financial assets
The BBC invests surplus cash in money market funds and money market deposits, therefore it is not subject to other price risks, such as
market price risk.
Liquidity risk
Liquidity risk is the risk that the BBC will not be able to meet its financial obligations as they fall due. The BBC is subject to limits on its
borrowings set by the Secretary of State in accordance with the Agreement between the BBC and DCMS (see note F2). In order to comply
with these limits, together with the terms of any individual debt instruments, the BBC Group Treasury function manages the BBC’s
borrowings by regularly monitoring cash flow forecasts. The BBC holds its surplus liquidity in term deposit accounts with highly rated
financial institutions.
The bank loans of the BBC’s commercial operations are subject to debt covenants based on the BBC’s earnings before interest and taxation.
The covenants are in respect of net borrowings and net interest coverage. The BBC is active in the monitoring of its debt covenants, whichhave been met at 31 March 2020.
The following table sets out the contractual undiscounted cash flows (including interest) of financial liabilities:

2020

Non-derivative financial liabilities
Trade and other payables
Bank loans and overdrafts
Obligations under leases
Derivative financial liabilities
Forward foreign currency contracts – fair value throughsurplus/(deficit)
Forward foreign currency contracts – fair value throughother comprehensive income/(loss)
Cash flow swaps

2019

Non-derivative financial liabilities
Trade and other payables
Bank loans and overdrafts
Obligations under finance leases
Derivative financial liabilities
Forward foreign currency contracts – fair value throughsurplus/(deficit)
Cash flow swaps

202

Carrying value£m

Total contractual
cash flows£mLess than one
year£mBetween one andfive years£mOver five years
£m

(787)
(204)
(1,842)

(792)
(224)
(2,406)

(699)
(224)
(160)

(92)
–
(603)

(1)
–
(1,643)

(7)

(7)

(5)

(2)

–

(9)
(546)

(9)
(546)

(9)
–

–
–

–
(546)

Carrying value£m

Total contractual
cash flows£mLess than one
year£mBetween one andfive years£mOver five years
£m

(456)
(203)
(651)

(456)
(223)
(1,060)

(413)
(15)
(66)

(43)
(208)
(277)

–
–
(717)

(6)
(549)

(6)
(549)

(3)
–

(3)
–

–
(549)

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Cash and cash equivalents and derivative financial instruments are held only with banks of A+ to BBB rating. The Group limits its exposure
to credit risk by only investing in liquid securities with counterparties that have a minimum credit rating of A-, with a higher minimum
rating up to AA- required depending upon duration and amount. Given these high credit ratings, the Group considers it has appropriately
mitigated the risk of any counterparty failing to meet its obligations.
The BBC’s credit risk management policy in relation to other trade receivables involves regularly assessing the credit quality of customers,
taking into account several factors such as their financial position and historical performance. The carrying amount of financial assets
included in the financial statements represents the BBC’s maximum exposure to credit risk in relation to these assets.
G3.2 Fair value1 of financial instruments
When calculating the fair value of the BBC’s financial instruments (subsequent to the initial recognition), the technique used is determinedwith reference to the classification in the three-level hierarchy set out below. This disclosure helps to show the level of judgement that the
BBC has used in calculating fair values, subsequent to the initial recognition.
Fair value hierarchy levels 1 to 3 are based upon the degree to which the fair value is observable.
—— Level 1 fair value measurements are those derived from quoted market prices (unadjusted) in active markets;—— Level 2 fair value measurements are those derived from inputs other than quoted prices included within level 1 that are observable forthe asset or liability, either directly (i.e. as prices) or indirectly (i.e. derived from prices); and—— Level 3 fair value measurements are those derived from valuation techniques that include inputs for the asset or liability that are notbased on observable market data (unobservable inputs).
No transfers between these categories have occurred during the period.
Fair value hierarchy for those carried at fair value or at amortised
cost where fair value differs

Carrying value

2020

Amortised cost£m

Fair value
Fair value
throughthrough othersurplus/ comprehensive(deficit)
income/(loss)
£m
£m

Total
£m

Level 1£m

Level 2£m

Level 3
£m

Total
£m

Cash and cash equivalents
Trade and other receivables
Derivative financial assets:
Forward foreign currency
contracts1
Cash flow swaps
Interest rate swaps
Other investments
Investment properties

401
947

–
–

–
–

401
947

–
–
–
16
33

9
364
32
–
–

1
–
–
–
–

10
364
32
16
33

10
–
–
–
–

–
364
32
–
–

–
–
–
229
5

10
364
32
229
5

Total financial assets
Trade and other payables
Bank loans and overdrafts
Derivative financial
liabilities:
Forward foreign currency
contracts1
Cash flow swaps
Obligations under leases

1,397
(771)
(204)

405
(16)
–

1
–
–

1,803
(787)
(204)

10
–

396
–

234
(16)

640
(16)

–
–
(1,842)

(7)
(546)
–

(9)
–
–

(16)
(546)
(1,842)

(16)
–
–

–
(546)
–

–
–
(1,842)(16)(546)(1,842)

Total financial liabilities(2,817)

(569)

(9)

(3,395)

(16)

(546)

(1,858)(2,420)1 See Glossary for further details.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

203

Financial Statements

G. Other continued
G3 Financial instruments continued
G3.1 Financial risk management continued
Credit risk
Credit loss is the risk of financial loss to the BBC if a counterparty defaults on its contractual obligation. Default arises when it is determinedthat a counterparty is unlikely to pay following the evaluation of objective evidence.

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Notes to the accounts
G. Other continued
G3 Financial instruments continued
G3.2 Fair value1 of financial instruments continued
Fair value hierarchy for those carried at fair value or at amortised
cost where fair value differs

Carrying value

2019

Amortised cost£m

Fair value
Fair value
throughthrough othersurplus/ comprehensive(deficit)
income/(loss)
£m
£m

Total
£m

Level 1£m

Level 2£m

Level 3
£m

Total
£m

Cash and cash equivalents
Trade and other receivables
Derivative financial assets:
Forward foreign currency
contracts1
Cash flow swaps
Interest rate swaps
Other investments
Investment properties

468
713

–
–

–
–

468
713

–
–
–
14
70

3
426
21
–
–

1
–
–
–
–

4
426
21
14
70

4
–
–
–
–

–
426
21
–
–

–
–
–
205
176

4
426
21
205
176

Total financial assets
Trade and other payables
Bank loans and overdrafts
Derivative financial
liabilities:
Forward foreign currency
contracts1
Cash flow swaps
Obligations under financeleases

1,265
(444)
(203)

450
(12)
–

1
–
–

1,716
(456)
(203)

4
–

447
–

381
(12)

832
(12)

–
–

(6)
(549)

–
–

(6)
(549)

(6)
–

–
(549)

–
–

(6)
(549)

(651)

–

–

(651)

–

–

(906)

(906)

Total financial liabilities(1,298)(567)–(1,865)

(6)

(549)

(918)

(1,473)Due to their short-term nature, the carrying value of cash and cash equivalents, short-term bank loans, trade and other receivables and tradeand other payables, is approximately equal to their fair value.
Level 2 – cash flow swap derivatives
Cash flow swaps represents derivative financial assets of £364 million (2019: £426 million) and derivative financial liabilities of £546 million(2019: £549 million) relating to the financing arrangement of Broadcasting House, London. These swaps, which expire between 2033 and2045, are valued with reference to relevant SONIA and LIBOR yield curves, subject to appropriate credit risk adjustments where necessary.
An adjustment of 316 basis points is applied to a specific leg of the swaps to reflect credit risk as the arrangement with the counterparty is
not collateralised. These assumptions and inputs are reviewed on an annual basis, along with the completion of sensitivity analysis. If analternative adjustment of 327 basis points had been used to reflect a reasonably possible change based on market movements during theyear, then this would result in a decrease in the net liability of £7 million.
During the prior year an adjustment of 250 basis points was applied to reflect credit risk as the arrangement with the counterparty is notcollateralised. A change in the credit risk adjustment, reflecting the cumulative market movements since the inception of the swap, would
have resulted in an increase in the net liability of £2 million. The net liability would have decreased by £7 million had another appropriate
indec been used as a proxy for the credit risk adjustments, taking into account the cumulative movements since inception of the swap.
Level 3 financial instruments
The change in fair value of level 3 financial instruments is reconciled as follows:
2020

2019

Financial assets£mFinancialliabilities£mFinancial assets£mFinancialliabilities£m

At 1 April
Payments
Unwinding of discount recorded within finance expense
Additions
IFRS 9 cumulative catch-up
IFRS 16 cumulative catch-up
Change in fair value recorded in other gains and losses
Change in fair value

381
–
–
2
–
(69)
–
(80)

(918)
152
(57)
–
–
(1,229)
(2)
196

370
–
–
–
(1)
–
–
12

(962)
68
(48)
–
1
–
15
8

At 31 March

234(1,858)

381

(918)

1 See Glossary for further details.

204

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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The fair value of the investment in Daunus Limited is not included on the balance sheet as it is equity accounted for through the income
statement (see note E3). This is due to the BBC sharing joint control with other investors, including voting power and right to veto overrelevant activities, along with significant shared exposure to variable returns. The assumptions relating to Daunus Limited are reviewed on
an annual basis, along with the completion of a sensitivity analysis. Whilst the reported profit or loss of Daunus Limited is not a significant
input, the decision that Daunus Limited is a joint venture is a significant judgement.
G4 Gains on disposals
Note

Gain on disposal of Good Food
Gain on deemed disposal of UKTV
Other gains

E4

2020
£m

2019
£m

–
114
4

29
–
7

118

36

The Group increased its shareholding in UKTV Media Holdings Limited on 5 June 2019. The accounting for this investment changed from ajoint venture to that of a subsidiary holding on the same day. A £114 million deemed disposal on the joint venture holding has therefore beenrecognised.
G5 Other gains and losses

Change in fair value of derivative financial instruments
Change in fair value of put options over non-controlling interests
Change in earn-out payments due in respect of prior acquisitions

2020
£m

2019
£m

(2)
(2)
(2)

(8)
15
–

(6)

7

G6 Interests in associates, joint ventures and subsidiaries
The BBC Group holds (directly and indirectly) interests in the associates, joint ventures and subsidiaries listed below which, except whereotherwise stated, are incorporated in Great Britain and registered in England and Wales.
G6.1 Significant associates and their activities
Name of entity

Place of incorporation and principal place of business

YouView TV Limited
Britbox SVOD Limited
New Video Channel America LLC*
3sixtymedia Limited**

England and Wales
England and Wales
United States
England and Wales

Holding of issued
ordinary shares%

Activity

14.2%
10.0%
50.1%
10.0%

Multiplatform broadcasting
Digital Video Subscription
TV channel operator
Production* Whilst BBC Studios Distribution Limited retain a significant influence over New Video Channel America LLC and has the rights to variable returns, it is not deemed to have control
and is therefore recognised as an associate undertaking.
** The BBC holds 10% of the total share capital of 3sixtymedia Limited but 20% of the Class A ordinary shares, which gives it significant influence.

1 See Glossary for further details.

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205

Financial Statements

G. Other continued
G3 Financial instruments continued
G3.2 Fair value1 of financial instruments continued
Other investments – Daunus Limited
In order to facilitate the redevelopment and subsequent financing arrangement relating to Broadcasting House, London, the BBC holds aninvestment in Daunus Limited, which is included within level 3 financial instruments with a fair value of £227 million (2019: £205 million).
The BBC holds a 20% (2019: 20%) share of the issued share capital (preferential in nature), due to mature in 2033, at which point the
BBC receives certain rights in respect of Broadcasting House. The BBC’s share in Daunus Limited entitles it to the first £125 million (plus RPIfrom the start of the lease) of any proceeds on termination of the lease. The fair value has therefore been derived from £125 million, inflated
by RPI and subsequently discounted to 31 March 2020. The estimated interest rate used was 2.2% (2019: 2.9%) and the rate used to discountthe future cash flows was 0.6% (2019: 1.5%). These assumptions and inputs are reviewed on an annual basis, along with the completion of asensitivity analysis. A change in the adjustment applied to the respective interest rate of +1.0% would result in an increase in the net assetsby £33 million (2019: £32 million) whilst a reduction in the respective interest rate of -1.0% would result in a decrease in the net assets of£29 million (2019: £28 million).

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Notes to the accounts
G. Other continued
G6 Interests in associates, joint ventures and subsidiaries continued
G6.2 Significant joint ventures and their activities
Name of entity

Place of incorporation and principal place of business

Commercial joint ventures:
Britbox LLC
Daunus Limited*

United States
England and Wales

Holding of issued
ordinary shares%

Activity

50%
20%

Digital Video Subscription
Property* The BBC holds 20% of the total share capital of Daunus Limited but 66% of the voting rights. Other shareholders retain certain veto rights and therefore this entity is recognised as a
joint venture.

G6.3 Subsidiary undertakings1
Name of entity

Registered address

Directly owned commercial subsidiaries: (all 100% owned unless stated)
BBC Commercial Holdings Limited
Broadcast Centre Media Village, 201 Wood Lane, London W12 7TP
BBC Property Limited
BBC Property Investment Limited
BBC Property Development Limited
Centre House Productions Limited
BBC News Limited
BBC Free to View (Satellite) Limited
BBC Free to View Limited
BBC Media Applications Technologies Limited
DSHS Limited
BBC Subscription Television Limited
BBC Investments Limited
BBC Digital Programme Services Limited
BBC World Service Trading Limited
BBC World Service Holdings Limited

London Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London W1A 1AA

Indirectly owned commercial subsidiaries: (all 100% owned unless stated)
BBC Studios Limited
1 Television Centre, 101 Wood Lane, London W12 7FA
BBC Studios Distribution Limited
2 entertain Limited
2 entertain Management Limited
2 entertain Video Limited
BBC Video Limited
MCI Music Publishing Limited
Demon Music Group Limited
Crimson Productions Limited
F-Beat Records Limited
Demon Records Limited
BBC Earth MD (WWD) Limited
BBC Earth Productions (Life) Limited
BBC Earth Productions Limited
BBC Earth Productions (Giant Films) Limited
Earth Film Productions Limited
BBC Magazine Holdings Limited
BBC Studios Corporate Services Limited
BBC Studios Investments Limited
BBC Studios Drama Productions Limited
Tonto Films and Television Limited
BBC Studios Channel Investments Limited
Mortimer Productions Limited
UK Programme Distribution Limited (92.683% owned)
BEEB Rights Limited (88.402% owned)
BBC Studios Productions Limited
BBC Grafton House Productions Limited
BBC Comedy Productions Limited
BBC Natural History and Factual Productions Limited
BBC Natural History Giant Screen Limited
BBC Studios Productions (Clifton) Limited

1 See Glossary for further details.

206

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Name of entity

Registered address

UKTV Media Holdings Limited
UKTV Media Limited

10 Hammersmith Grove, London W6 7AP

BBC Children’s Productions Limited
BBC Global News Holdings Limited
BBC Global News Limited
BBC World Distribution Limited
BBC.com Limited

Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London, United Kingdom W1A 1AA

BBC Studioworks Limited

Room N101, Neptune House, BBC Elstree Centre, Clarendon Road,
Borehamwood, Hertfordshire WD6 1JF

Baby Cow Productions Limited (72.994% owned)
Baby Cow Manchester Limited
Baby Cow Productions (Hunderby) Limited
Baby Cow Productions (Partridge) Limited
Baby Cow Productions (Red Dwarf) Limited
Baby Cow Films Limited
Alan Partridge Limited
Baby Cow Animation (Warren) Limited
Baby Cow Animation (Wussywat) Limited
Baby Cow Productions (Witchfinder) Limited
Baby Cow Animation Limited
Baby Cow Films (Zoe) Limited
Lost Child Limited (50%)
Moone Bay (UK) Limited (50%)
The Last Holiday Limited

1 Television Centre, 101 Wood Lane, London W12 7FA

Sid Gentle Films Limited (51% owned)
Sid Gentle Films (Corfu) Limited
Sid Gentle Films (Gaiman) Limited
Sid Gentle Films (KE2) Limited
Sid Gentle Films (KE3) Limited
Sid Gentle Films (KE4) Limited
Sid Gentle Films (Killing Eve) Limited
Sid Gentle Films (OLIVE) Limited
Sid Gentle Films (SS-GB) Limited
Sid Gentle Films (TD4) Limited
Philomena Lee Limited
Sid Gentle Films (The Durrells) Limited

Charles House, 5-11 Regent Street, St James’s Way, London SW1Y 4LR

Lookout Point Limited (94% owned)
A Suitable Company Limited
AMP 1 Limited
Evergreen Television Limited
LOOKOUT POINT (LES MISERABLES) Limited
LOOKOUT POINT (SHIBDEN) Limited
Lookout Point (LT5) Limited
Lookout Point Acquisition Limited
Off Stone Productions Limited
Lookout Point (The Collection) Limited

Hammer House, 113-117 Wardour Street, London, United Kingdom
W1F 0UN

Lookout Point (The Collection) Limited

4 Daventry Road, Rugby, United Kingdom, CV22 6NS

BBC Studios Canada Limited

409 King Street West, 5th Floor, Toronto, ON, M5V 1K1, Canada

BBC Studios Singapore PTE. Limited

12-08/08 Shal Tower, 100 Beach Road, Singapore 189702, Singapore

BBC Studios Japan Limited

Tokyo Club Bldg., 10F, 3-2-6 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-0013,
Japan

BBC Studios Productions Nordics ApS

Mosedalvej 14, 2500 Valby, DenmarkBBC.com US, Inc

c/o Corporation Trust Centre, 1209 Orange Street, Wilmington 19801,
United States New Castle, Delaware 19801

Financial Statements

G. Other continued
G6 Interests in associates, joint ventures and subsidiaries continued
G6.3 Subsidiary undertakings1 continued

1 See Glossary for further details.

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Notes to the accounts
G. Other continued
G6 Interests in associates, joint ventures and subsidiaries continued
G6.3 Subsidiary undertakings1 continued
Name of entity

Registered address

Nine Productions1 Inc

650-699 Howe Street Vancouver, British Columbia, V6 0B4, Canada

BBC Studios France

18-20 Quai du Point du Jour, Bat. A, 92100 Boulogne-Billancourt, France

BBC Studios Channel Investments (Ontario) Limited

Toronto Dominion Bank Tower, Toronto Dominion Center, Toronto, ON
M5K 1E6, Canada

2004370 Inc

66 Wellington Street West 470, Toronto Dominion Bank Tower, Toronto
M5k 1EG, Canada

BBC Studios Americas Inc
BBC Studios Americas (401) K Plan Trustees

1120 Avenue of the Americas, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10036-6700,
United States

Adjacent Productions, LLC
Bad Wolf Productions LLC
BBC Studios Reality Productions LLC
Global Hybrid Productions LLC
Lime Grove Productions LLC
Sun Never Sets Productions LLC
Studios Competition Productions LLC

10351 Santa Monica Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90025, United States

BBC Studios Americas Investments Inc

The Corporation Trust Company, Corporation Trust Centre, 1209 Orange
Street, Wilmington 19801, United States

BBC Studios Australia Holdings Pty Limited
BBC Studios Australia Pty Limited
BBC Studios Productions Australia Pty Limited

Level 1, 35-51 Mitchell Street, McMahons Point NSW 2060, Australia

BBC Studios Germany GmbH
Erste Weltweit Medien GmbH

Kaiser-Wilhelm-Ring 17-21, 50672 Köln, Germany

BBC Worldwide Holdings B.V

Prins Bernhardplein 200, 1097 JB Amsterdam, Netherlands

BBC Studios India Private Limited

Construction House A Wing, 401- 4th Floor, Off Linking Road, 24th Road,
Khar (W), Mumbai 400 052 India

BBC Studios Africa (Pty) Limited

Office 003H3 Ground Floor, 10 Melrose Boulevard, Melrose Arch,
Melrose North 2196, SA

BBC Studios Intermediadora de Programadora
Estangeira Limited

Rua Ferreira de Araujo, 741, Andar 1, Pinheiros, São Paulo SP 05.428-002
BrazilBBC Studios Polska Sp. z o.o.

Pl. Bankowy 1, 00-139 Warszawa, Poland

BBC Worldwide Mexico S.A de C.V
BBC Worldwide Channels Mexico S.A de C.V

Calle Andres Bello 10 Piso 10, Chapultepec Polanco, Delg. Miguel Hidalgo,Ciudad de Mexico CP 11560, Mexico

Worldwide Knowledge (Beijing) Business Consulting
Company Ltd

Unit 7, Floor 9, West Tower, Genesis Building, 8 Xinyuan South Road,
Chaoyang District, Beijing 100027

BBC Studios Productions (Africa) (Pty) Limited

24 18th Street, Menlo Park 0081, Maxars House, 5 St Davids Place,
Parktown 2193, SA

Rapid Blue Pty Limited
Canadian AP Ventures Company ULC

263 Oak Avenue, Ferndale, Randburg, 2194, South Africa

Rapid Blue Africa Limited

7 Sowemimo Street, GRA Ikeja, Nigeria

BBC World (Japan) Limited (incorporated in Japan)

Tokyo Club Bldg., 3-2-6, Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, 100-0013,
Japan

BBC World (Singapore) Private Limited (incorporated
in Singapore)#12-08/08 Shaw Tower, 100 Beach Road Singapore 189702, Singapore

BBC Global News (India) Private Limited (incorporated
in India)

Unit No. 301, 3rd Floor, D-2, Southern Park, District Centre, Saket,
New Delhi, 110017

BBC Global News US LLC (incorporated in America)

Corporation Service Company, 80 State Street, Albany, New York,
12207-2543

G7 Reserves
G7.1 Operating reserve
The operating reserve reflects accumulated profits to date and the one-off cumulative catch-up adjustment of £81 million due to thetransition to IFRS 16 Leases, hence this will amount to the difference in 2018/19 closing and 2019/20 opening retained earnings. The
cumulative catch-up adjustment is an entry to opening retained earnings to reflect the changes recognised as a result of IFRS 16 under themodified retrospective transition method. Refer to the accounting policies section for further information on the transition.
1 See Glossary for further details.

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Financial Statements

G. Other continued
G7 Reserves continued
G7.2 Hedging reserve
The hedging reserve is used to record the effective portion of cumulative net changes in the fair value of cash flow hedging instruments,
related to hedged transactions that have not yet occurred (net of tax). During the current year, losses of £4 million were removed from thehedging reserve and debited to income in the income statement (2019: £4 million).
G7.3 Translation reserve
The translation reserve comprises all foreign exchange differences arising since the transition to IFRS, from the translation of the financial
statements of foreign operations, as well as from the translation of liabilities that hedge the BBC’s net investment in foreign subsidiaries.
G7.4 Other reserves
Other reserves include the fair value of put option liabilities arising on acquisition of subsidiaries and the difference between the cost ofinvestment and net assets of entities acquired which are held under common control.
G8 Post-balance sheet events
There were no events subsequent to the balance sheet date which required disclosure within the financial statements.
G9 Related party transactions
The following table represents transactions with related parties excluding key management personnel.
Associates, joint ventures and otherinvestments

Rendering of services
Receiving of services
Pension contributions
Dividends received

2019
£m

2020
£m

2019
£m

56
(90)
–
8

83
(89)
–
28

–
–
159
–

–
–
191
–

(26)

22

159

191

Amounts owed by related parties

Associates, joint ventures and other investments

BBC Pension Scheme

2020
£m

Amounts owed to related parties

2020
£m

2019
£m

2020
£m

2019
£m

18

47

(8)

(19)

18

47

(8)

(19)

In all transactions, terms were negotiated on an arm’s length basis.
The BBC also enters into various transactions with Government and local authorities on an arm’s length basis. These transactions include
business rates and corporation tax payments.
Related party transactions with key management personnel are disclosed in note C5.
During the year the BBC received less than £0.1 million of income and incurred less than £0.1 million of expenditure with BBC Children in
Need. At 31 March 2020, the BBC had a receivable of £1.8 million (2019: £0.6 million) with this entity, predominantly relating to the rechargeof employee costs. At year end, the BBC also had a receivable of £0.6 million with BBC Media Action UK (2019: £0.6 million).
At the end of the year the BBC was owed £0.6 million (2019: £0.4 million) by the BBC Pension Scheme and was due to pay £0.5 million (2019:£0.6 million) to the BBC Pension Scheme.
G10 Segment reporting
Geographical location of income and non-current assets

2020

Non-current assets excluding deferred tax and financial
instruments:
UK
America
Australia
Rest of world

Additions included in non-current assets and investments
External income:UK
America
Australia
Rest of world

PSB Group£m

BBC Studios
£m

Other
commercials
£m

Group
adjustments
£m

Group
£m

2,488
5
–
67

536
210
13
7

294
–
–
1

(261)
–
–
–

3,057
215
13
75

2,560

766

295

(261)

3,360

104

445

5

(2)

552

3,802
10
1
10

658
301
64
365

80
33
2
82

(465)
–
–
–

4,075
344
67
457

3,823

1,388

197

(465)

4,943

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Notes to the accounts
G. Other continued
G10 Segment reporting continued
2019

Non-current assets excluding deferred tax and financial
instruments:
UK
America
Australia
Rest of world

Additions included in non-current assets and investments
External income:UK
America
Australia
Rest of world

PSB Group£m

BBC Studios
£m

Other
commercials
£m

Group
adjustments
£m

Group
£m

1,307
2
–
68

289
186
14
8

278
–
–
–

(512)
–
–
–

1,362
188
14
76

1,377

497

278

(512)

1,640

133

218

2

(2)

351

3,997
9
1
10

529
241
70
349

67
33
7
76

(500)
–
–
–

4,093
283
78
435

4,017

1,189

183

(500)

4,889

The allocation of sales to geographical segments is based upon the business region in which the sales are generated. No individual country
within the rest of world category is more than 3% of total sales.
Further analysis of the Group’s revenues by product or service line is not provided as this information is not routinely reported to the Board.
H. Basis of preparation of the financial statements and other accounting policies
The BBC is incorporated in the United Kingdom by Royal Charter.
Statement of accounting policies
The BBC is required to select and apply accounting policies for each type of transaction entered into throughout the year and in thepreceding year. An accounting policy will specify the timing for recognising and derecognising assets, liabilities, income and expenditure,
how those items will subsequently be measured and where they are presented in the statement of total income and expenditure, balance
sheet and statement of cash flows.
Use of estimates and judgements
The preparation of financial statements requires the use of certain critical accounting estimates that affect the reported performance andposition of the BBC, or areas where assumptions or estimates are significant to the consolidated financial statements.
It also requires management to exercise judgement in applying the BBC’s accounting policies. These areas involve a higher degree ofjudgement or complexity.
The areas involving a higher degree of judgement or complexity are set out below and in more detail in the related notes:—— Income recognition (note A);—— Provisions and accruals (notes F10 and F9);—— Property, plant and equipment (note D1 and D2);—— Acquisitions (note E4);—— Pension scheme and actuarial assumptions (note C7); and—— Derivative financial assets and liabilities (note G3).
Basis of preparation
These consolidated financial statements for the BBC have been prepared in accordance with IFRS as adopted by the EU. Additional analysis
is also presented to meet regulatory additional requirements including those prescribed by DCMS, Ofcom or the Charter.
The financial statements are principally prepared on the historical cost basis. Exceptions are noted within the relevant section of the notes.
Where items are sufficiently significant by virtue of their size or nature, they are disclosed separately in the financial statements in order to
aid the reader’s understanding of the BBC’s financial position and performance.
The following new and revised standards and interpretations have been adopted for the first time, as they became effective for thisfinancial year:—— IFRS 16 Leases—— Prepayment Features with Negative Compensation (Amendments to IFRS 9)—— Long-term Interests in Associates and Joint Ventures (Amendments to IAS 28)—— Annual Improvements to IFRS Standards 2015 – 2017 Cycle—— Plan Amendment, Curtailment or Settlement (Amendments to IAS 19)—— IFRIC 23 Uncertainty over Income Tax Treatments
These have been applied since 1 April 2019 and, with the exception of IFRS 16 (see below), have not had a significant impact on the results orfinancial position of the Group.

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The definition of a lease applicable to the BBC’s circumstances is described in the accounting policies relevant to section D.
On transition to IFRS 16, the Group elected to apply the practical expedient to apply the assessment of which transactions are leases,
applying IFRS 16 to contracts that had been previously identified as leases. The definition of a lease under IFRS 16 was applied to contracts
entered into or changed on or after 1 April 2019.
As a lessee, the Group previously classified leases as either ‘operating’ or ‘finance’ based upon its assessment of whether significantly all therisks and rewards incidental to ownership of the underlying asset transferred to the Group. Under IFRS 16, the Group recognises right-of-use
assets and lease liabilities for most leases on the balance sheet. Recognition exemptions have been applied to short-term and low-value
leases.
At transition, lease liabilities were measured at the present value of the remaining lease payments discounted at the Group’s incremental
borrowing rate at 1 April 2019. Right-of-use assets are measured at an amount equal to the lease liability, adjusted by the amount of any
prepaid or accrued lease payments.
The Group used the following practical expedients when applying IFRS 16 to previously classified operating leases:—— Adjusted the right-of-use assets by any onerous contract provision immediately before initial application;—— Did not recognise right-of-use assets and liabilities for leases with a term of less than 12-months;—— Excluded initial direct costs from measuring right-of-use assets at the date of initial application; and—— Used hindsight when determining the lease term if the contract contains options to extend or terminate the lease.
For previously classified finance leases, the carrying amount of the right-of-use asset and the lease liability at 1 April 2019 are determined at
the carrying amount of the lease asset and liability immediately as at 31 March 2019. Where assets were previously treated as operatingleases and finance leases (for example, assets with a land and building element) the carrying amount of the entire lease asset and liability has
been remeasured on transition accordingly.
Adjustments upon transition are not required for leases in which the Group acts as a lessor, except for sub-leases when classification isdetermined with reference to the right-of-use asset, not the underlying asset.
On transition the Group recognised the following:£m

Right-of-use asset
Transfer out of property, plant and equipment
Net transfer from investment property
Creation of lease receivable
Other balance sheet movement
Additional lease liabilities

1,595
(445)
(36)
205
(9)
(1,229)Retained earnings

81

An assessment as to whether the existing available borrowing facilities would provide the funds necessary to obtain assets of a similar
nature has been performed in order to determine the weighted average of the discount rates applied of 2.54%.
£m

Operating lease commitments at 31 March 2019 as previously disclosed

610

Discounted using the incremental borrowing rate at 1 April 2019
Finance lease liabilities
Recognition exemption for short-term leases
Recognition exemption for leases of low-value assets
Variable lease payments based on an index or rate
Other

517
1,346
(17)
(1)
(15)
50

Lease liabilities recognised at 1 April 2019

1,880

Going concern1
The financial statements are prepared on a going concern basis. The Directors believe this to be appropriate for the reasons set out below.
The Directors have prepared and reviewed cash flow forecasts for the 24-month period to 31 March 2022, a period in excess of a year fromthe date of approval of these financial statements.
In the Directors’ judgement, the key factors in these forecasts are the continuity of the Charter and licence fee, the BBC Pension Scheme
deficit and the resultant deficit recovery payments agreed with the pension scheme Trustees, the realisation of planned cost savings underthe ‘Strategic Plan’ programme and the BBC’s response to compensate for the implications of the coronavirus pandemic and the forecast
consequences.

1 See Glossary for further details.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

211

Financial Statements

H. Basis of preparation of the financial statements and other accounting policies continued
IFRS 16 Leases
Except for the below, the Group has consistently applied the accounting policies to all periods presented. The Group has applied IFRS 16 withan initial application date of 1 April 2019, using the modified retrospective approach, under which the cumulative effect of initial recognition
is recognised in retained earnings at 1 April 2019.

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Notes to the accounts
H. Basis of preparation of the financial statements and otheraccounting policies continued
The coronavirus pandemic has a clear impact on a number of key
areas of the BBC. Social distancing measures impact the ability tocollect the licence fee and a number of cost saving measures havebeen put in place across the BBC to compensate for the loss of
income. Filming pauses will delay delivery of content, as well as
increasing the costs of production overall. The commercial
operations are impacted by the significant pressure on global
advertising revenues, following dips in consumer confidence andbusiness investment. The knock-on effect on the global economy ofsocial distancing measures is profound. However, the BBC is seeing
continuing demand for premium content and output, underpinnedby audience choices and the continuing proliferation of services.
For 2020, due to the increased pressures on the BBC as a result of thecoronavirus pandemic, we conducted additional financial stresstesting and sensitivity analysis, considering income at risk as well as
the impact of our response plan to the crisis. See further informationin the Viability Statement on page 103 and on page 95 to 102 for arobust assessment of the principal risks facing the Corporation,
including those that would threaten its business model, future
performance, solvency or liquidity. In particular, the Directors haveapplied assumptions relating to the changing risk profile arising due
to the coronavirus pandemic as described under principal risk 4,‘Our Finances’ to cash flow and budgetary modelling.
The Charter and licence fee give the BBC a secure source of income,however the timing of cash flows is an important factor in theconsideration of going concern given the borrowing restrictions
agreed with the DCMS for both the PSB Group (£200 million) and thecommercial operations of the BBC (£350 million). An additional £2billion is available to the PSB in 2019/20 to fund leases and £150
million for the commercial operations increasing to £200 million
from April 2020.
The Board remains satisfied with the BBC’s funding and liquidity
position. The BBC has external funding available, including a £200
million sterling revolving credit facility which expires on 31 March2023 with two one -year extension options exercisable by the BBC
which would extend the maturity to 31 March 2025. This facility iscurrently unutilised. PSB net debt at 31 March 2020 was £1,548
million, which equates to a headroom of £652 million against theborrowing limit available.
There is a separate facility available to the BBC commercial
operations. At the balance sheet date, the primary source of funding
to the commercial operations was a £171 million US Private
Placement facility, available until June 2020. This facility consistedof US$216 million (fixed through foreign exchange swap
transactions at £143 million) and £28 million sterling. From June
2020 these facilities were replaced with a £170 million facility withUK banks until June 2023 with a possibility of two one year
extension options (to June 2025). The commercial operations also
have access to a £210 million facility with a group of internationalbanks until March 2024 and the BBC has elected to extend this by
one year to March 2025. As at the year-end the BBC had drawn
down £201 million (£169 million net of the impact of foreignexchange swap transactions) of the facilities available (2019: £193
million).
The Directors of the BBC have reviewed the cash flow forecasts andavailable external borrowing facilities. Together with thesensitivities and mitigating factors in the context of available funds,
they expect the BBC to be able to meet its debts as they fall due forthe foreseeable future.
As a result, the Directors are satisfied that the going concern basis isappropriate for the preparation of these financial statements.
Basis of consolidation
The BBC’s financial statements include the results of the BBC and allbusinesses controlled by the BBC (subsidiaries) together with theBBC’s share of the results of businesses over which the BBC has
212

significant influence but not control (associates) and those which the
BBC jointly controls (joint ventures).
The BBC accounts for its interests in associates and joint venturesusing the equity method. The equity method means that the
BBC presents its interest in associates or joint ventures as a single
line item in the balance sheet, measured at the cost of theinvestment plus the share of the net result, less dividends received.
The equity accounted result for the year is presented as a single line
item in the statement of income and expenditure.
Changes in the BBC’s interests in subsidiaries that do not result in aloss of control are accounted for as equity transactions, being
movements between reserves attributable to the BBC and noncontrolling interests. A non-controlling interest is the interest in a
subsidiary that is not owned, directly or indirectly, by the BBC. The
non-controlling interest reflects the amount of the net result for theyear and the net assets/(liabilities) which are not attributable to theBBC. The carrying amounts of non-controlling interests are adjusted
to reflect any changes in their, and the BBC’s, relative interests in thesubsidiaries. Any difference between the amount by which the
non-controlling interests are adjusted and the fair value of theconsideration paid or received is recognised directly in equity andattributed to the BBC.
When the BBC loses control of a subsidiary, the profit or loss on
disposal is calculated as the difference between (i) the aggregate of
the fair value of the consideration received and the fair value of any
retained interest and (ii) the previous carrying amount of the net
assets of the subsidiary (including attributable goodwill) and any
non-controlling interests. Amounts previously recognised in othercomprehensive income in relation to the subsidiary are reclassified
to the income statement or transferred directly to retained earnings
as appropriate. The fair value of any interest retained in the former
subsidiary at the date when control is lost is regarded as the cost on
initial recognition of an investment in an associate or joint venture.
Business combinations
The acquisition of subsidiaries is accounted for using the acquisition
method. The cost of an acquisition is measured at the aggregate of
the fair values, at the date of exchange, of assets given by the BBC in
exchange for control of the acquire. The acquiree’s identifiable assets,
liabilities and contingent liabilities that meet the conditions forrecognition under IFRS 3 are recognised at their fair value at theacquisition date. Subsequent adjustments to the fair values of net
assets acquired are made within 12 months of the acquisition datewhere original fair values were determined provisionally. These
adjustments are accounted for from the date of acquisition.
Transaction costs that the BBC incurs in connection with a businesscombination, such as legal fees, due diligence fees and otherprofessional and consulting fees, are expensed as incurred. On
acquisition, the BBC recognises any non-controlling interest either atfair value or at the non-controlling interest’s proportionate share of
net assets.
When control is obtained in successive share purchases (a ‘step
acquisition’) it is accounted for using the acquisition method at theacquisition date. The previously held interest is remeasured to fairvalue at the acquisition date and a gain or loss is recognised in theincome statement.
Acquisitions
All identified assets and liabilities included within an acquisition arerecognised at fair value as at the acquisition date. Judgement isrequired in determining the valuation method for each identifiable
asset and liability, which is specific for each category based on themost appropriate valuation method – including the Cost, Income andMarket approaches. Judgement is also required when assessing theappropriate economic useful lives for assets acquired.
Foreign currency transactions
Transactions in foreign currencies are translated into the functional
currency of each entity of the Group at an average exchange rate.

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Financial statements of foreign operations
The assets and liabilities of foreign operations are translated into
sterling at the rate of exchange ruling at the balance sheet date. The
income and expenses of foreign operations are translated into
sterling at average rates of exchange ruling during the financial
period, which is a good approximation for the actual rate. Exchange
differences arising on translation are recognised directly in thetranslation reserve.
On disposal of an investment in a foreign operation, the associatedtranslation reserve balance is released to the income statement.
Accounting policies relevant to section A
Licence fee income
Income from television licences is treated as an amount due from therelevant Government department. This represents the value of
licences issued in the year, less a deduction for refunds andcancellations.
Where an element of the licence fee income has been ring-fenced by
the Government for a specific purpose, that income is recognised
when it is due, except if it becomes virtually certain that the BBC’s
expenditure on the ring-fenced purposes will be less than the
ring-fenced income already received. In this case, the relevant
amount of licence fee income, as agreed with the Government, will
be repayable and recognised as such in the year the obligation to
repay arises.
Other income
Other income arises from activities such as the sale of goods,
provision of services and granting of licences. Income is measured
after deductions for value added tax, any other sales taxes, trade
discounts and sales between BBC companies.
Income from contracts with customers
Income is measured based on the consideration specified in acontract with a customer and excludes amounts collected on behalfof third parties. Income recognition is based on the delivery of
performance obligations and an assessment of when control istransferred to the customer. The complexity of individual
contractual terms may require the BBC to make judgements inassessing when the triggers for income recognition have been met,
particularly whether the BBC has sufficiently fulfilled its obligations
under the contract to allow income to be recognised.
Income is recognised either when the performance obligation in thecontract has been performed (‘point in time’) or ‘over time’ as controlof the performance obligation is transferred to the customer. A
performance obligation must meet one of the three criteria in IFRS
15 to meet ‘over time’ recognition. The default category, if none ofthese criteria are met, is ‘point in time’ recognition. Further detail on
the category of income recognition for each income stream can befound below.
IFRS 15 provides more comprehensive guidance for contracts tolicence intellectual property, or contracts where licence ofintellectual property is a significant component. Each performanceobligation is identified and evaluated as to whether it represents aright to access the content (revenue recognised over time) or
represents a right to use the content (revenue recognised at a point intime), and all three of the criteria referred to above must be met tomeet the definition of a ‘right to access’ licence. The majority of theGroup’s contracts to licence intellectual property have defaulted to a‘right to use’ licence and recognised at a ‘point in time’.
The transaction price, being the amount to which the BBC expects tobe entitled and has rights to under the contract, is allocated to theidentified performance obligations. Most of the BBC’s income isderived from fixed price contracts and therefore the amount ofincome to be earned from each contract is determined by reference
to those fixed prices. Royalties, as the exception, are generally set asa metric/percentage of sales generated.
The allocation of the transaction price to the performanceobligations is at the amount that depicts the consideration to which
the BBC expects to be entitled in exchange for goods or services
transferred. This is generally done in proportion to the stand-alone
selling prices.
The BBC’s main sources of contract income are recognised asfollows:—— Content and format sales
Licence fees from programme content and programme formats
are recognised on the latter of the start of the licence period(taking into account any holdback dates) or when the Group’s
performance obligations have been satisfied. For content sales theperformance obligation will generally be to deliver the associatedprogramme to the customer, therefore income is recognised‘episodically’ – on delivery of each episode. For format sales, there
are two performance obligations – to provide the format ‘bible’
and in some cases production assistance. Income is allocated toeach of these performance obligations based on stand-alone
selling prices and recognition at the two separate ‘points in time’.
The payment terms are over the term of the contract.
—— Production income
Production revenue is recognised on delivery of the related
programme or on a stage of completion basis, depending on thenature of the contract with the customer. Revenue is recognised
either when the performance obligation in the contract has been
performed (‘point in time’ recognition) or ‘over time’ as control ofthe performance obligation is transferred to the customer. The
payment terms are over the term of the contract.
—— Subscription fees
Subscription fees on pay channel platforms and fromsubscriptions to print and online publications and services arerecognised as earned, pro rata over the subscription period. The
performance obligation is to provide the subscription service overthe period of the contract. This performance obligation meets thedefinition of ‘right to access’ as the customer simultaneously
receives and consumes the benefits as the Group provides theservice. Therefore, subscription fee income is recognised ‘overtime’. Minimum guarantees related to subscription fee income
are recognised pro-rata straight line over the contract life, in linewith ‘over time’ recognition. The payment terms are quarterly inarrears.
—— Advertising income
Advertising income is recognised on transmission or publicationof the advertisement. The performance obligation is satisfied at
this ‘point in time’ – when each advertisement occurs. The
payment terms are over the term of the contract.
—— Consumer products
Income generated from the sale of consumer products is
recognised at the time of delivery. Income from the sale of goods
is stated net of deductions for actual and expected returns basedon management judgement and historical experience. The
performance obligation is delivery of the products, and therefore
income is recognised at a ‘point in time’. The payment terms areover the term of the contract.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

213

Financial Statements

H. Basis of preparation of the financial statements and otheraccounting policies continued
Monetary assets and liabilities denominated in foreign currencies atthe balance sheet date are translated into sterling at the rate ofexchange ruling at that date. Foreign currency gains or losses arisingfrom the translation of assets and liabilities at these rates of
exchange, together with exchange differences arising fromtransactions settled during the year, are included in the income
statement within operating costs. Non-monetary assets andliabilities measured at historical cost are translated into sterling at
the rate of exchange on the date of initial recognition.

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Notes to the accounts
H. Basis of preparation of the financial statements and otheraccounting policies continued—— Royalties
Royalty income arising from sales and usage-based royalties arerecognised at the later of when the subsequent sales or usage
occurs, or the performance obligation has been satisfied.
Minimum guarantees related to royalty income are recognised ondelivery of the completed content to the customer, with any
subsequent royalties recognised as earned. Therefore, royalty
income is recognised at a ‘point in time’. The payment terms areover the term of the contract.
Other income—— Grant income
Grants from Government departments are recognised as incomein the financial year that they relate to. Grants from other publicbodies are recognised as income consistently with the related
costs, provided that there is reasonable assurance that the
BBC will comply with any conditions attached to the grant andthat the grant will be received.
—— Rental income
Rental income is recognised on a straight-line basis over the termof the lease.
Costs of obtaining long-term contracts and costs of fulfilling contracts
The costs of fulfilling contracts do not result in the recognition of aseparate asset because:—— such costs are included in the carrying amount of inventory forcontracts involving the sale of goods; and—— for service contracts, income is recognised over time by reference
to the stage of completion, meaning that control of the asset istransferred to the customer on a continuous basis as work is
carried out. Consequently, no asset for work in progress isrecognised.
The group has taken advantage of the practical exemptions:—— not to account for significant financing components where thetime difference between receiving consideration and transferring
control of goods (or services) to its customer is one year or less;and—— expense the incremental costs of obtaining a contract when theamortisation period of the asset otherwise recognised would
have been one year or less.
Use of estimates and judgements – Income recognition
The largest income stream for the BBC is licence fee income; received
from DCMS. This also gives rise to the largest receivable to the BBC,which is calculated based upon the value of licences issued in theyear, less a deduction for refunds and cancellations. The expectedcredit loss in relation to this balance takes into the account the
number of individual licences cancelled or refunded. Income
recognition in the BBC’s commercial operations is complex however,with a number of different income streams including sale of content
to global broadcasters, subscription income and income from thesale of physical and digital products. The complexity of individual
contractual terms may require the BBC to make judgements inassessing when the criteria for recognising income have beensatisfied, particularly whether the BBC has sufficiently fulfilled its
obligations under the contract to allow income to be recognised.
Spend on the BBC’s services
Disclosures on the BBC Public Service Broadcasting expenditure canbe found within the Strategic Report. Below details some of the key
policies adhered to.
Spend by BBC service shows the cost to the licence fee payer ofproviding the relevant service and therefore exclude any costs
funded by a co-producer.

Where a programme is broadcast on more than one channel, the fullcost of the programme is recognised as a cost of the channel where
the programme is first broadcast. However, where a programme iscommissioned by two channels, the cost of the programme isrecognised as a cost of the primary channel irrespective of thechannel holding the first transmission.
For BBC Online, the service spend reflects the incremental costs ofgetting content to audiences unless the content is specificallycommissioned for this service.
This means the costs reported against individual services are notnecessarily equivalent to the costs which would be incurred by sucha service on a stand-alone basis.
Development spend funds the near-term development of new
platforms and services, particularly for BBC Online. This is primarily
focused on new features for existing services and also includes
related support and overhead costs. It is distinct from research
department costs (see note B1) which is focused on much longerterm research of new technology and standards that benefit thewhole industry.
Accounting policies relevant to section B
Completed originated programmes, programmes in production andprepayments to acquire future programme-related rights
Programme assets reported as inventory effectively represent theBBC’s right to broadcast. The BBC’s right to sell programme rights
are, however, recognised within intangible assets.
Completed originated programmes and programmes in production
are held at cost.
Cost includes all direct costs, production overheads and a proportionof other attributable overheads. The proportion of programmes
necessarily taking a substantial period of time to produce is smalland, as such, no borrowing costs are included in cost.
Where, exceptionally, it becomes certain that a programme is unable
to be broadcast, the full value of the programme is written off to theincome statement.
Programme development costs are expensed to the income
statement until such time as there is a strong indication that thedevelopment work will result in a commissioned programme1, when
any further costs are recognised as programme-related assets.
Originated programmes that are still in production at the balance
sheet date are recognised as programmes in production, except that
prepayments to acquire future programme-related rights are shown
separately where the BBC has made payments to independent
producers, or the holders of certain rights (for example, rights tobroadcast sporting events), to receive the programme on completion.
Rights to broadcast acquired programmes and films
The rights to broadcast acquired programmes and films arerecognised at cost. The costs of acquired programmes and films are
expensed on first transmission except to the extent that the numberof further showings are contractually agreed, when they are
expensed according to the expected transmission profile. Assets andliabilities relating to acquired programmes are recognised at the
point of payment or commencement of the licence period, whicheveris earlier. Agreements for the future purchase of rights whose licence
period has not commenced and where there has been no payment
by the balance sheet date are disclosed as purchase commitments.
Where the BBC has invested in independent productions, in addition
to broadcasting rights, the BBC may obtain rights to future royalties
from the sale of rights associated with the production. These
residual interests are recognised initially at cost subject toamortisation as royalties are received and impaired if anticipatedroyalties do not materialise.

1 See Glossary for further details.

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Termination benefits
Termination benefits are expensed at the earlier of when the
BBC can no longer withdraw the offer of those benefits and when the
BBC recognises costs for a restructure.
Defined contribution plans
The amounts charged as expenditure for the defined contributionplans represent the contributions payable by the BBC for theaccounting period.
Defined benefit plans
The defined benefit plans, of which the significant minority ofstaff are members, provide benefits based on pensionable pay. The
assets of the BBC’s Pension Scheme are held separately from thoseof the BBC.
Pension scheme assets are measured at fair value. Pension scheme
liabilities are measured using the projected unit credit method. The
present value of scheme liabilities is calculated by discounting
estimated future cash outflows at the current rate of return on ahigh-quality corporate bond of equivalent term and currency to theliabilities.
Should the pension scheme be in a net asset position, under thePension Scheme rules, the BBC considers that they are entitled toany surplus on the pension scheme in the event that it is wound up.
It is the actuarial valuation, as opposed to the IAS 19 estimate,which would be used to determine the amount due if the scheme
was wound up.
Remeasurement comprising gains and losses and the return on
scheme assets (excluding interest) are recognised immediately in thebalance sheet with a charge or credit to the statement ofcomprehensive income in the period in which they occur.
Remeasurement recorded in the statement of comprehensive
income is not recycled. When the benefits of a plan are changed theresulting change in benefit that relates to past service is recognised
immediately in the income statement. Net interest is calculated byapplying a discount rate to the net defined benefit liability or asset.
Defined benefit costs are split into three categories:—— current service cost, past-service cost and gains and losses on
settlements and curtailments;—— net interest expense or income; and—— remeasurement.
The current service cost and past-service cost are included within
operating costs in the consolidated income statement. Curtailments
gains and losses are accounted for as past-service cost. Net interest
expense or income relating to the funded defined benefit pension
plans is included within ‘finance income’ or ‘finance costs’, as
relevant, in the consolidated income statement.
Administration costs directly related to the management of plan
assets are deducted from the return on plan assets, which arerecorded as remeasurements in the statement of comprehensive
income. Other administrative scheme expenses associated withrunning the scheme are recorded within operating expenses whenincurred.
The retirement benefit obligation recognised in the consolidatedbalance sheet represents the deficit or surplus in the BBC’s defined
benefit schemes. Any surplus resulting from this calculation islimited to the present value of any economic benefits available in theform of refunds from the schemes or reductions in futurecontributions to the schemes.

Use of estimates and judgements – post-retirement benefits
The pension costs and obligations of the BBC’s defined benefit
schemes are calculated on the basis of a range of assumptions,
including the discount rate, inflation rate, salary growth andmortality. Differences arising as a result of actual experience
differing from the assumptions, or future changes in theassumptions, will be reflected in subsequent periods. A small change
in assumptions can have a significant impact on the valuation of theliabilities. Further analysis on the sensitivity of pension assumptions
is given in note C7.1.
Accounting policies relevant to section D
Owned assets
Other than as noted below, items of property, plant and equipment
are stated at cost less accumulated depreciation and any
accumulated impairment losses.
Cost includes expenditure that is directly attributable to theacquisition of the asset.
LeasesThe Group has applied IFRS 16 using the modified retrospective
approach. Comparative information has not been restated, withdetails of the accounting policies disclosed separately where
different.
Under IFRS 16, at inception of a contract the Group assesses whether
a contract contains a lease; defined as a contract that conveys theright to control the use of an identified asset for a period of time inexchange for consideration. The Group assesses whether:—— the contract involves the use of an identified asset – either
specified explicitly or implicitly – and should be (or represent
substantially all the capacity of) a physical asset. If the supplier
has substantive substitution rights, then the asset is not
identified;—— the Group has the right to obtain substantially all the economic
benefits from use of the asset throughout the period of use; and—— the Group has the right to direct the use of the asset, which iswhen it has the decision-making rights that are most relevant tochanging how and for what purpose the asset is used.
This predominantly includes land and buildings (both in the UK andoverseas) as well as a range of specialised broadcast equipment.
This policy is applied to contracts entered into, or changed, on orafter 1 April 2019.
At inception or on reassessment of a contract that contains a lease
component, the group allocates the consideration in the contract toeach lease component on the basis of their relevant stand-alone
prices as determined by the underlying contract.
Depreciation
Depreciation is provided to write off the cost of each item ofproperty, plant and equipment, less its estimated residual value, on astraight-line basis over its estimated useful life. The major categories
of property, plant and equipment are depreciated as follows:—— Land and buildings
Freehold land – not depreciatedFreehold buildings – 50 years
Freehold building improvements – 10 to 50 years
Leasehold buildings – shorter of 50 years or life of lease
Leasehold building improvements – shorter of 50 years or lifeof lease—— Plant and machinery
Computer equipment – 3 to 5 years
Electrical and mechanical infrastructure – 10 to 25 years
Other – 3 to 10 years—— Furniture and fittings – 3 to 10 years
Depreciation methods, estimated useful lives and residual values
are reviewed at each reporting date

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H. Basis of preparation of the financial statements and otheraccounting policies continued
Accounting policies relevant to section C
Other employee benefits
Other short and long-term employee benefits, including holiday pay
and long service leave, are recognised as an expense over the period
in which they accrue.

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Notes to the accounts
H. Basis of preparation of the financial statements and otheraccounting policies continued
Use of estimates and judgements – capital projects
The BBC is completing a number of significant capital projects forwhich amounts have been capitalised on the BBC’s balance sheet.
The most critical estimates that the capitalised values are based
upon is the recoverability of these assets, dependent on theachievement of project completion, and the assets being used in themanner intended as part of the original business case.
Investment properties
Investment properties are initially recognised at cost andsubsequently carried at cost less accumulated depreciation andaccumulated impairment losses. Depreciation is calculated using astraight-line method to allocate the depreciable amounts over theestimated useful lives of the properties (see depreciation on land andbuildings above). The residual values, useful lives and depreciation
method of investment properties are reviewed, and adjusted as
appropriate, at each balance sheet date. The effects of any revision
are included in the profit and loss when the changes arise.
As a lessee
The Group recognises a right-of-use asset and a lease liability uponlease commencement. The right-of-use asset is initially measured atcost, being the initial amount of the lease liability adjusted for any
lease payments made before the commencement date, plus any
initial direct costs and an estimate of restoration costs, lessincentives received.
The right-of-use asset is subsequently depreciated using a straightline method from the commencement date over the lease term
(which is equal to, or shorter than, the asset’s useful life). The
right-of-use asset is periodically reduced by impairment losses andadjustments for certain remeasurement of the lease liability.
The lease liability is initially measured at the present value of unpaid
lease payments at commencement, discounted using the Group’s
incremental borrowing rate (unless the interest rate implicit in thelease can be readily determined).
The incremental borrowing rate is the rate of interest that would
hypothetically have to be paid to borrow over a similar term, andwith a similar security, the funds necessary to obtain an asset of asimilar value to the right of use asset in a similar economic
environment. A small change in the rate could have a significant
impact on the valuation of respective lease liabilities.
Lease payments included in the measurement of the lease liability
comprise the following:—— fixed payments;—— variable payments dependent on an index or rate, measured
using the index or rate at the commencement date;—— amounts expected to be payable under a residual value
guarantee; and—— the exercise price under a purchase option or lease payments inan optional renewal period that the Group is reasonably certain
to exercise, and early termination penalties of a lease unless theGroup is reasonably certain not to terminate early.
The lease liability is measured using the effective interest method. It
is remeasured when there is a change in future lease payments
arising from a change in index or rate, change in estimate of theamount expected to be payable under a residual value guarantee, achange in the lease term or a change in the assessment of an option
being exercised.
The Group has a number of options to extend the lease on a right-ofuse asset, or to purchase the underlying asset – typically relating toland and buildings, either in the UK or overseas. An assessment of
the location and the availability of suitable alternatives has been
undertaken in determining the likelihood of exercising these options.

When the lease liability is remeasured a corresponding adjustment
is made to the carrying amount of the right-of-use asset. If thecarrying value has been reduced to zero then any further reductions
are recorded in the income statement.
Right-of-use assets are presented in ‘property, plant and equipment’and lease liabilities are presented in borrowings in the statement offinancial position.
The Group has elected not to recognise right-of-use assets and leaseliabilities for short-term leases that have a lease term of 12 months
or less and leases of low-value assets, which are expensed. This
includes laptops and other items of small IT equipment.
When determining the accounting for a finance lease, the BBC has
assessed whether it has the right to use the leased asset at the
inception1 of the lease, or whether this right passes at a later date(‘the commencement date’).
Where a significant site is being redeveloped, occupation may occur
in distinct phases; consequently, the leased asset and liabilities arerecognised based on the proportion of the site occupied at eachcommencement date.
Accounting policies relevant to section E
Programme-related intangible assets
The BBC’s right to sell programme rights is recognised within
intangible assets. Programme assets reported as inventory
effectively represent the BBC’s right to broadcast, however.
Programme rights acquired by the Group are either purchased,
generated internally or licensed following the payment of anadvance on royalties. Where the Group controls the respective assets
and the risks and rewards attached to them, rights are initiallyrecognised at acquisition cost or production cost. The carrying
amount is stated at cost less accumulated amortisation andprovision for impairment.
Amortisation is charged to the income statement to match theestimated future economic benefit. This is calculated as the higher ofan estimated recoupment profile based on the average historic
performance of the overall distribution rights portfolio or the actual
recoupment of the specific initial distribution advance.
Where the carrying value of any individual set of rights exceeds
management’s best estimate of future exploitation revenues, aprovision for impairment is recorded in the income statement
immediately.
For self-produced content, distribution rights exclude co-production
costs borne by third parties. These costs are deferred within current
assets and expensed upon recognition of the associated production
income. Production income is recognised in accordance with theGroup’s revenue recognition policies.
Research and development expenditure – internally generated
intangible assets
Expenditure on research activities is written off in the income
statement when incurred.
Expenditure on development activities is included on the balance
sheet as an asset only if both of the following conditions are met:—— it is probable that the asset will generate future economic
benefits; and—— the development costs of the asset can be measured reliably.
The assets are measured at cost less accumulated amortisation andany accumulated impairment losses.
For the PSB Group it is generally unlikely that future economic
benefits in the form of cash inflows will be received, and as a result,
other than assets created for use by the business in delivering its
public purposes, development costs are only capitalised by the
BBC Group’s commercial businesses.

1 See Glossary for further details.

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Amortisation1
Amortisation is charged to the income statement on a systematic
basis over the estimated useful lives of intangible assets, from thedate that they are available for use, unless such lives are indefinite.
Amortisation methods, useful lives and residual values are reviewed
at each balance sheet date and adjusted if appropriate.
The useful lives and amortisation methods of other classes ofintangible asset are as follows:

Customer Relationships

Straight line

Unexpired term ofagreement

Licences and Trademarks

Straight line

30 years or unexpired
term

SoftwareStraight line2 – 5 years

Other

Straight line

3 – 8 years

Amortisation of distribution rights is charged to the income
statement to match the average income profile over its estimatedaverage marketable life.
Impairment1: Non-financial assets
At each balance sheet date, the BBC reviews the carrying amount(net amount held on the balance sheet) of those assets that are
subject to amortisation, to determine whether there is an indicationthat any of those assets has suffered any impairment loss. If any
such indication exists, the recoverable amount of the asset isestimated in order to determine the extent of any impairment loss.
For goodwill, the recoverable amount is estimated each year at thesame time.
The recoverable amount of an asset is the higher of fair value lesscosts to sell and value in use. For the purposes of impairment testing,assets are grouped at the lowest level at which they generate
separately identifiable cash flows (cash-generating units). In
assessing value in use, the estimated future cash flows are
discounted to their present value using a pre-tax discount rate thatreflects current market assessments of the time value of money andthe risks specific to the asset for which the estimates of future cash
flows have not been adjusted.
An impairment loss is recognised in the income statement for theamount by which the asset’s carrying amount exceeds its
recoverable amount. Where a cash-generating unit is impaired, theimpairment loss will first be allocated to reduce goodwill and then to
the other assets of the cash-generating unit on a pro rata basis,
except that the carrying amount of any individual asset will not be
reduced below its separately identifiable recoverable amount.
Impairment losses in respect of goodwill are not reversed. In respectof assets other than goodwill, an impairment loss is reversed if there
has been a change in the estimates used to determine therecoverable amount. An impairment loss is reversed only to theextent that the asset’s carrying amount does not exceed the carrying
amount that would have been determined, net of depreciation oramortisation, if no impairment loss has been recognised.

Goodwill
Goodwill is recorded in the balance sheet as the difference between
the fair value of the consideration transferred by the BBC and therecognised amount of non-controlling interests in the acquirecompared to the fair value of the identifiable assets and liabilities
acquired. These are all measured at the date of acquisition. Where
the consideration is less than the net assets acquired, the difference
is recognised immediately in the income statement.
Goodwill arising on the acquisition of associates and joint ventures
is included in the carrying amount of the associate or joint venture
and is tested for impairment as part of the overall balance.
Subsequent measurement of separately recognised goodwill –goodwill is tested annually for impairment and is measured at costless any accumulated impairment losses. For the purposes of
impairment testing the goodwill is allocated to cash-generating
units on the basis of those expected to benefit from the relevantbusiness combination.
Accounting policies relevant to section F
Use of estimates and judgements – impairment of goodwill
The determination of whether goodwill is impaired requires anestimation of the value in use of the cash-generating units. The value
in use calculation requires the entity to estimate the future cash
flows expected to arise from the cash-generating unit and a suitablediscount rate that reflects current market assessments of the risks
specific to the asset and the time value of money, in order tocalculate present value. The estimation process is complex due to theinherent risks and uncertainties associated with long-term
forecasting. If different estimates of the projected future cash flows
or a different selection of an appropriate discount rate or long-term
growth rate were made, these changes could materially alter the
projected value of the cash flows of the asset, and as a consequencematerially different amounts would be reported in the financial
statements.
Trade and other payables
Trade and other payables are recognised initially at fair value andsubsequently measured at amortised cost using the effective interest
method1.
Borrowing costs
Borrowing costs directly attributable to the acquisition, construction
or production of qualifying assets (those necessarily taking asubstantial period of time to get ready for their intended use) areadded to the cost of those assets, until such time as the assets areready for their intended use.
Originated programmes can be qualifying assets, but thosenecessarily taking a substantial period of time to get ready forbroadcast are a small proportion of overall programme investment.
Any borrowing costs that could be attributed to those programmes
are not significant and, therefore, no borrowing costs are capitalised.		
All finance income and other borrowing costs are recognised inincome and expense in the period in which they are incurred.
Use of estimates and judgements – provisions
Judgements are employed in determining if a past event has givenrise to a present obligation that will result in probable payment by
the BBC that can be measured reliably. Estimation techniques areused, following the review of such events, if it is determined that aprovision is required. Such techniques are used in the calculation of
the best estimate of the amount required to settle obligations,
including determining how likely it is that expenditure will be
required by the BBC. This can be very complex, especially when
there is a wide range of possible outcomes. The BBC recognises
decommissioning liabilities as part of the initial cost of the asset,
discounted to present value. The BBC reassesses whether there has
been a change in this liability based on the facts and circumstances
at each balance sheet date.

1 See Glossary for further details.

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H. Basis of preparation of the financial statements and otheraccounting policies continued
Other intangible assets
Other intangible assets acquired separately by the BBC are stated atcost less accumulated amortisation and any accumulated
impairment losses. The identifiable intangible assets acquired aspart of a business combination are shown at fair value at the date ofacquisition (in accordance with IFRS 3 Business Combinations) lessaccumulated amortisation and any accumulated impairment losses.

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Notes to the accounts
H. Basis of preparation of the financial statements and otheraccounting policies continued
Use of estimates and judgements – accruals
Accruals include work in progress accruals, which arise in instanceswhere a performance obligation has been satisfied but all associatedexpenditure has not yet been incurred. The basis of the calculationof such accruals is based upon forecast expenditure required to fulfil
the contract.
Accounting policies relevant to section G
Taxation
The tax charge for the period comprises both tax currently payableand deferred tax. Taxation is recognised in the income statement
except to the extent that it relates to items recognised directly inreserves, in which case it is recognised in reserves.
Current tax is the expected tax payable for the year, using tax rates
that are enacted or substantively enacted at the balance sheet date,
and any adjustment to tax payable in respect of previous years. In
respect of tax currently payable:—— the PSB Group is not liable to corporation tax on any surplus
licence fee income or grants received from Government
departments; however, it is fully liable for corporation tax on
capital gains and on all its other external income. Expenditure on
capital assets is not eligible for capital allowances giving rise totemporary differences that would lead to deferred tax assets or
liabilities. Movements of fair value adjustments in the income
statement give rise to deferred tax balances;—— the BBC’s commercial subsidiaries are liable for corporation tax
based on taxable profit for the year.
Current tax assets and current tax liabilities are offset if, and only if,
there is a legally enforceable right to set off the recognised amounts;
and the entity intends either to settle on a net basis, or to realise theasset and settle the liability simultaneously.
Deferred tax is provided using the balance sheet liability method on
any temporary differences between the carrying amounts of assets
and liabilities for financial reporting purposes and the amounts used
for taxation purposes. The amount of deferred tax provided is basedon the tax rates expected to apply in the period when the liability issettled or the asset is realised using tax rates enacted or
substantively enacted at the balance sheet date.
Deferred tax assets and deferred tax liabilities are offset only where
there is a legally enforceable right to offset current tax assets against
current tax liabilities; and the deferred tax assets and the deferred
tax liabilities relate to income taxes levied by the same taxation
authority on either:—— the same taxable entity; or—— different taxable entities which intend either to settle current tax
liabilities and assets on a net basis, or to realise the assets andsettle the liabilities simultaneously, in each future period inwhich significant amounts of deferred tax liabilities or assets are
expected to be settled or recovered.
Financial instruments
The BBC classifies its financial assets and liabilities into one of thecategories discussed below, depending on the purpose for which theasset was acquired. Other than financial instruments in a qualifying
hedging relationship, the BBC’s accounting policy for each category
is as follows:
Amortised cost
The BBC’s financial assets measured at amortised cost comprisetrade and other receivables, contract assets, cash and cash
equivalents and borrowings. The BBC’s financial liabilities measured
at amortised cost comprise trade and other payables, contract
liabilities and borrowings. They principally arise from the provisionof goods and services, but also incorporate other types of financial
assets/liabilities where the objective is to collect or receive

contractual cash flows and the contractual cash flows are solely
payments of principal and interest.
Trade and other receivables and contract assets
Trade and other receivables and contract assets are recognised
initially at transaction price and subsequently at amounts
considered recoverable (amortised cost). Estimates are used indetermining the level of receivables that will not be collected. Theseestimates include factors such as historical experience, the current
state of the UK and overseas economies and industry specifics. A
provision for impairment of trade and other receivables and contract
assets is recognised based on the simplified approach using the
lifetime expected credit losses. During this process the probability of
non-payment is assessed. This probability is then multiplied by theamount of the expected loss arising from default to determine thelifetime expected credit loss for the trade and other receivables andcontract assets.
The most significant trade and other receivable is the licence fee
receivable, which represents amounts due from the DCMS for
licence fee payments not yet collected but due. The calculation ofthis balance carries a degree of estimation (see page 214), however
we do not believe that the estimation uncertainty/difference would
be material to the accounts.
Changes in the carrying amount of the allowance are recognised in
the income statement within total operating costs.
Contract liabilities
A contract liability is recognised when payment is received prior to
the associated performance obligation being fulfilled. It is released torevenue when the performance obligation is satisfied.
Cash and cash equivalents
Cash and cash equivalents comprise cash balances and call deposits
with maturities of less than three months (short-term deposits).
Cash and cash equivalents also include licence fee funds collected onbehalf of HM Treasury, which are excluded from the Group’s net
funds and in respect of which a separate creditor is recognised.
Fair value through surplus/deficit
This category comprises derivatives. Those in-the-money
derivatives are financial assets whilst those out-the-money arefinancial liabilities.
The BBC does not enter into speculative derivative contracts;
however, some derivative financial instruments are used to manage
the BBC’s exposure to fluctuations in interest rates (interest rate
swaps1, caps1 and collars1) and foreign currency exchange rates(foreign currency forward contracts and currency options).
Derivative financial instruments, excluding derivatives held as
qualifying hedges, are initially recognised at fair value and aresubsequently remeasured to fair value at the balance sheet date withmovements recorded in the income statement.
Interest rate swaps, caps and collars
The fair value is the estimated amount that the BBC would receive or
pay to terminate the swap, cap or collar at the balance sheet date,taking into account current interest rates, the current
creditworthiness of swap, cap or collar counterparties and thecreditworthiness of the BBC.
Foreign currency forward contract rates
The fair value of forward foreign exchange contracts is determinedby using the difference between the contract exchange rate and thequoted forward exchange rate at the reporting date from third
parties.
Embedded derivatives
An embedded derivative is a component of a hybrid contract that
also includes a non-derivative host – with the effect that some of the
cash flows of the combined instrument vary in a way similar to a
stand-alone derivative.

1 See Glossary for further details.

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Derivatives embedded in hybrid contracts with hosts that are notfinancial assets within the scope of IFRS 9 (e.g. financial liabilities)
are treated as separate derivatives when they meet the definition ofa derivative, their risks and characteristics are not closely related tothose of the host contracts and the host contracts are not measured
at fair value through surplus/deficit.
If the hybrid contract is a quoted financial liability, instead of
separating the embedded derivatives, the BBC generally designates
the whole hybrid contract at fair value through surplus/deficit.
Other investments
The BBC has strategic investments in listed and unlisted entities
which are not accounted for as subsidiaries, associates or joint
ventures. These investments were previously classed as available forsale under IAS 39, and are now held at fair value through surplus/
deficit.
Fair value through other comprehensive income
Certain derivatives designated as cash flow hedges are recognised atfair value through other comprehensive income. See hedge
accounting below for further details.
Hedge accounting
Where hedge accounting is applied, the BBC has elected to adopt thehedge accounting requirements of IFRS 9 Financial Instruments. The
BBC enters into hedge relationships where the critical terms of thehedging instruments and the hedged item match. Hedge
effectiveness is determined at the origination of the hedging
relationship. Quantitative effectiveness tests are performed at eachperiod end to determine the continuing effectiveness of therelationship. In instances where changes occur to the hedged item
which results in the critical terms no longer matching, thehypothetical derivative method is used to assess effectiveness.
The BBC designates certain derivatives as cash flow hedges by
documenting the relationship between the hedging instrument andthe hedged item, along with the risk management objectives and its
strategy for undertaking various hedge transactions. Where thehedge is deemed to have been effective, the effective portion of any
changes in the fair value of the derivatives that are designated in thehedge are recognised in other comprehensive income. The
accumulated amount in the cash flow hedge reserve is reclassified to
profit or loss in the same period as the hedged cash flows affect profit
or loss. Any ineffective portion of the hedge is recognised
immediately in the income statement.

information regarding the Company’s view of economic andindustry wide conditions over the expected lives of the receivables.
The Group has further reviewed the amounts provided against
receivables for expected credit losses, taking into account thepotential for increased losses due to the economic impact of thecoronavirus pandemic. In addition to revisiting historic loss rates,
this review assessed if heightened sectoral exposure anduncertainty impacted certain segments of the receivables balances,resulting in a qualitative adjustment being required.
Reserves
The operating reserve is the accumulated surplus/deficit to date.
The hedging reserve is used to record the effective portion of the
cumulative net change in the fair value of cash flow hedging
instruments related to hedged transactions that have not yet
occurred (net of tax).
The translation reserve is used to record exchange differences
arising from the retranslation of the net assets and results ofoverseas subsidiaries.
The other reserve includes fair value gains and losses on financial
assets recognised through other comprehensive income and the fairvalue of put option liabilities arising on acquisition of subsidiaries.
New standards and interpretations not yet adopted
At the date of authorisation of these financial statements, thefollowing standards and interpretations, which have not been
applied in these financial statements, were in issue but not yet
effective (and in some cases had not yet been adopted by the EU).
—— Amendments to References to Conceptual Framework in IFRSStandards—— Definition of a Business (Amendments to IFRS 3)—— Definition of Material (Amendments to IAS 1 and IAS 8)—— IFRS 17 Insurance Contracts—— Amendments to IFRS 10 and IAS 28 (Sept 2014) Sale orContribution of Assets between an Investor and its Associate or
Joint Venture
The directors do not expect that the adoption of the standards andinterpretations above would have a material impact on the financial
statements of the Group in future periods.

Use of estimates and judgements – impairment of financial assets
Financial assets are assessed at each balance sheet date todetermine whether there is any objective evidence of impairment.
Judgement is required when considering the factors in determining
whether there is objective evidence of impairment; which include
significant financial difficulty of the counterparty and breach ofcontract. Individually significant financial assets are tested for
impairment on an individual basis. The remaining financial assets
are assessed collectively in groups that share similar credit risk
characteristics. The amount of the loss is measured as the difference
between the asset’s carrying amount and the present value of
estimated future cash flows discounted at the financial asset’s
original effective interest rate. All impairment losses are recognisedin the income statement.
The Group uses an allowance matrix to measure the expected credit
losses of trade receivables from individual customers. Loss rates are
based on actual credit loss experience which are adjusted to reflect
differences between customer base during the period over which thehistorical data has been collected, as well as any forward looking

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

219

Financial Statements

H. Basis of preparation of the financial statements and otheraccounting policies continued
Derivatives embedded in hybrid contracts with a financial asset host
within the scope of IFRS 9 are not separated. The entire hybrid
contract is classified and subsequently measured as either
amortised cost or fair value as appropriate.

Return to contents

Glossary
The table below explains the financial terms used within the financial statements:
Term

Note

Definition

Amortisation

H

Amortisation is the reduction reflected in the carrying value of the asset as a consequence of theregular use of that asset by the organisation.

Associate

E3

An associate is an entity that the BBC has significant influence over, but that does not meet thedefinition of a joint venture or subsidiary. Significant influence is the power to participate in thefinancial and operating decisions of an entity but is not control or joint control over those policies.

BBC’s Television Licence Fee
Trust Statement

A set of financial statements containing an annual report and accounts on income from licence fee
customers. The document also contains reports by the National Audit Office who have audited thefinancial statements and the processes for collecting the licence fee.

Cash flow swaps

G3.2

The BBC’s cash flow swaps exchange a series of variable cash flows for a series of fixed cash flows.

Cash-generating units

E2

Cash-generating units are the smallest group of assets that can independently generate cash flows.

Changes in demographic andfinancial assumptions

G2.1

Changes in demographic and financial assumptions represent the changes in estimates used tovalue the future pension asset/liability. Demographic assumptions include mortality rates, staff
turnover and early retirement. Financial assumptions encompass items such as discount rate andfuture salary levels.

Commissioned programme

H

A commissioned programme is where an agreement has been made for the programme to be
produced for broadcast.

Credit risk

G3.1

Credit risk is the risk of financial loss to the Group if a customer or counterparty to a financial
instrument fails to meet its contractual obligation.

Current service cost

C6.2

The current service cost is the underlying cost to the BBC of pension rights earned by employees
during the year.

Deferred tax

G1.1

Deferred tax is the amount of income tax payable or recoverable in future periods in respect oftaxable or deductible temporary differences, the carry forward of unused losses, and/or the carryforward of unused tax credits. Temporary differences are differences between the carrying
amount of an asset or liability in the statement of financial position and its tax base, where the tax
base of an asset or liability is the amount attributed to that asset or liability for tax purposes.

Derivative

G3.2

A derivative is an asset or liability that is dependent on, or derives its value from, another asset or
liability and is to be settled in the future.

Discount rate

G2.5

The discount rate for the IAS 19 Pensions valuation has been derived with reference to market
yields at the end of the reporting period on AA-rated sterling-denominated corporate bonds withmaturities consistent with the estimated term of the post-employment benefit obligations. Certain
types of bonds are excluded from the calculating model, either because they have unusual features,are relatively small or potential outliers, in order to remove the distortion that might otherwise
occur from including unusual, less liquid or potentially misrated bonds. Extrapolation is performed
when the profile of the scheme’s expected benefit outflow is longer than the cash flows of theavailable bonds.

Effective interest rateH

An effective interest rate is the rate used to discount future cash flows over the life of the contract
back to present value.

Fair value

D, G

The fair value of an asset is the amount for which the asset could be exchanged between
knowledgeable, willing parties in an arm’s length transaction.

Foreign currencytransactions

G3.2

As these financial statements are prepared in sterling, the BBC’s foreign currency transactions andbalances must be translated at appropriate exchange rates, into sterling. This means that variations
in exchange rates can cause the valuation of investments to fluctuate, even when there has been nochange in the health of the underlying business.

Forward foreign currency
contracts

G3.1

Under forward exchange contracts you buy or sell a currency at a fixed exchange rate with delivery
made on a given date or dates in the future.

Going concern

H

The directors are required to make a statement that the BBC is a going concern, which means it canmeet its debts and continue trading for a period of at least 12 months from the date on which thesefinancial statements were signed.

Goodwill

E2

Goodwill is the difference between the monetary value paid for a business and the fair value of its
net assets. It represents the premium the purchaser is prepared to pay for the business. Where the
BBC does not own an entity outright, the other shareholders are known/disclosed as noncontrolling interests.

IAS 19 valuation

C7.1

The IAS 19 Pensions valuation takes assets at their market value and discounts the accrued
liabilities by reference to the discount rate of an AA-rated corporate.

Impairment

H

An impairment occurs when the carrying value of an asset is higher than the amount that isrecoverable from its use or sale.

220

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Note

Definition

Inception

H

Inception is the point at which a contract is confirmed; this is normally the point at which thecontract is signed.

Interest cost on pension plan
liabilities

F11

The interest cost on pension plan liabilities represents the increase during the year in the value ofthe plan liabilities because the benefits are one year closer to settlement.

Interest rate caps

G3.1

Interest rate caps protect against interest rates rising, by setting an upper limit (cap) on the floatinginterest rate, whilst still allowing the benefit of falling interest rates.

Interest rate collars

G3.1Interest rate collars are the same as interest rate caps except that there is also a lower limit set tothe floating interest rate.

Interest rate swaps

G3.1

Interest rate swaps effectively swap a floating rate loan into a fixed rate loan, or vice versa.

Joint venture

E3

A joint venture is where the BBC has joint control over an entity with another partner(s).

Maturity

G2.6

The maturity of a scheme provides an indication of the cash requirements of the scheme and thelikely attitude of the Trustees to risk within their investment policy. The more mature a scheme,
the more likely that Trustees will favour low-risk investments.

Net finance income/(cost)

C6.2

Net finance income/(cost) is the difference between the expected return on assets and theinterest liabilities.

Past service cost

C6.2

The past service charges arise from changes to the terms and conditions relating to members’
defined retirement benefits, resulting in a credit for years of service already given.

Pension scheme

C6

On retirement, members of the BBC’s defined benefit pension scheme are paid their pensions froma fund which is kept separate from the Group, to which the BBC makes cash contributions.

Plan liability

G2.1

The plan liability represents the expected amount of money that will be needed in the future to pay
employees for their current and future service to the company.

Programme rights

E1

Programme rights are rights held by the BBC that permit a future transmission of a particular
programme or event.

Public services

F3

Public services in this context represent the PSB Group.

Put option

G3.2

A put option issued by the BBC provides the holder the rights, but not the obligation, to require the
BBC to buy shares at a future date and price determined by the option agreement.

Related parties

C5

Related parties include key management personnel, their immediate families and external entities
controlled by them.

Remeasurement gains andlossesG2.4

These gains and losses arise from actual performance being different from that predicted.
Only defined benefit schemes give rise to gains and losses in the statement of comprehensive
income/(loss).

Remeasurements

C6.2

Remeasurements which arise from actual performance being different from that predicted giverise to gains and losses in the statement of comprehensive income.

Remeasurements on plan
assets

G2.2

Remeasurements on plan assets represent the amount by which the assets held by the scheme(such as equities, bonds and property) have performed better or worse than the expected prioryear value.

Research costs

B1

Research costs are incurred to explore ideas for new programmes or assets, such as the
BBC iPlayer. Research costs are where the ideas are generated, some of which are then developed
further into a plan or design where the costs are then categorised as development.

Subsidiary undertaking

G6.3

A subsidiary undertaking is an entity that is directly or indirectly controlled by the BBC. Control
exists where the BBC has the power to govern the financial and operating policies of the entity so
as to obtain benefits from its activities. In assessing control, potential voting rights that are
currently exercisable or convertible are taken into account.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

221

Financial Statements

Term

Return to contents

Equality
Information
ReportOur annual Equality Information Reportprovides an update on the progress we havemade in relation to equality, diversity andinclusion for our workforce.

Drama Trigonometry

Last Tango in Halifax

222

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Additional Information

Staff (reporting is shown separately for our staff and freelancers)
Percentages for gender, age and religion and belief data in this section are calculated as a proportion of the total BBC staff population.
For all other characteristics, where some staff have chosen not to provide data, percentages are calculated as a proportion of the known
population who declared a response for that characteristic. This aligns with the methodology used in the BBC’s Diversity & Inclusion
Strategy 2016-2020.
All staff and leadership: 31 March 2020
WorkforceMar-202020
Target

Women (all staff)
Women (leadership)

48.3%
45.0%

50.0%
50.0%

Disability (all staff)
Disability (leadership)

10.2%
8.6%

8.0%**
8.0%**BAME (all staff)
BAME (leadership)

15.7%
12.3%

15.0%
15.0%

LGBTQ+ (all staff)
LGBTQ+ (leadership)

11.2%
11.2%

8.0%
8.0%

Age
All staff age distribution by division: 31 March 2020
Age band (numbers)
Division

BBC Design &Engineering
Chief Customer
Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy &External Affairs
Finance &Operations
Managing Director
Group
Nations andRegions
News and Current
Affairs
Radio and
Education
UK Public Service

Age band (%)

Total

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

3,406

*

630

1,073

941

612

146

*

18.5

31.5

27.6

18.0

4.3

530
873

*
*

142
137

204
281

118
289

58
138

*
28

*
*

26.8
15.7

38.5
32.2

22.3
33.1

10.9
15.8

*
3.2

197

*

50

55

51

31

10

*

25.4

27.9

25.9

15.7

5.1

612

*

71

172

171

168

30

*

11.6

28.1

27.9

27.5

4.9

1,201

50

329

303

267

217

35

4.2

27.4

25.2

22.2

18.1

2.9

6,009

*

657

1,361

1,860

1,626

498

*

10.9

22.6

31.0

27.1

8.3

3,198

*

342

811

912

920

212

*

10.7

25.4

28.5

28.8

6.6

1,878

*

290

520

505

450

113

*

15.4

27.7

26.9

24.0

6.0

17,904

62

2,648

4,780

5,114

4,220

1,080

0.3

14.8

26.7

28.6

23.6

6.0

BBC Studios (Sales& Distribution,
Branded Services &Management)
BBC Studios (TV &Radio Production)

900

*

194

319

259

116

11

*

21.6

35.4

28.8

12.9

1.2

1,231

*

280

359

339

205

47

*

22.7

29.2

27.5

16.7

3.8

BBC Studios

2,131

*

474

678

598

321

58

*

22.2

31.8

28.1

15.1

2.7

World Service
Group
Other

1,486
271

*
*

157
47

470
75

470
66

308
71

81
12

*
*

10.6
17.3

31.6
27.7

31.6
24.4

20.7
26.2

5.5
4.4

Other

1,757

*

204

545

536

379

93

*

11.6

31.0

30.5

21.6

5.3

Grand Total

21,792

64

3,326

6,003

6,248

4,920

1,231

0.3

15.3

27.5

28.7

22.6

5.6

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.
** The BBC’s target for disabled staff and leadership was raised from 8% (by 2020) to 12% (by 2022) in November 2018 to offer a more stretching target. The targets here reflect those in
the Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2016-2020. The BBC is producing a new Diversity & Inclusion Strategy for 2021 onwards and, as part of this, all targets will be reviewed.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

223

Return to contents

Equality Information Report
Leadership staff age distribution by division: 31 March 2020
Age band (numbers)
Division

BBC Design &Engineering
Chief Customer
Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy &External Affairs
Finance &Operations
Managing Director
Group
Nations andRegions
News and Current
Affairs
Radio and
Education
UK Public Service

Age band (%)

Total

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

500

*

*

103

220

155

17

*

*

20.6

44.0

31.0

3.4

106
199

*
*

*
*

37
29

38
96

29
64

*
*

*
*

*
*

34.9
14.6

35.8
48.2

27.4
32.2

*
*

54

*

*

11

18

17

*

*

*

20.4

33.3

31.5

*

179

*

*

44

63

60

10

*

*

24.6

35.2

33.5

5.6

303

*

*

72

120

91

11

*

*

23.8

39.6

30.0

3.6

682

*

*

72

264

277

67

*

*

10.6

38.7

40.6

9.8

594

*

*

72

215

252

54

*

*

12.1

36.2

42.4

9.1

235

*

*

31

102

83

19

*

*

13.2

43.4

35.3

8.1

2,852

*

21

471

1,136

1,028

196

*

0.7

16.5

39.8

36.1

6.9

BBC Studios (Sales& Distribution,
Branded Services &Management)
BBC Studios (TV &Radio Production)

281

*

12

87

118

61

*

*

4.3

31.0

42.0

21.6

*

232

*

*

37

106

74

14

*

*

15.9

45.7

31.9

6.1

BBC Studios

513

*

13

124

224

135

17

*

2.5

24.2

43.7

26.3

3.3

World Service
Group
Other

268
44

*
*

*
*

42
*

112
18

93
17

18
*

*
*

*
*

15.7
*

41.8
40.9

34.7
38.6

6.7
*

Other

312

*

*

50

130

110

19

*

*

16.0

41.7

35.2

6.1

3,677

*

37

645

1,490

1,273

232

*

1.0

17.5

40.5

34.7

6.3

Grand Total

All staff age distribution by job family: 31 March 2020
Age band (numbers)
Job family

Age band (%)

Total

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

Commissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/
Engineering
Not Allocated212
10,415
795
4,175

*
*
*
59

19
1,451
195
767

36
2,859
313
1,174

88
3,206
199
1,117

61
2,342
76
882

*
554
12
176

*
*
*
1.4

9.0
13.9
24.5
18.4

17.0
27.5
39.4
28.1

41.5
30.8
25.0
26.8

28.8
22.5
9.6
21.1

*
5.3
1.5
4.2

5,749
446

*
*

874
20

1,541
80

1,501
137

1,413
146

418
63

*
*

15.2
4.5

26.8
17.9

26.1
30.7

24.6
32.7

7.3
14.2

Grand Total

21,792

64

3,326

6,003

6,248

4,920

1,231

0.3

15.3

27.5

28.7

22.6

5.6

Leadership staff age distribution by job family: 31 March 2020
Age band (numbers)
Job family

Age band (%)

Total

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

Commissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/
Engineering
Not Allocated

148
1,743
151
1,068

*
*
*
*

*
*
*
26

17
213
49
255

73
710
68
404

51
673
29
331

*
141
*
52

*
*
*
*

*
*
*
2.4

11.5
12.2
32.5
23.9

49.3
40.7
45.0
37.8

34.5
38.6
19.2
31.0

*
8.2
*
4.9

534
33

*
*

*
*

107
*

222
13

180
*

22
*

*
*

*
*

20.0
*

41.6
39.4

33.7
*

4.1
*

Grand Total

3,677

*

37

645

1,490

1,273

232

*

1.0

17.5

40.5

34.6

6.4

** The BBC’s target for disabled staff and leadership was raised from 8% (by 2020) to 12% (by 2022) in November 2018 to offer a more stretching target. The targets here reflect those in
the Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2016-2020. The BBC is producing a new Diversity & Inclusion Strategy for 2021 onwards and, as part of this, all targets will be reviewed.

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

224

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Age band (numbers)
Grade band

Age band (%)

Total

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

A
B
C
D
E
F
SL
Not Allocated

1,070
2,591
7,193
7,218
2,319
1,025
333
43

60
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

387
882
1,563
454
36
*
*
*

152
631
2,321
2,246
529
101
15
*

157
488
1,706
2,392
925
445
120
15

208
439
1,235
1,755
698
407
168
10

106
148
367
371
131
71
30
*

5.6
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

36.2
34.0
21.7
6.3
1.6
*
*
*

14.2
24.4
32.3
31.1
22.8
9.9
4.5
*

14.7
18.8
23.7
33.1
39.9
43.4
36.0
34.9

19.4
16.9
17.2
24.3
30.1
39.7
50.5
23.3

9.9
5.8
5.1
5.2
5.6
6.9
9.0
*

Grand Total

21,792

64

3,326

6,003

6,248

4,920

1,231

0.3

15.3

27.5

28.7

22.6

5.6

All staff leaver and joiner distribution by age: 31 March 2020
Age band (numbers)

Age band (%)

Category

Total

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

Leavers
Joiners

2,805
2,785

15
66

930
1,385

856
805

497
365

318
143

189
21

0.5
2.4

33.2
49.7

30.5
28.9

17.7
13.1

11.3
5.1

6.8
0.8

All staff leaver distribution by age and reason for leaving: 31 March 2020
Age band (numbers)
Reason for leaving

Age band (%)

Total

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

Voluntary
Redundancy
End FTC
Other Involuntary
Other

1,389
326
1,020
64
6

*
*
13
*
*

382
*
529
*
*

518
47
275
13
*

278
82
123
14
*

112
124
58
23
*

97
64
22
*
*

*
*
1.3
*
*

27.5
*
51.9
*
*

37.3
14.4
27.0
20.3
*

20.0
25.2
12.1
21.9
*

8.1
38.0
5.7
35.9
*

7.0
19.6
2.0
*
*

Grand Total

2,805

15

930

856

497

318

189

0.5

33.2

30.5

17.7

11.3

6.8

All staff internal mover distribution by age: 31 March 2020
Age band (numbers)
Internal move typeAge band (%)

Total

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

Attachment
Promotion
Transfer

1,086
685
1,552

*
*
*

256
236
678

464
263
496

273
133
251

85
49
102

*
*
23

*
*
*

23.6
34.5
43.7

42.7
38.4
32.0

25.1
19.4
16.2

7.8
7.2
6.6

*
*
1.4

Grand Total

3,323

*

1,170

1,223

657

236

32

*

35.2

36.8

19.8

7.1

0.9

All staff age distribution by contract type: 31 March 2020
Age band (numbers)
Contract typeAge band (%)

Total

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

Continuing
Fixed Term lessthan 1 yr
Fixed Term 1 yr +Flexicon19,933

54

2,412

5,443

6,026

4,799

1,199

0.3

12.1

27.3

30.2

24.1

6.0

1,448
393
18

*
*
*

729
184
*

439
117
*

178
42
*

81
33
*

19
*
*

*
*
*

50.3
46.8
*

30.3
29.8
*

12.3
10.7
*

5.6
8.4
*

1.4
*
*

Grand Total

21,792

64

3,326

6,003

6,248

4,920

1,231

0.3

15.3

27.5

28.7

22.6

5.6

All staff age distribution by length of service: 31 March 2020
Age band (numbers)
Length of service (yrs)

Age band (%)

Total

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

<1
1-<3
3-<5
5-<10
10+

2,338
3,741
2,216
3,874
9,623

49
15
*
*
*

1,092
1,363
556
315
*

724
1,302
897
1,861
1,219

332
671
469
1,079
3,697

119
322
249
484
3,746

22
68
45
135
961

2.1
0.4
*
*
*

46.7
36.4
25.1
8.1
*

31.0
34.8
40.5
48.0
12.7

14.2
17.9
21.2
27.9
38.4

5.1
8.6
11.2
12.5
38.9

0.9
1.9
2.0
3.5
10.0

Grand Total

21,792

64

3,326

6,003

6,248

4,920

1,231

0.3

15.3

27.5

28.7

22.6

5.6

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

225

Additional Information

All staff age distribution by grade bands: 31 March 2020

Return to contents

Equality Information Report
Disability
All staff disability distribution by division: 31 March 2020
Disability (numbers)

Disability (%)

Total

Disabled

Not
Disabled

3,106
479
802
181
562
1,111
5,597
2,936
1,726

377
48
94
23
62
141
490
294
214

2,729
431
708
158
500
970
5,107
2,642
1,512

12.1
10.0
11.7
12.7
11.0
12.7
8.8
10.0
12.4

87.9
90.0
88.3
87.3
89.0
87.3
91.2
90.0
87.6

16,5001,743

14,757

10.6

89.4

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution, Branded Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

819
1,123

78
115

741
1,008

9.5
10.2

90.5
89.8

BBC Studios

1,942

193

1,749

9.9

90.1

World Service Group
Other

1,336
247

92
19

1,244
228

6.9
7.7

93.1
92.3

Other

1,583

111

1,472

7.0

93.0

Grand Total

20,025

2,047

17,97810.2

89.8

Division

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education
UK Public Service

Disabled

Not
Disabled

Leadership staff disability distribution by division: 31 March 2020
Disability (numbers)

Disability (%)

Division

Total

Disabled

Not
Disabled

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

471
100
177
49
168
281
649
556
223

49
10
17
*
17
30
48
41
28

422
90
160
44
151
251
601
515
195

10.4
10.0
9.6
*
10.1
10.7
7.4
7.4
12.6

89.6
90.0
90.4
89.8
89.9
89.3
92.6
92.6
87.4

2,674

245

2,429

9.2

90.8

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution, Branded Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

255
219

15
18

240
201

5.9
8.2

94.1
91.8

BBC Studios

474

33

441

7.0

93.0

World Service Group
Other

244
40

17
*

227
40

7.0
*

93.0
100.0

Other

284

17

267

6.0

94.0

3,432

295

3,137

8.6

91.4

UK Public Service

Grand Total

Disabled

Not
Disabled

All staff disability distribution by job family: 31 March 2020
Disability (numbers)

Disability (%)

Total

Disabled

Not
Disabled

Commissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/Engineering
Not Allocated

193
9,644
731
3,861
5,216
380

23
920
71
440
582
11

170
8,724
660
3,421
4,634
369

11.9
9.5
9.7
11.4
11.2
2.9

88.1
90.5
90.3
88.6
88.8
97.1

Grand Total

20,025

2,047

17,97810.2

89.8

Job family

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

226

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Disabled

Not
Disabled

Return to contents

Disability (numbers)

Disability (%)

Total

Disabled

Not
Disabled

Commissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/Engineering
Not Allocated

134
1,637
138
994
498
31

12
130
11
92
47
*

122
1,507
127
902
451
28

9.0
7.9
8.0
9.3
9.4
*

91.0
92.1
92.0
90.7
90.6
90.3

Grand Total

3,432

295

3,137

8.6

91.4

Job family

Disabled

Not
Disabled

All staff disability distribution by grade bands: 31 March 2020
Disability (numbers)

Disability (%)

Total

Disabled

Not
Disabled

A
B
C
D
E
F
SL
Not Allocated

961
2,363
6,581
6,654
2,165
953
314
34

94
315
697
645
178
91
26
*

867
2,048
5,884
6,009
1,987
862
288
33

9.8
13.3
10.6
9.7
8.2
9.5
8.3
*

90.2
86.7
89.4
90.3
91.8
90.5
91.7
97.1

Grand Total

20,025

2,047

17,97810.2

89.8

Grade band

Disabled

Not
Disabled

All staff leaver and joiner distribution by disability: 31 March 2020
Disability (numbers)
Category

Total

Disabled

Not
Disabled

Leavers
Joiners

2,520
2,469

272
270

2,248
2,199

Disability (%)
Disabled

Not
Disabled

10.8
10.9

89.2
89.1

All staff leaver distribution by disability and reason for leaving: 31 March 2020
Disability (numbers)

Disability (%)

Total

Disabled

Not
Disabled

Voluntary
Redundancy
End FTC
Other Involuntary
Other

1,249
304
903
59
*

118
39
103
11
*

1,131
265
800
48
*

9.4
12.8
11.4
18.6
*

90.6
87.2
88.6
81.4
*

Grand Total

2,520

272

2,248

10.8

89.2

Reason for leaving

Disabled

Not
Disabled

All staff internal mover distribution by disability: 31 March 2020
Disability (numbers)

Disability (%)

Total

Disabled

Not
Disabled

Attachment
Promotion
Transfer

985
576
1,294

123
43
156

862
533
1,138

12.5
7.5
12.1

87.5
92.5
87.9

Grand Total

2,855

322

2,533

11.3

88.7

Internal move type

Disabled

Not
Disabled

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

227

Additional Information

Leadership staff disability distribution by job family: 31 March 2020

Return to contents

Equality Information Report
All staff disability distribution by contract type: 31 March 2020
Disability (numbers)

Disability (%)

Total

Disabled

Not
Disabled

Continuing
Fixed Term less than 1 yr
Fixed Term 1 yr +Flexicon18,346
1,308
354
17

1,862
148
35
*

16,484
1,160
319
15

10.1
11.3
9.9
*

89.9
88.7
90.1
88.2

Grand Total

20,025

2,047

17,97810.2

89.8

Contract type

Disabled

Not
Disabled

All staff disability distribution by length of service: 31 March 2020
Disability (numbers)

Disability (%)

Total

Disabled

Not
Disabled

<1
1-<3
3-<5
5-<10
10+

2,123
3,368
1,785
3,716
9,033

223
290
196
392
946

1,900
3,078
1,589
3,324
8,087

10.5
8.6
11.0
10.5
10.5

89.5
91.4
89.0
89.5
89.5

Grand Total

20,025

2,047

17,97810.2

89.8

Length of service (yrs)Disabled

Not
Disabled

Ethnicity
All staff ethnicity distribution by division: 31 March 2020
Ethnicity band (numbers)

Division

BBC Design &Engineering
Chief Customer Officer
Group
Content
Corporate, Policy &External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director
Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current
Affairs
Radio and Education
UK Public Service

Ethnicity band (%)

White
British

Other
White
Background

BAME

Asian

34 2,450

190

18.5

Black

Mixed
Ethnicity

Other
BAME

White
British

Other
White
Background

10.1

4.5

2.9

1.0

75.6

5.9

Total

BAME

Asian

Black

Mixed
Ethnicity

3,241

601

327

147

93

508
837

75
129

30
52

19
30

22
40

*
*

402
661

31
47

14.8
15.4

5.9
6.2

3.7
3.6

4.3
4.8

*
*

79.1
79.0

6.1
5.6

193
590

25
116

*
58

10
36

*
19

*
*

156
442

12
32

13.0
19.7

*
9.8

5.2
6.1

*
3.2

*
*

80.8
74.9

6.2
5.4

1,167
5,808

252
345

122
155

59
67

54
103

17
843
20 5,066

72
397

21.6
5.9

10.5
2.7

5.1
1.2

4.6
1.8

1.5
0.3

72.2
87.2

6.2
6.9

3,056
1,820

492
217

209
91

107
60

106
58

70 2,348* 1,522

216
81

16.1
11.9

6.8
5.0

3.5
3.3

3.5
3.2

2.3
*

76.8
83.6

7.1
4.5

17,220 2,252 1,049

535

502

166 13,890 1,078

13.1

6.1

3.1

2.9

1.0

80.7

6.2

Other
BAME

BBC Studios (Sales &Distribution, Branded
Services &Management)
BBC Studios (TV &Radio Production)

855

172

84

41

40

*

610

73

20.1

9.8

4.8

4.7

*

71.3

8.6

1,191

132

41

29

51

11

986

73

11.1

3.4

2.4

4.3

0.9

82.8

6.1

BBC Studios

2,046

304

125

70

91

18 1,596

146

14.9

6.1

3.4

4.4

0.9

78.0

7.1

World Service Group
Other

1,354
262

703
26

206
11

108
10

74
*

315
*

530
226

121
10

51.9
9.9

15.2
4.2

8.0
3.8

5.5
*

23.3
*

39.1
86.3

9.0
3.8

Other

1,616

729

217

118

79

315

756

131

45.1

13.4

7.3

4.9

19.5

46.8

8.1

20,882 3,285 1,391

723

672

499 16,242 1,355

15.7

6.7

3.5

3.2

2.4

77.8

6.5

Grand Total

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

228

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Ethnicity band (numbers)

Division

BBC Design &Engineering
Chief Customer Officer
Group
Content
Corporate, Policy &External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director
Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current
Affairs
Radio and Education
UK Public Service
BBC Studios (Sales &Distribution, Branded
Services &Management)
BBC Studios (TV &Radio Production)

Ethnicity band (%)

Other
BAME

White
British

Other
White
Background

Black

Mixed
Ethnicity

Other
BAME

White
British

Other
White
Background

Total

BAME

Asian

Black

Mixed
Ethnicity

481

49

32

*

12

*

403

29

10.2

6.7

*

2.5

*

83.8

6.0

104
191

*
20

*
11

*
*

*
*

*
*

92
160

*
11

*
10.5

*
5.8

*
*

*
*

*
*

88.5
83.8

*
5.7

52
171

*
28

*
13

*
*

*
*

*
*

47
132

*
11

*
16.4

*
7.6

*
*

*
*

*
*

90.4
77.2

*
6.4

294
657

41
29

24
17

*
*

*
*

*
*

225
573

28
55

13.9
4.4

8.2
2.6

*
*

*
*

*
*

76.5
87.2

9.6
8.4

570
231

67
30

36
13

11
*

15
*

*
*

476
192

27
*

11.8
13.0

6.3
5.6

1.9
*

2.6
*

*
*

83.5
83.1

4.7
*

2,751

272

150

41

64

17 2,300

179

9.9

5.5

1.5

2.3

0.6

83.6

6.5

265

43

25

*

12

23

16.2

9.4

*

4.5

*

75.1

8.7

*

199

BAME

Asian

228

16

*

*

*

*

196

16

7.0

*

*

*

*

86.0

7.0

BBC Studios

493

59

31

*

17

*

395

39

12.0

6.3

*

3.4

*

80.1

7.9

World Service Group
Other

251
43

101
*

23
*

12
*

14
*

52
*

133
36

17
*

40.2
*

9.2
*

4.8
*

5.6
*

20.7
*

53.0
83.7

6.8
*

Other

294

105

26

12

15

52

169

20

35.7

8.8

4.1

5.1

17.7

57.5

6.8

3,538

436

207

59

96

74 2,864

238

12.3

5.9

1.7

2.7

2.1

80.9

6.8

Grand Total

All staff ethnicity distribution by job family: 31 March 2020
Ethnicity band (numbers)

Job familyCommissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/Engineering
Not AllocatedGrand Total

Ethnicity band (%)

White
British

Other
White
Background

BAME

Asian

Black

Mixed
Ethnicity

Other
BAME

White
British

Other
White
Background

Total

BAME

Asian

Black

Mixed
Ethnicity

204
9,998
766
4,022
5,475
417

33
1,593
89
760
785
25

15
592
36
351
385
12

*
306
18
205
183
*

*
325
28
162
139
*

*
154
370 7,728*
626
42 3,000
78 4,362
*
372

17
677
51
262
328
20

16.2
15.9
11.6
18.9
14.3
6.0

7.4
5.9
4.7
8.7
7.0
2.9

*
3.1
2.3
5.1
3.3
*

*
3.3
3.7
4.0
2.5
*

*
3.7
*
1.0
1.4
*

75.5
77.3
81.7
74.6
79.7
89.2

8.3
6.8
6.7
6.5
6.0
4.8

20,882 3,285 1,391

723

672

499 16,242 1,355

15.7

6.7

3.5

3.2

2.4

77.8

6.5

Other
BAME

Leadership staff ethnicity distribution by job family: 31 March 2020
Ethnicity band (numbers)

Ethnicity band (%)

Other
BAME

White
British

Other
White
Background

Black

Mixed
Ethnicity

Other
BAME

White
British

Other
White
Background

Total

BAME

Asian

Black

Mixed
Ethnicity

Commissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/Engineering
Not Allocated

142
1,686
149
1,022
512
27

18
214
*
135
55
*

10
84
*
74
31
*

*
29
*
22
*
*

*
38
*
32
16
*

*
63
*
*
*
*

111
1,375
131
804
423
20

13
97
*
83
34
*

12.7
12.7
*
13.2
10.7
*

7.0
5.0
*
7.2
6.1
*

*
1.7
*
2.2
*
*

*
2.3
*
3.1
3.1
*

*
3.7
*
*
*
*

78.2
81.6
87.9
78.7
82.6
74.1

9.1
5.7
*
8.1
6.7
*

Grand Total

3,538

436

207

59

96

74 2,864

238

12.3

5.9

1.7

2.7

2.1

80.9

6.8

Job family

BAME

Asian

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

229

Additional Information

Leadership staff ethnicity distribution by division: 31 March 2020

Return to contents

Equality Information Report
All staff ethnicity distribution by grade bands: 31 March 2020
Ethnicity band (numbers)

Ethnicity band (%)

White
British

Other
White
Background

Other
BAME

White
British

Other
White
Background

Total

BAME

Asian

Black

Mixed
Ethnicity

BAME

Asian

Black

Mixed
Ethnicity

A
B
C
D
E
F
SL
Not Allocated

1,031
2,514
6,871
6,890
2,221
988
329
38

186
426
1,220
1,016
306
105
25
*

61
160
512
451
140
58
*
*

60
125
285
194
41
13
*
*

55
104
228
188
68
21
*
*

10
813
37 1,943
195 5,153
183 5,433
57 1,766
13
819
*
279
*
36

32
145
498
441
149
64
25
*

18.0
16.9
17.8
14.7
13.8
10.6
7.6
*

5.9
6.4
7.5
6.5
6.3
5.9
*
*

5.8
5.0
4.1
2.8
1.8
1.3
*
*

5.3
4.1
3.3
2.7
3.1
2.1
*
*

1.0
1.5
2.8
2.7
2.6
1.3
*
*

78.9
77.3
75.0
78.9
79.5
82.9
84.8
94.7

3.1
5.8
7.2
6.4
6.7
6.5
7.6
*

Grand Total

20,882 3,285 1,391

723

672

499 16,242 1,355

15.7

6.7

3.5

3.2

2.4

77.8

6.5

Grade band

Other
BAME

All staff leaver and joiner distribution by ethnicity: 31 March 2020
Ethnicity band (numbers)

Category

Total

BAME

Asian

Black

Mixed
Ethnicity

Leavers
Joiners

2,685
2,642

504
582

196
225

150
158

111
138

Ethnicity band (%)

Other
BAME

White
British

Other
White
Background

47
61

1,953
1,859

228
201

BAME

Asian

18.8
22.0

7.3
8.5

Black

Mixed
Ethnicity

Other
BAME

White
British

Other
White
Background

5.6
6.0

4.1
5.2

1.8
2.3

72.7
70.4

8.5
7.6

All staff leaver distribution by ethnicity and reason for leaving: 31 March 2020
Ethnicity band (numbers)

Ethnicity band (%)

Other
BAME

White
British

Other
White
Background

Black

Mixed
Ethnicity

Other
BAME

White
British

Other
White
Background

Total

BAME

Asian

Black

Mixed
Ethnicity

Voluntary
Redundancy
End FTC
Other Involuntary
Other

1,329
311
978
62
*

224
42
217
19
*

99
15
74
*
*

54
16
71
*
*

53
*
49
*
*

18
*
23
*
*

973
249
685
43
*

132
20
76
*
*

16.9
13.5
22.2
30.6
*

7.4
4.8
7.6
*
*

4.1
5.1
7.3
*
*

4.0
*
5.0
*
*

1.4
*
2.4
*
*

73.2
80.1
70.0
69.4
*

9.9
6.4
7.8
*
*

Grand Total

2,685

504

196

150

111

47 1,953

228

18.8

7.3

5.6

4.1

1.8

72.7

8.5

Reason for leaving

BAME

Asian

All staff internal mover distribution by ethnicity: 31 March 2020
Ethnicity band (numbers)

Ethnicity band (%)

Other
BAME

White
British

Other
White
Background

Black

Mixed
Ethnicity

Other
BAME

White
British

Other
White
Background

Total

BAME

Asian

Black

Mixed
Ethnicity

Attachment
Promotion
Transfer

1,043
627
1,386

168
101
250

78
39
106

30
21
64

37
29
50

23
12
30

817
490
1,030

58
36
106

16.1
16.1
18.0

7.5
6.2
7.6

2.9
3.3
4.6

3.5
4.6
3.6

2.2
1.9
2.2

78.3
78.1
74.3

5.6
5.8
7.7

Grand Total

3,056

519

223

115

116

65 2,337

200

17.0

7.3

3.8

3.8

2.1

76.5

6.5

Internal move type

BAME

Asian

All staff ethnicity distribution by contract type: 31 March 2020
Ethnicity band (numbers)

Ethnicity band (%)
Other
White
Background

Other
BAME

White
British

Other
White
Background

Asian

Black

Mixed
Ethnicity

BAME

Asian

Black

Mixed
Ethnicity

Continuing
Fixed Term less than
1 yr
Fixed Term 1 yr +Flexicon19,125 2,923 1,256

620

570

477 14,976 1,226

15.3

6.6

3.2

3.0

2.5

78.3

6.4

1,380
359
18

97
38
*

81
22
*

79
22
*

16
*
*

106
23
*

19.8
24.5
*

7.0
10.6
*

5.9
6.1
*

5.7
6.1
*

1.2
*
*

72.5
69.1
94.4

7.7
6.4
*

Grand Total

20,882 3,285 1,391

723

672

499 16,242 1,355

15.7

6.7

3.5

3.2

2.4

77.8

6.5

Contract type

Total

BAME

273
88
*

Other
BAME

White
British

1,001
248
17

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

230

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Ethnicity band (numbers)

Ethnicity band (%)

White
British

Other
White
Background

Other
BAME

White
British

Other
White
Background

Total

BAME

Asian

Black

Mixed
Ethnicity

BAME

Asian

Black

Mixed
Ethnicity

<1
1-<3
3-<5
5-<10
10+

2,235
3,548
2,109
3,696
9,294

486
710
369
591
1,129

196
303
189
242
461

123
173
70
110
247

118
152
86
124
192

49 1,584
82 2,588
24 1,571
115 2,828
229 7,671

165
250
169
277
494

21.7
20.0
17.5
16.0
12.1

8.8
8.5
9.0
6.5
5.0

5.5
4.9
3.3
3.0
2.7

5.3
4.3
4.1
3.4
2.1

2.2
2.3
1.1
3.1
2.5

70.9
72.9
74.5
76.5
82.5

7.4
7.1
8.0
7.5
5.4

Grand Total

20,882 3,285 1,391

723

672

499 16,242 1,355

15.7

6.7

3.5

3.2

2.4

77.8

6.5

Length of service (yrs)

Other
BAME

GenderAll staff gender distribution by division: 31 March 2020
Gender band
(numbers)
Division

Gender band (%)

Total

FemaleMale

FemaleMale

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

3,406
530
873
197
612
1,201
6,009
3,198
1,878

984
297
417
145
357
786
2,712
1,502
1,086

2,422
233
456
52
255
415
3,297
1,696
792

28.9
56.0
47.8
73.6
58.3
65.4
45.1
47.0
57.8

71.1
44.0
52.2
26.4
41.7
34.6
54.9
53.0
42.2

UK Public Service

17,904

8,286

9,618

46.3

53.7

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution, Branded Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

900
1,231

518
797

382
434

57.6
64.7

42.4
35.3

BBC Studios

2,131

1,315

816

61.7

38.3

World Service Group
Other

1,486
271

777
149

709
122

52.3
55.0

47.7
45.0

Other

1,757

926

831

52.7

47.3

Grand Total

21,792

10,527

11,265

48.3

51.7

Leadership staff gender distribution by division: 31 March 2020
Gender band
(numbers)

Gender band (%)

Division

Total

FemaleMale

FemaleMale

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

500
106
199
54
179
303
682
594
235

126
55
97
32
80
193
266
272
119

374
51
102
22
99
110
416
322
116

25.2
51.9
48.7
59.3
44.7
63.7
39.0
45.8
50.6

74.8
48.1
51.3
40.7
55.3
36.3
61.0
54.2
49.4

2,852

1,240

1,612

43.5

56.5

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution, Branded Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

281
232

148
125

133
107

52.7
53.9

47.3
46.1

BBC Studios

513

273

240

53.2

46.8

World Service Group
Other

268
44

121
21

147
23

45.1
47.7

54.9
52.3

Other

312

142

170

45.5

54.5

3,677

1,655

2,022

45.0

55.0

UK Public Service

Grand Total

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

231

Additional Information

All staff ethnicity distribution by length of service: 31 March 2020

Return to contents

Equality Information Report
All staff gender distribution by job family: 31 March 2020
Gender band
(numbers)
Job family

Gender band (%)

Total

FemaleMale

FemaleMaleCommissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/Engineering
Not Allocated212
10,415
795
4,175
5,749
446

125
5,475
525
2,686
1,503
213

87
4,940
270
1,489
4,246
233

59.0
52.6
66.0
64.3
26.1
47.8

41.0
47.4
34.0
35.7
73.9
52.2

Grand Total

21,792

10,527

11,265

48.3

51.7

Leadership staff gender distribution by job family: 31 March 2020
Gender band
(numbers)
Job family

Gender band (%)

Total

FemaleMale

FemaleMaleCommissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/Engineering
Not Allocated

148
1,743
151
1,068
534
33

82
787
88
561
119
18

66
956
63
507
415
15

55.4
45.2
58.3
52.5
22.3
54.5

44.6
54.8
41.7
47.5
77.7
45.5

Grand Total

3,677

1,655

2,022

45.0

55.0

All staff gender distribution by grade bands: 31 March 2020
Gender band
(numbers)
Grade band

Gender band (%)

Total

FemaleMale

Female

Male

A
B
C
D
E
F
SL
Not Allocated

1,070
2,591
7,193
7,218
2,319
1,025
333
43

551
1,605
3,582
3,109
1,056
459
140
25

519
986
3,611
4,109
1,263
566
193
18

51.5
61.9
49.8
43.1
45.5
44.8
42.0
58.1

48.5
38.1
50.2
56.9
54.5
55.2
58.0
41.9

Grand Total

21,792

10,527

11,26548.3

51.7

All staff leaver and joiner distribution by gender: 31 March 2020
Gender band
(numbers)

Gender band (%)

Category

Total

FemaleMale

FemaleMale

Leavers
Joiners

2,805
2,785

1,535
1,626

1,270
1,159

54.7
58.4

45.3
41.6

All staff leaver distribution by gender and reason for leaving: 31 March 2020
Gender band
(numbers)
Reason for leaving

Gender band (%)

Total

FemaleMale

FemaleMale

Voluntary
Redundancy
End FTC
Other Involuntary
Other

1,389
326
1,020
64
*

697
163
644
28
*

692
163
376
36
*

50.2
50.0
63.1
43.8
*

49.8
50.0
36.9
56.3
*

Grand Total

2,805

1,535

1,270

54.7

45.3

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

232

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Gender band
(numbers)
Internal move type

Gender band (%)

Total

FemaleMale

FemaleMale

Attachment
Promotion
Transfer

1,086
685
1,552

636
316
876

450
369
676

58.6
46.1
56.4

41.4
53.9
43.6

Grand Total

3,323

1,828

1,495

55.0

45.0

All staff gender distribution by contract type: 31 March 2020
Gender band
(numbers)
Contract type

Gender band (%)

Total

FemaleMale

FemaleMaleContinuing
Fixed Term less than 1 yr
Fixed Term 1 yr +Flexicon19,933
1,448
393
18

9,428
873
215
11

10,505
575
178
*

47.3
60.3
54.7
61.1

52.7
39.7
45.3
*

Grand Total

21,792

10,527

11,26548.3

51.7

All staff gender distribution by length of service: 31 March 2020
Gender band
(numbers)
Length of service (yrs)Gender band (%)

Total

FemaleMale

Female

Male

<1
1-<3
3-<5
5-<10
10+

2,338
3,741
2,216
3,874
9,623

1,329
1,872
1,118
1,911
4,297

1,009
1,869
1,098
1,963
5,326

56.8
50.0
50.5
49.3
44.7

43.2
50.0
49.5
50.7
55.3

Grand Total

21,792

10,527

11,265

48.3

51.7

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity
All staff sexual orientation and gender identity distribution by division (numbers): 31 March 2020
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (numbers)

Total

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbian

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

3,406
530
873
197
612
1,201
6,009
3,198
1,878

75
*
17
*
12
37
75
64
42

124
32
23
13
14
45
211
132
75

39
*
14
*
*
19
39
29
26

2,593
426
670
153
521
983
4,143
1,965
1,273

22
*
*
*
*
*
25
21
14

300
42
63
14
34
69
374
286
144

253
16
84
13
21
40
1,142
701
304

59
11
17
*
16
29
106
61
55

303
54
69
21
50
135
440
294
199

UK Public Service

17,904

332

669

182

12,727

94

1,326

2,574

358

1,565

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution, Branded
Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

900
1,231

20
45

34
56

*
12

744
901

*
11

70
124

26
82

32
32

87
152

BBC Studios

2,131

65

90

15

1,645

14

194

108

64

239

World Service Group
Other

1,486
271

27
*

38
*

5
*

1,003
211

12
*

155
16

246
32

12
*

93
19

Other

1,757

28

45

*

1,214

12

171

278

19

112

Grand Total

21,792425

804

206 15,586

120

1,691

2,960

441

1,916

Division

Heterosexual/straight

PreferOther not to say

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
The percentages for each individual group in the sexual orientation and gender identity tables are calculated as a proportion of the total BBC staff population; the total LGBTQ+ figure is
calculated as a proportion of the known population excluding those who have chosen not to declare or where data is missing* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

233

Additional Information

All staff internal mover distribution by gender: 31 March 2020

Return to contents

Equality Information Report
All staff sexual orientation and gender identity distribution by division (percentage): 31 March 2020
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (%)

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbian

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

2.2
*
1.9
*
2.0
3.1
1.2
2.0
2.2

3.6
6.0
2.6
6.6
2.3
3.7
3.5
4.1
4.0

1.1
*
1.6
*
*
1.6
0.6
0.9
1.4

76.1
80.4
76.7
77.7
85.1
81.8
68.9
61.4
67.8

0.6
*
*
*
*
*
0.4
0.7
0.7

UK Public Service

1.9

3.7

1.0

71.1

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution, Branded Services &Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

2.2
3.7

3.8
4.5

*
1.0

82.7
73.2

BBC Studios

3.1

4.2

0.7

77.2

0.7

World Service Group
Other

1.8
*

2.6
*

0.3
*

67.5
77.9

0.8
*

Other

1.6

2.6

*

69.1

0.7

9.7

15.8

1.1

8.6

Grand Total

2.0

3.7

0.9

71.5

0.6

7.8

13.5

2.0

11.2

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+

Division

Heterosexual/straight

PreferOther not to say

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+

8.8
7.9
7.2
7.1
5.6
5.7
6.2
8.9
7.7

7.6
3.1
9.8
6.6
3.3
3.4
19.2
22.0
16.2

1.7
2.1
1.9
*
2.6
2.4
1.8
1.9
2.9

10.6
11.4
9.5
12.4
9.0
12.3
9.8
13.3
13.9

0.5

7.4

14.4

2.0

11.2

*
0.9

7.8
10.1

2.9
6.6

3.6
2.6

10.8
14.8

9.1

5.0

3.0

13.0

10.4
5.9

16.6
11.7

0.8
*

8.6
8.5

Leadership staff sexual orientation and gender identity distribution by division (numbers): 31 March 2020
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (numbers)

Total

Total

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbian

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

500
106
199
54
179
303
682
594
235

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

18
*
*
*
*
14
31
18
15

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

394
88
153
39
152
253
455
350
182

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

43
*
15
*
*
12
45
42
16

30
*
23
*
*
11
140
163
12

10
*
*
*
*
*
13
14
*

41
13
10
*
14
35
54
51
32

Heterosexual/straight

PreferOther not to say

2,852

34

119

35

2,066

14

190

394

63

255

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution, Branded
Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

281
232

*
*

18
18

*
*

229
164

*
*

15
18

14
28

*
*

28
25

BBC Studios

513

*

36

*

393

*

33

42

11

53

World Service Group
Other

268
44

*
*

*
*

*
*

182
34

*
*

19
*

52
*

*
*

16
*

Other

312

*

10

*

216

*

21

56

*

21

3,677

43

165

41

2,675

17

244

492

77

329

UK Public Service

Grand Total

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
The percentages for each individual group in the sexual orientation and gender identity tables are calculated as a proportion of the total BBC staff population; the total LGBTQ+ figure is
calculated as a proportion of the known population excluding those who have chosen not to declare or where data is missing.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

234

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (%)

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbian

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

3.6
*
*
*
*
4.6
4.5
3.0
6.4

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

78.8
83.0
76.9
72.2
84.9
83.5
66.7
58.9
77.4

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

1.2

4.2

1.2

72.4

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution, Branded Services &Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

*
*

6.4
7.8

*
*

BBC Studios*

7.0World Service Group
Other

*
*

*
*

Total

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education
UK Public Service

Other
Grand Total

Heterosexual/straight

PreferOther not to say

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+

8.6
*
7.5
*
*
4.0
6.6
7.1
6.8

6.0
*
11.6
*
*
3.5
20.6
27.5
5.1

2.0
*
*
*
*
*
1.9
2.4
*

9.6
13.0
6.2
*
8.5
12.5
10.8
13.1
15.5

0.5

6.7

13.8

2.2

11.2

81.5
70.7

*
*

5.3
7.8

4.9
12.0

*
*

11.1
13.4

*

76.6

*

6.4

8.2

2.1

12.1

*
*

67.9
77.3

*
*

7.1
*

19.4
*

*
*

8.1
*

*

3.2

*

69.2

*

6.7

18.0

*

8.9

1.2

4.5

1.1

72.7

0.5

6.6

13.4

2.1

11.2

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+All staff sexual orientation and gender identity distribution by job family (numbers): 31 March 2020
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (numbers)

Total

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbianCommissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/Engineering
Not Allocated212
10,415
795
4,175
5,749
446

*
196
19
81
124
*

11
399
36
147
197
14

*
85
*
49
61
*

165
7,100
650
3,429
4,095
147

*
58
*
20
39
*

17
907
49
257
451
10

12
1,670
32
192
782
272

*
229
15
98
89
*

23
927
77
384
485
20

Grand Total

21,792425

804

206 15,586

120

1,691

2,960

441

1,916

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+

Job family

Heterosexual/straight

PreferOther not to say

All staff sexual orientation and gender identity distribution by job family (percentage): 31 March 2020
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (%)

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbianCommissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/Engineering
Not Allocated

*
1.9
2.4
1.9
2.2
*

5.2
3.8
4.5
3.5
3.4
3.1

*
0.8
*
1.2
1.1
*

77.8
68.2
81.8
82.1
71.2
33.0

*
0.6
*
0.5
0.7
*

8.0
8.7
6.2
6.2
7.8
2.2

5.7
16.0
4.0
4.6
13.6
61.0

*
2.2
1.9
2.3
1.5
*

12.5
11.8
10.8
10.3
10.7
12.2

Grand Total

2.0

3.7

0.9

71.5

0.6

7.8

13.6

2.0

11.2

Job family

Heterosexual/straight

PreferOther not to say

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
The percentages for each individual group in the sexual orientation and gender identity tables are calculated as a proportion of the total BBC staff population; the total LGBTQ+ figure is
calculated as a proportion of the known population excluding those who have chosen not to declare or where data is missing.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

235

Additional Information

Leadership staff sexual orientation and gender identity distribution by division (percentage): 31 March 2020

Return to contents

Equality Information Report
Leadership staff sexual orientation and gender identity distribution by job family (numbers): 31 March 2020
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (numbers)

Total

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbianHeterosexual/straight

Commissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/Engineering
Not Allocated

148
1,743
151
1,068
534
33

*
21
*
14
*
*

*
70
*
54
20
*

*
20
*
11
*
*

116
1,113
127
877
417
25

*
*
*
*
*
*

Grand Total

3,677

43

165

41

2,675

17

Job family

PreferOther not to say

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+

11
131
*
55
43
*

11
380
*
53
39
*

*
35
*
24
10
*

14
148
14
103
43
*

244

492

77

329

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+

Leadership staff sexual orientation and gender identity distribution by job family (percentage): 31 March 2020
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (%)

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbianCommissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/Engineering
Not Allocated

*
1.2
*
1.3
*
*

*
4.0
*
5.1
3.7
*

*
1.1
*
1.0
*
*

78.4
63.9
84.1
82.1
78.1
75.8

*
*
*
*
*
*

7.4
7.5
*
5.1
8.1
*

7.5
21.8
*
5.0
7.4
*

*
2.0
*
2.2
1.9
*

11.1
12.0
10.0
10.7
9.5
*

Grand Total

1.2

4.5

1.1

72.7

0.5

6.6

13.4

2.1

11.2

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+

Job family

Heterosexual/straight

PreferOther not to say

All staff sexual orientation and gender identity distribution by grade bands (numbers): 31 March 2020
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (numbers)

Total

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbianHeterosexual/straight

A
B
C
D
E
F
SL
Not Allocated

1,070
2,591
7,193
7,218
2,319
1,025
333
43

35
75
167
105
26
11
*
*

27
79
255
278
97
44
24
*

*
28
65
63
25
13
*
*

639
1,964
5,194
5,100
1,639
780
256
14

*
20
41
34
12
*
*
*

57
205
635
548
164
65
15
*

295
220
836
1,090
356
109
27
27

16
61
146
141
43
23
11
*

94
244
646
603
197
88
44
*

Grand Total

21,792425

804

206 15,586

120

1,691

2,960

441

1,916

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+

Grade band

PreferOther not to say

All staff sexual orientation and gender identity distribution by grade bands (percentage): 31 March 2020
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (%)

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbian

A
B
C
D
E
F
SL
Not Allocated

3.3
2.9
2.3
1.5
1.1
1.1
*
*

2.5
3.0
3.5
3.9
4.2
4.3
7.2
*

*
1.1
0.9
0.9
1.1
1.3
*
*

59.7
75.8
72.2
70.7
70.7
76.1
76.9
32.6

*
0.8
0.6
0.5
0.5
*
*
*

5.3
7.9
8.8
7.6
7.1
6.3
4.5
*

27.7
8.5
11.7
14.9
15.3
10.6
8.1
62.7

1.5
2.4
2.0
2.0
1.9
2.2
3.3
*

13.1
11.2
11.3
10.8
10.9
10.3
15.1
*

Grand Total

2.0

3.7

0.9

71.5

0.6

7.8

13.5

2.0

11.2

Grade band

Heterosexual/straight

PreferOther not to say

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
The percentages for each individual group in the sexual orientation and gender identity tables are calculated as a proportion of the total BBC staff population; the total LGBTQ+ figure is
calculated as a proportion of the known population excluding those who have chosen not to declare or where data is missing.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

236

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (numbers)

Category

Total

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbianHeterosexual/straight

Leavers
Joiners

2,805
2,785

101
139

94
108

32
36

2,024
2,089

PreferOther not to say

80
29

312
334

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+

162
50

74
76

360
375

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+

5.7
1.8

2.6
2.7

15.4
15.5

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+All staff leaver and joiner distribution by sexual orientation and gender identity (percentage): 31 March 2020
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (%)

Category

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbianLeavers
Joiners

3.6
5.0

3.4
3.9

1.1
1.3

Heterosexual/straight

72.2
75.0

PreferOther not to say

2.9
1.0

11.1
12.0

All staff leaver distribution by sexual orientation and gender identity and reason for leaving (numbers): 31 March 2020
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (numbers)

Total

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbianHeterosexual/straight

Voluntary
Redundancy
End FTC
Other Involuntary
Other

1,389
326
1,020
64
*

42
*
53
*
*

44
12
35
*
*

13
*
12
*
*

1,046
219
718
36
*

30
*
41
*
*

122
30
152
*
*

92
45
*
15
*

28
*
36
*
*

151
37
166
*
*

Grand Total

2,805

101

94

32

2,024

80

312

162

74

360

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+

Reason for leaving

PreferOther not to say

All staff leaver distribution by sexual orientation and gender identity and reason for leaving (percentage): 31 March 2020
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (%)

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbianVoluntary
Redundancy
End FTC
Other Involuntary
Other

3.0
*
5.2
*
*

3.2
3.7
3.4
*
*

0.9
*
1.2
*
*

75.3
67.2
70.4
56.3
*

2.2
*
4.0
*
*

8.8
9.2
14.9
*
*

6.6
13.8
*
23.4
*

2.0
*
3.5
*
*

12.8
14.7
19.2
*
*

Grand Total

3.6

3.4

1.1

72.2

2.9

11.1

5.7

2.6

15.4

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+

Reason for leaving

Heterosexual/straight

PreferOther not to say

All staff internal mover distribution by sexual orientation and gender identity (numbers): 31 March 2020
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (numbers)

Total

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbianHeterosexual/straight

Attachment
Promotion
Transfer

1,086
685
1,552

20
14
64

34
23
61

12
11
18

820
502
1,083

*
*
19

81
50
152

112
81
155

20
13
33

87
61
188

Grand Total

3,323

98

118

41

2,405

30

283

348

66

336

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+

Category

PreferOther not to say

All staff internal mover distribution by sexual orientation and gender identity (percentage): 31 March 2020
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (%)

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbianAttachment
Promotion
Transfer

1.8
2.0
4.1

3.1
3.4
3.9

1.1
1.6
1.2

75.5
73.3
69.8

*
*
1.2

7.5
7.3
9.8

10.4
11.8
10.0

1.8
1.9
2.1

9.7
11.0
15.1

Grand Total

2.9

3.6

1.2

72.4

0.9

8.5

10.5

2.0

12.5

Category

Heterosexual/straight

PreferOther not to say

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
The percentages for each individual group in the sexual orientation and gender identity tables are calculated as a proportion of the total BBC staff population; the total LGBTQ+ figure is
calculated as a proportion of the known population excluding those who have chosen not to declare or where data is missing.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

237

Additional Information

All staff leaver and joiner distribution by sexual orientation and gender identity (numbers): 31 March 2020

Return to contents

Equality Information Report
All staff sexual orientation and gender identity distribution by contract type (numbers): 31 March 2020
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (numbers)

Total

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbianHeterosexual/straight

PreferOther not to say

Continuing
Fixed Term less than 1 yr
Fixed Term 1 yr +Flexicon19,933
1,448
393
18

339
74
12
*

724
64
15
*

186
14
*
*

14,180
1,100
293
13

103
15
*
*

Grand Total

21,792425

804

206 15,586

120

Contract type

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+

1,474
169
47
*

2,927
12
18
*

391
38
12
*

1,677
192
46
*

1,691

2,960

441

1,916

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+All staff sexual orientation and gender identity distribution by contract type (percentage): 31 March 2020
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (%)

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbianContinuing
Fixed Term less than 1 yr
Fixed Term 1 yr +Flexicon

1.7
5.1
3.1
*

3.6
4.4
3.8
*

0.9
1.0
*
*

71.1
76.0
74.6
72.2

0.5
1.0
*
*

7.4
11.7
12.0
*

14.8
0.8
4.5
*

2.0
2.6
3.1
*

10.8
15.1
13.9
*

Grand Total

2.0

3.7

0.9

71.5

0.6

7.8

13.5

2.0

11.2

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+

Contract type

Heterosexual/straight

PreferOther not to say

All staff sexual orientation and gender identity distribution by length of service (numbers): 31 March 2020
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (numbers)

Total

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbian

<1
1-<3
3-<5
5-<10
10+

2,338
3,741
2,216
3,874
9,623

106
85
57
63
114

93
148
97
161
305

30
42
19
45
70

1,807
2,948
1,776
3,154
5,901

15
25
15
17
48

262
416
172
300
541

25
77
80
134
2,644

61
68
47
70
195

292
352
229
346
697

Grand Total

21,792425

804

206 15,586

120

1,691

2,960

441

1,916

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+

Length of service (yrs)Heterosexual/straight

PreferOther not to say

All staff sexual orientation and gender identity distribution by length of service (percentage): 31 March 2020
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (%)

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbian

<1
1-<3
3-<5
5-<10
10+

4.5
2.3
2.6
1.6
1.2

4.0
4.0
4.4
4.2
3.2

1.3
1.1
0.9
1.2
0.7

77.3
78.8
80.1
81.4
61.3

0.6
0.7
0.7
0.4
0.5

11.2
11.1
7.8
7.7
5.6

1.1
2.1
3.6
3.5
27.5

2.6
1.8
2.1
1.8
2.0

14.2
10.8
11.6
10.0
10.8

Grand Total

2.0

3.7

0.9

71.5

0.6

7.8

13.6

2.0

11.2

Length of service (yrs)Heterosexual/straight

PreferOther not to say

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
The percentages for each individual group in the sexual orientation and gender identity tables are calculated as a proportion of the total BBC staff population; the total LGBTQ+ figure is
calculated as a proportion of the known population excluding those who have chosen not to declare or where data is missing.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

238

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Religion and Belief (numbers)
Division

Total

Atheist

3,406

783

27

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

PreferNone not to say

N/A

798

104

12

95

17

118

1,151

291

10

Buddhist Christian

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer
Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External
Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

530
873

123
138

*
*

125
283

*
*

*
*

*
13

*
12

26
18

171
315

61
73

*
*

197
612
1,201
6,009
3,198
1,878

35
81
192
814
518
307

*
*
*
18
11
13

68
244
411
1,988
720
491

*
20
22
27
33
11

*
*
18
20
62
13

*
13
35
43
82
27

*
11
39
23
20
*

*
15
35
169
85
80

68
183
352
2,425
1,362
768

13
37
83
468
304
156

*
*
*
14
*
*

UK Public Service

17,904

2,991

87

5,128

229

149

314

135

554

6,795

1,486

36

900

172

*

261

22

16

29

*

32

267

87

*

BBC Studios (Sales &Distribution, Branded
Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio
Production)

1,231

255

*

306

*

*

*

*

44

455

138

*

BBC Studios

2,131

427

12

567

25

24

38

*

76

722

225

*

World Service Group
Other

1,486
271

193
42

27
*

264
77

23
*

16
*

203
*

*
*

51
10

503
111

190
18

12
*

Other

1,757

235

27

341

26

19

207

*

61

614

208

13

Grand Total

21,792

3,653

126

6,036

280

192

559

148

691

8,131

1,919

57

PreferNone not to say

N/A

All staff religion and belief distribution (percentage): 31 March 2020
Religion and Belief (%)
Division

AtheistBuddhist Christian

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

23.0
23.2
15.8
17.8
13.2
16.0
13.5
16.2
16.3

0.8
*
*
*
*
*
0.3
0.3
0.7

23.4
23.6
32.4
34.5
39.9
34.2
33.1
22.5
26.1

3.1
*
*
*
3.3
1.8
0.4
1.0
0.6

0.4
*
*
*
*
1.5
0.3
1.9
0.7

2.8
*
1.5
*
2.1
2.9
0.7
2.6
1.4

0.5
*
1.4
*
1.8
3.2
0.4
0.6
*

3.5
4.9
2.1
*
2.5
2.9
2.8
2.7
4.3

33.8
32.3
36.1
34.5
29.9
29.3
40.4
42.6
40.9

8.5
11.4
8.4
6.6
6.0
6.9
7.8
9.6
8.3

0.2
*
*
*
*
*
0.3
*
*

UK Public Service

16.7

0.5

28.6

1.3

0.8

1.8

0.8

3.1

38.0

8.1

0.3

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution,
Branded Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

19.1
20.7

*
*

29.0
24.9

2.4
*

1.8
*

3.2
*

*
*

3.6
3.6

29.7
37.0

9.7
11.2

*
*

BBC Studios

20.0

0.6

26.6

1.2

1.1

1.8

*

3.6

33.9

10.6

*

World Service Group
Other

13.0
15.5

1.8
*

17.8
28.4

1.5
*

1.1
*

13.7
*

*
*

3.4
3.7

33.8
41.0

12.8
6.6

0.8
*

Other

13.4

1.5

19.4

1.5

1.1

11.8

*

3.5

34.9

11.8

0.8

Grand Total

16.8

0.6

27.7

1.3

0.9

2.6

0.7

3.2

37.3

8.7

0.2

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

239

Additional Information

Religion and Belief
All staff religion and belief distribution (numbers): 31 March 2020

Return to contents

Equality Information Report
Leadership staff religion and belief distribution (numbers): 31 March 2020
Religion and Belief (numbers)
Division

Total

AtheistBBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer
Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External
Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

500

122

*

106
199

26
34

54
179
303
682
594
235

UK Public Service

Buddhist ChristianPreferNone not to say

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

N/A

129

14

*

*

*

14

158

45

*

*
*

28
62

*
*

*
*

*
*

*
*

*
*

29
69

*
20

*
*

*
25
48
79
94
45

*
*
*
*
*
*

18
76
120
255
152
79

*
*
*
*
*
*

*
*
*
*
11
*

*
*
*
*
*
*

*
*
*
*
*
*

*
*
10
11
10
*

22
44
87
265
272
65

*
18
15
53
37
23

*
*
*
*
*
*

2,852

478

11

919

43

35

32

25

72

1,011

224

*

BBC Studios (Sales &Distribution, Branded
Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio
Production)

281

58

*

90

*

*

10

*

11

76

22

*

232

47

*

53

*

*

*

*

*

95

23

*

BBC Studios

513

105

*

143

*

*

13

*

18

171

45

*

World Service Group
Other

268
44

35
*

*
*

61
15

*
*

*
*

20
*

*
*

*
*

101
17

28
*

*
*

Other

312

41

*

76

*

*

21

*

*

118

31

*

3,677

624

19

1,138

49

48

66

29

99

1,300

300

*

PreferNone not to say

N/A

Grand Total

Leadership staff religion and belief distribution (percentage): 31 March 2020
Religion and Belief (%)
Division

AtheistBuddhist Christian

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

24.4
24.5
17.1
*
14.0
15.8
11.6
15.8
19.1

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

25.8
26.4
31.2
33.3
42.5
39.6
37.4
25.6
33.6

2.8
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
1.9
*

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

2.8
*
*
*
*
3.3
1.6
1.7
*

31.6
27.4
34.7
40.7
24.6
28.7
38.9
45.8
27.7

9.0
*
10.0
*
9.9
4.9
7.8
6.2
9.7

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

UK Public Service

16.8

0.4

32.2

1.5

1.2

1.1

0.9

2.5

35.4

7.9

*

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution,
Branded Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

20.6
20.3

*
*

32.0
22.8

*
*

*
*

3.6
*

*
*

3.9
*

27.0
40.9

7.9
10.0

*
*

BBC Studios

20.5

*

27.9

*

*

2.5

*

3.5

33.3

8.7

*

World Service Group
Other

13.1
*

*
*

22.8
34.1

*
*

*
*

7.5
*

*
*

*
*

37.7
38.6

10.4
*

*
*

Other

13.1

*

24.4

*

*

6.7

*

*

37.8

10.0

*

Grand Total

17.0

0.5

30.9

1.3

1.3

1.8

0.8

2.7

35.4

8.2

*

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

240

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Religion and Belief (numbers)
Job family

Total

AtheistBuddhist ChristianCommissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/Engineering
Not Allocated212
10,415
795
4,175
5,749
446

49
1,654
155
625
1,142
28

*
62
*
17
38
*

Grand Total

21,792

3,653

126

PreferNone not to say

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

N/A

62
2,851
215
1,454
1,405
49

*
77
*
80
109
*

*
102
11
51
22
*

*
315
*
107
126
*

*
55
*
68
22
*

*
319
36
135
189
*

57
3,935
287
1,299
2,220
333

23
1,025
69
327
458
17

*
20
*
12
18
*

6,036

280

192

559

148

691

8,131

1,919

57

PreferNone not to say

N/A

All staff religion and belief distribution by job family (percentage): 31 March 2020
Religion and Belief (%)
Job family

AtheistBuddhist Christian

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

Commissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/Engineering
Not Allocated

23.1
15.9
19.5
15.0
19.9
6.3

*
0.6
*
0.4
0.7
*

29.2
27.4
27.0
34.8
24.4
11.0

*
0.7
*
1.9
1.9
*

*
1.0
1.4
1.2
0.4
*

*
3.0
*
2.6
2.2
*

*
0.5
*
1.6
0.4
*

*
3.1
4.5
3.2
3.3
*

26.9
37.8
36.1
31.1
38.6
74.7

10.9
9.8
8.8
7.9
8.0
3.8

*
0.2
*
0.3
0.2
*

Grand Total

16.8

0.6

27.7

1.3

0.9

2.6

0.7

3.2

37.3

8.6

0.3

PreferNone not to say

N/A

Leadership staff religion and belief distribution by job family (numbers): 31 March 2020
Religion and Belief (numbers)
Job family

Total

AtheistBuddhist ChristianCommissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/Engineering
Not Allocated

148
1,743
151
1,068
534
33

28
265
36
174
117
*

*
10
*
*
*
*

Grand Total

3,677

624

19

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

44
501
41
392
149
11

*
13
*
17
13
*

*
18
*
14
*
*

*
32
*
22
*
*

*
*
*
14
*
*

*
37
*
39
13
*

43
709
50
313
174
11

17
148
10
76
47
2

*
*
*
*
*
*

1,138

49

48

66

29

99

1,300

300

*

PreferNone not to say

N/A

Leadership staff religion and belief distribution by job family (percentage): 31 March 2020
Religion and Belief (%)
Job family

AtheistBuddhist Christian

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

Commissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/Engineering
Not Allocated

18.9
15.2
23.8
16.3
21.9
*

*
0.6
*
*
*
*

29.7
28.7
27.2
36.7
27.9
33.3

*
0.7
*
1.6
2.4
*

*
1.0
*
1.3
*
*

*
1.8
*
2.1
*
*

*
*
*
1.3
*
*

*
2.1
*
3.7
2.4
*

29.1
40.7
33.1
29.3
32.6
33.3

11.4
8.5
6.6
7.1
8.9
6.1

*
*
*
*
*
*

Grand Total

17.0

0.5

30.9

1.3

1.3

1.8

0.8

2.7

35.4

8.2

*

All staff religion and belief distribution by grade bands (numbers): 31 March 2020
Religion and Belief (numbers)
Grade bands

Total

Atheist

A
B
C
D
E
F
SL
Not Allocated

1,070
2,591
7,193
7,218
2,319
1,025
333
43

139
402
1,240
1,248
402
156
66
*

*
*
54
39
16
*
*
*

Grand Total

21,792

3,653

126

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

PreferNone not to say

N/A

241
812
1,932
1,907
665
349
124
*

10
22
89
110
36
11
*
*

*
20
55
66
23
16
*
*

24
65
224
180
42
20
*
*

*
25
48
39
21
*
*
*

28
89
232
242
66
26
*
*

537
905
2,616
2,744
853
350
97
*

73
237
683
622
192
87
21
*

*
*
20
21
*
*
*
*

6,036

280

192

559

148

691

8,131

1,919

57

Buddhist ChristianAll staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

241

Additional Information

All staff religion and belief distribution by job family (numbers): 31 March 2020

Return to contents

Equality Information Report
All staff religion and belief distribution by grade bands (percentage): 31 March 2020
Religion and Belief (%)
Grade band

AtheistBuddhist Christian

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

PreferNone not to say

N/A

A
B
C
D
E
F
SL
Not Allocated

13.0
15.5
17.2
17.3
17.3
15.2
19.8
*

*
*
0.8
0.5
0.7
*
*
*

22.5
31.3
26.9
26.4
28.7
34.0
37.2
*

0.9
0.8
1.2
1.5
1.6
1.1
*
*

*
0.8
0.8
0.9
1.0
1.6
*
*

2.2
2.5
3.1
2.5
1.8
2.0
*
*

*
1.0
0.7
0.5
0.9
*
*
*

2.6
3.4
3.2
3.4
2.8
2.5
*
*

50.2
34.9
36.4
38.0
36.8
34.1
29.1
*

6.8
9.1
9.5
8.6
8.3
8.5
6.3
*

*
*
0.2
0.4
*
*
*
*

Grand Total

16.8

0.6

27.7

1.3

0.9

2.6

0.7

3.2

37.3

8.7

0.2

All staff leaver and joiner distribution by religion and belief (numbers): 31 March 2020
Religion and Belief (numbers)
Category

Total

AtheistLeavers
Joiners

2,805
2,785

458
524

Buddhist Christian

17
13

671
641

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

PreferNone not to say

N/A

37
45

24
28

75
86

23
27

234
134

913
848

337
391

16
48

PreferNone not to say

N/A

32.5
30.4

12.0
14.0

0.7
1.8

N/A

All staff leaver and joiner distribution by religion and belief (percentage): 31 March 2020
Religion and Belief (%)
Category

AtheistLeavers
Joiners

16.3
18.8

Buddhist Christian

0.6
0.5

23.9
23.0

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

1.3
1.6

0.9
1.0

2.7
3.1

0.8
1.0

8.3
4.8

All staff leaver distribution by religion and belief and reason for leaving (numbers): 31 March 2020
Religion and Belief (numbers)
Reason for leaving

Total

AtheistVoluntary
Redundancy
End FTC
Other Involuntary
Other

1,389
326
1,020
64
*

239
44
165
*
*

*
*
*
*
*

Grand Total

2,805

458

17

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

PreferNone not to say

339
97
217
17
*

19
*
13
*
*

13
*
*
*
*

25
13
36
*
*

12
*
*
*
*

93
21
118
*
*

499
107
283
24
*

142
29
158
*
*

*
*
*
*
*

671

37

24

75

23

234

913

337

16

N/A

Buddhist ChristianAll staff leaver distribution by religion and belief and reason for leaving (percentage): 31 March 2020
Religion and Belief (%)
Reason for leaving

AtheistBuddhist Christian

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

PreferNone not to say

Voluntary
Redundancy
End FTC
Other Involuntary
Other

17.2
13.5
16.2
14.1
*

*
*
*
*
*

24.4
29.8
21.3
26.6
*

1.4
*
1.3
*
*

0.9
*
*
*
*

1.8
4.0
3.5
*
*

0.9
*
*
*
*

6.7
6.4
11.6
*
*

35.9
32.8
27.7
37.5
*

10.2
8.9
15.5
*
*

*
*
*
*
*

Grand Total

16.3

0.6

23.9

1.3

0.9

2.7

0.8

8.3

32.5

12.0

0.7

PreferNone not to say

N/A

All staff internal mover distribution by religion and belief (numbers): 31 March 2020
Religion and Belief (numbers)
Internal move type

Total

AtheistBuddhist ChristianAttachment
Promotion
Transfer

1,086
685
1,552

190
165
280

*
*
11

Grand Total

3,323

635

15

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

272
131
356

13
*
23

*
*
*

28
13
34

10
10
14

41
22
63

416
267
483

96
53
185

*
13
94

759

42

21

75

34

126

1,166

334

116

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

242

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Religion and Belief (%)
Internal move type

AtheistBuddhist Christian

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

PreferNone not to say

N/A

Attachment
Promotion
Transfer

17.5
24.1
18.0

*
*
0.7

25.0
19.1
22.9

1.2
*
1.5

*
*
*

2.6
1.9
2.2

0.9
1.5
0.9

3.8
3.2
4.1

38.3
39.0
31.1

8.8
7.7
11.9

*
1.9
6.1

Grand Total

19.1

0.5

22.8

1.3

0.6

2.3

1.0

3.8

35.1

10.1

3.5

PreferNone not to say

N/A

All staff religion and belief distribution by contract type (numbers): 31 March 2020
Religion and Belief (numbers)
Contract type

Total

AtheistBuddhist ChristianContinuing
Fixed Term less than 1 yr
Fixed Term 1 yr +Flexicon19,933
1,448
393
18

3,293
291
65
*

116
*
*
*

Grand Total

21,792

3,653

126

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

5,586
356
89
*

260
13
*
*

174
15
*
*

515
30
14
*

130
*
*
*

605
70
14
*

7,566
443
116
*

1,656
205
57
*

32
*
16
*

6,036

280

192

559

148

691

8,131

1,919

57

PreferNone not to say

N/A

All staff religion and belief distribution by contract type (percentage): 31 March 2020
Religion and Belief (%)
Contract type

AtheistBuddhist Christian

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

Continuing
Fixed Term less than 1 yr
Fixed Term 1 yr +Flexicon

16.5
20.1
16.5
*

0.6
*
*
*

28.0
24.6
22.6
*

1.3
0.9
*
*

0.9
1.0
*
*

2.6
2.1
3.6
*

0.7
*
*
*

3.0
4.8
3.6
*

38.0
30.6
29.5
*

8.3
14.2
14.5
*

0.2
*
4.1
*

Grand Total

16.8

0.6

27.7

1.3

0.9

2.6

0.7

3.2

37.3

8.8

0.3

PreferNone not to say

N/A

All staff religion and belief distribution by length of service (numbers): 31 March 2020
Religion and Belief (numbers)
Length of service (yrs)

Total

AtheistBuddhist Christian

<1
1-<3
3-<5
5-<10
10+

2,338
3,741
2,216
3,874
9,623

450
741
439
734
1,289

11
35
14
18
48

Grand Total

21,792

3,653

126

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

557
925
636
1,171
2,747

42
62
45
58
73

25
32
20
32
83

71
113
58
157
160

22
28
26
21
51

96
110
89
134
262

723
1,171
689
1,250
4,298

318
494
199
297
611

23
30
*
*
*

6,036

280

192

559

148

691

8,131

1,919

57

PreferNone not to say

N/A

All staff religion and belief distribution by length of service (percentage): 31 March 2020
Religion and Belief (%)
Length of service (yrs)AtheistBuddhist Christian

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

<1
1-<3
3-<5
5-<10
10+

19.2
19.8
19.8
18.9
13.4

0.5
0.9
0.6
0.5
0.5

23.8
24.7
28.7
30.2
28.5

1.8
1.7
2.0
1.5
0.8

1.1
0.9
0.9
0.8
0.9

3.0
3.0
2.6
4.1
1.7

0.9
0.7
1.2
0.5
0.5

4.1
2.9
4.0
3.5
2.7

30.9
31.3
31.1
32.3
44.7

13.6
13.2
9.1
7.6
6.3

1.1
0.9
*
*
*

Grand Total

16.8

0.6

27.7

1.3

0.9

2.6

0.7

3.2

37.3

8.6

0.3

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

243

Additional Information

All staff internal mover distribution by religion and belief (percentage): 31 March 2020

Return to contents

Equality Information Report
School TypeAll staff socio-economic background (school type) distribution: 31 March 2020
School Type (numbers)

School Type (%)

A state-run orstate-fundedschool – selectiveon academic,
faith or othergroundIndependent or
fee-paying
school

A state-run orstate-fundedschool– non-selective

A state-run orstate-fundedschool – selectiveon academic,
faith or othergroundIndependent or
fee-paying
schoolTotal

A state-run orstate-fundedschool– non-selective

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

2,020
351
538
139
417
873
3,183
1,452
1,103

1,188
174
298
66
259
488
1,929
739
587

576
110
148
47
112
248
885
384
303

256
67
92
26
46
137
369
329
213

58.8
49.6
55.4
47.5
62.1
55.9
60.6
50.9
53.2

28.5
31.3
27.5
33.8
26.9
28.4
27.8
26.4
27.5

12.7
19.1
17.1
18.7
11.0
15.7
11.6
22.7
19.3

UK Public Service

10,076

5,728

2,813

1,535

56.8

27.9

15.3

578
764

288
407

168
190

122
167

49.8
53.3

29.1
24.9

21.1
21.8

1,342

695

358

289

51.8

26.7

21.5

World Service Group
Other

453
175

231
99

123
53

99
23

51.0
56.6

27.2
30.3

21.8
13.1

Other

628

330

176

122

52.5

28.0

19.5

12,046

6,753

3,347

1,946

56.1

27.8

16.1

Division

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution,
Branded Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)
BBC Studios

Grand Total

Leadership staff socio-economic background (school type) distribution: 31 March 2020
School Type (numbers)

School Type (%)

A state-run orstate-fundedschool – selectiveon academic,
faith or othergroundIndependent or
fee-paying
school

A state-run orstate-fundedschool– non-selective

A state-run orstate-fundedschool – selectiveon academic,
faith or othergroundIndependent or
fee-paying
schoolDivision

Total

A state-run orstate-fundedschool– non-selective

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

314
81
130
40
122
216
400
271
182

190
38
67
20
76
116
235
123
93

71
22
35
*
32
49
112
54
42

53
21
28
11
14
51
53
94
47

60.5
46.9
51.5
50.0
62.3
53.7
58.8
45.4
51.1

22.6
27.2
26.9
*
26.2
22.7
28.0
19.9
23.1

16.9
25.9
21.6
27.5
11.5
23.6
13.2
34.7
25.8

1,756

958

426

372

54.6

24.3

21.1

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution,
Branded Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

180
142

76
66

46
31

58
45

42.2
46.5

25.6
21.8

32.2
31.7

BBC Studios

322

142

77

103

44.1

23.9

32.0

World Service Group
Other

101
27

46
19

24
*

31
*

45.5
70.4

23.8
*

30.7
*

Other

128

65

29

34

50.8

22.7

26.5

2,206

1,165

532

509

52.8

24.1

23.1

UK Public Service

Grand Total

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

244

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Return to contents

School Type (numbers)

School Type (%)

Total

A state-run orstate-fundedschool– non-selective

A state-run orstate-fundedschool – selectiveon academic,
faith or othergroundIndependent or
fee-paying
schoolCommissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/Engineering
Not Allocated

147
5,362
526
2,807
3,135
69

78
2,956
273
1,558
1,861
27

37
1,419
151
824
893
23

32
987
102
425
381
19

53.1
55.1
51.9
55.5
59.4
39.1

25.2
26.5
28.7
29.4
28.5
33.3

21.7
18.4
19.4
15.1
12.1
27.6

Grand Total

12,046

6,753

3,347

1,946

56.1

27.8

16.1

Job family

A state-run orstate-funded
A state-run or school – selective
state-fundedon academic,
schoolfaith or other– non-selective
groundIndependent or
fee-paying
schoolLeadership staff socio-economic background (school type) distribution by job family: 31 March 2020
School Type (numbers)

School Type (%)

A state-run orstate-fundedschool – selectiveon academic,
faith or othergroundIndependent or
fee-paying
school

A state-run orstate-fundedschool– non-selective

A state-run orstate-fundedschool – selectiveon academic,
faith or othergroundIndependent or
fee-paying
schoolJob family

Total

A state-run orstate-fundedschool– non-selective

Commissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/Engineering
Not Allocated

100
912
104
738
332
20

52
475
53
381
197
*

24
207
24
192
80
*

24
230
27
165
55
*

52.0
52.1
51.0
51.6
59.3
*

24.0
22.7
23.1
26.0
24.1
*

24.0
25.2
25.9
22.4
16.6
*

2,206

1,165

532

509

52.8

24.1

23.1

Grand Total

All staff socio-economic background (school type) distribution by grade bands: 31 March 2020
School Type (numbers)

School Type (%)

Total

A state-run orstate-fundedschool– non-selective

A state-run orstate-fundedschool – selectiveon academic,
faith or othergroundIndependent or
fee-paying
school

A state-run orstate-fundedschool– non-selective

A state-run orstate-fundedschool – selectiveon academic,
faith or othergroundIndependent or
fee-paying
school

A
B
C
D
E
F
SL
Not Allocated

518
1,560
3,839
3,916
1,309
657
240
*

284
871
2,214
2,218
722
331
112
*

173
490
1,096
1,053
315
157
60
*

61
199
529
645
272
169
68
*

54.8
55.8
57.7
56.6
55.2
50.4
46.7
*

33.4
31.4
28.5
26.9
24.1
23.9
25.0
*

11.8
12.8
13.8
16.5
20.7
25.7
28.3
*

Grand Total

12,046

6,753

3,347

1,946

56.1

27.8

16.1

Grade band

All staff leaver and joiner distribution by socio-economic background (school type): 31 March 2020

Category

Total

A state-run orstate-fundedschool– non-selective

Leavers
Joiners

1,721
1,824

977
911

School Type (numbers)

School Type (%)

A state-run orstate-fundedschool – selectiveon academic,
faith or othergroundIndependent or
fee-paying
school

A state-run orstate-fundedschool– non-selective

A state-run orstate-fundedschool – selectiveon academic,
faith or othergroundIndependent or
fee-paying
school

470
641

274
272

56.8
49.9

27.3
35.1

15.9
15.0

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

245

Additional Information

All staff socio-economic background (school type) distribution by job family: 31 March 2020

Return to contents

Equality Information Report
All staff leaver distribution by socio-economic background (school type) and reason for leaving: 31 March 2020
School Type (numbers)

School Type (%)

A state-run orstate-fundedschool – selectiveon academic,
faith or othergroundIndependent or
fee-paying
school

A state-run orstate-funded
A state-run or school – selective
state-fundedon academic,
schoolfaith or other– non-selective
groundReason for leaving

Total

A state-run orstate-fundedschool– non-selective

Voluntary
Redundancy
End FTC
Other Involuntary
Other

795
203
687
33
*

433
119
407
16
*

217
54
189
10
*

145
30
91
*
*

54.5
58.6
59.2
48.5
*

27.3
26.6
27.5
30.3
*

18.2
14.8
13.3
*
*

1,721

977

470

274

56.8

27.3

15.9

Grand Total

Independent or
fee-paying
schoolAll staff internal mover distribution by socio-economic background (school type): 31 March 2020
School Type (numbers)

School Type (%)

A state-run orstate-fundedschool – selectiveon academic,
faith or othergroundIndependent or
fee-paying
school

A state-run orstate-funded
A state-run or school – selective
state-fundedon academic,
schoolfaith or other– non-selective
groundInternal move type

Total

A state-run orstate-fundedschool– non-selective

Attachment
Promotion
Transfer

606
382
887

361
230
461

136
108
286

109
44
140

59.6
60.2
52.0

22.4
28.3
32.2

18.0
11.5
15.8

Grand Total

1,875

1,052

530

293

56.1

28.3

15.6

Independent or
fee-paying
schoolAll staff socio-economic background (school type) distribution by contract type: 31 March 2020
School Type (numbers)

School Type (%)

A state-run orstate-fundedschool – selectiveon academic,
faith or othergroundIndependent or
fee-paying
school

A state-run orstate-funded
A state-run or school – selective
state-fundedon academic,
schoolfaith or other– non-selective
groundTotal

A state-run orstate-fundedschool– non-selective

Continuing
Fixed Term less than 1 yr
Fixed Term 1 yr +Flexicon

10,841
948
252
*

6,176
459
115
*

2,922
333
91
*

1,743
156
46
*

57.0
48.4
45.6
*

27.0
35.1
36.1
*

16.0
16.5
18.3
*

Grand Total

12,046

6,753

3,347

1,946

56.1

27.8

16.1

Contract type

Independent or
fee-paying
schoolAll staff socio-economic background (school type) distribution by length of service: 31 March 2020
School Type (numbers)

School Type (%)

Total

A state-run orstate-fundedschool– non-selective

A state-run orstate-fundedschool – selectiveon academic,
faith or othergroundIndependent or
fee-paying
school

<1
1-<3
3-<5
5-<10
10+

1,543
2,402
1,035
2,100
4,966

760
1,296
646
1,256
2,795

545
744
249
495
1,314

238
362
140
349
857

49.3
54.0
62.4
59.8
56.3

35.3
31.0
24.1
23.6
26.5

15.4
15.0
13.5
16.6
17.2

Grand Total

12,046

6,753

3,347

1,946

56.1

27.8

16.1

Length of service (yrs)

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

246

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

A state-run orstate-funded
A state-run or school – selective
state-fundedon academic,
schoolfaith or other– non-selective
groundIndependent or
fee-paying
schoolReturn to contents

Parental Degree(numbers)
Division

Parental Degree (%)

Total

Yes

No

Yes

No

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

2,221
387
537
150
423
906
3,105
1,600
1,117

1,200
224
258
87
192
456
1,484
897
628

1,021
163
279
63
231
450
1,621
703
489

54.0
57.9
48.0
58.0
45.4
50.3
47.8
56.1
56.2

46.0
42.1
52.0
42.0
54.6
49.7
52.2
43.9
43.8

UK Public Service

10,446

5,426

5,020

51.9

48.1

636
781

368
447

268
334

57.9
57.2

42.1
42.8

1,417

815

602

57.5

42.5

World Service Group
Other

722
169

455
83

267
86

63.0
49.1

37.0
50.9

Other

891

538

353

60.4

39.6

12,754

6,779

5,975

53.2

46.8

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution, Branded Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)
BBC Studios

Grand Total
Leadership staff socio-economic background (parental degree) distribution: 31 March 2020

Parental Degree(numbers)

Parental Degree (%)

Division

Total

Yes

No

Yes

No

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

351
88
132
42
135
232
406
301
187

203
47
67
21
67
126
191
183
99

148
41
65
21
68
106
215
118
88

57.8
53.4
50.8
50.0
49.6
54.3
47.0
60.8
52.9

42.2
46.6
49.2
50.0
50.4
45.7
53.0
39.2
47.1

1,874

1,004

870

53.6

46.4

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution, Branded Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

208
148

123
83

85
65

59.1
56.1

40.9
43.9

BBC Studios

356

206

150

57.9

42.1

World Service Group
Other

144
26

92
11

52
15

63.9
42.3

36.1
57.7

Other

170

103

67

60.6

39.4

2,400

1,313

1,087

54.7

45.3

UK Public Service

Grand Total

All staff socio-economic background (parental degree) distribution by job family: 31 March 2020
Parental Degree(numbers)
Job family

Parental Degree (%)

Total

Yes

No

Yes

No

Commissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/Engineering
Not Allocated

150
5,674
561
2,963
3,328
78

76
3,121
337
1,474
1,714
57

74
2,553
224
1,489
1,614
21

50.7
55.0
60.1
49.7
51.5
73.1

49.3
45.0
39.9
50.3
48.5
26.9

Grand Total

12,754

6,779

5,975

53.2

46.8

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

247

Additional Information

Parental Degree
All staff socio-economic background (parental degree) distribution: 31 March 2020

Return to contents

Equality Information Report
Leadership staff socio-economic background (parental degree) distribution by job family: 31 March 2020
Parental Degree(numbers)

Parental Degree (%)

Job family

Total

Yes

No

Yes

No

Commissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/Engineering
Not Allocated

103
989
112
810
366
20

54
542
60
446
200
11

49
447
52
364
166
*

52.4
54.8
53.6
55.1
54.6
55.0

47.6
45.2
46.4
44.9
45.4
*

2,400

1,313

1,087

54.7

45.3

Grand Total

All staff socio-economic background (parental degree) distribution by grade bands: 31 March 2020
Parental Degree(numbers)
Grade band

Parental Degree (%)

Total

Yes

No

Yes

No

A
B
C
D
E
F
SL
Not Allocated

524
1,581
4,069
4,172
1,428
712
260
*

272
779
2,170
2,237
787
374
152
*

252
802
1,899
1,935
641
338
108
*

51.9
49.3
53.3
53.6
55.1
52.5
58.5
*

48.1
50.7
46.7
46.4
44.9
47.5
41.5
*

Grand Total

12,754

6,779

5,975

53.2

46.8

All staff leaver and joiner distribution by socio-economic background (parental degree): 31 March 2020
Parental Degree(numbers)

Parental Degree (%)

Category

Total

Yes

No

Yes

No

Leavers
Joiners

1,841
1,938

1,045
815

796
1,123

56.8
42.1

43.2
57.9

All staff leaver distribution by socio-economic background (parental degree) and reason for leaving: 31 March 2020
Parental Degree(numbers)

Parental Degree (%)

Reason for leaving

Total

Yes

No

Yes

No

Voluntary
Redundancy
End FTC
Other Involuntary
Other

877
212
714
34
*

529
93
407
15
*

348
119
307
19
*

60.3
43.9
57.0
44.1
*

39.7
56.1
43.0
55.9
*

1,841

1,045

796

56.8

43.2

Grand Total

All staff internal mover distribution by socio-economic background (parental degree): 31 March 2020
Parental Degree(numbers)

Parental Degree (%)

Internal move type

Total

Yes

No

Yes

No

Attachment
Promotion
Transfer

639
410
929

338
238
527

301
172
402

52.9
58.0
56.7

47.1
42.0
43.3

Grand Total

1,978

1,103

875

55.8

44.2

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

248

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Parental Degree(numbers)
Contract type

Parental Degree (%)

Total

Yes

No

Yes

No

Continuing
Fixed Term less than 1 yr
Fixed Term 1 yr +Flexicon11,507
994
248
*

6,040
589
147
*

5,467
405
101
*

52.5
59.3
59.3
*

47.5
40.7
40.7
*

Grand Total

12,754

6,779

5,975

53.2

46.8

All staff socio-economic background (parental degree) distribution by length of service: 31 March 2020
Parental Degree(numbers)
Length of service (yrs)

Parental Degree (%)

Total

Yes

No

Yes

No

<1
1-<3
3-<5
5-<10
10+

1,645
2,563
1,121
2,252
5,173

963
1,466
603
1,234
2,513

682
1,097
518
1,018
2,660

58.5
57.2
53.8
54.8
48.6

41.5
42.8
46.2
45.2
51.4

Grand Total

12,754

6,779

5,975

53.2

46.8

Parental Occupation
All staff socio-economic background (parental occupation) distribution: 31 March 2020
Parental Occupation (numbers)

Total

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

Intermediate
occupations

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

2,277
380
547
149
439
906
3,146
1,589
1,114

1,381
239
331
104
241
494
1,781
1,046
700

UK Public Service

10,547

Division

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution,
Branded Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

Parental Occupation (%)

Routine andmanualoccupations

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

Intermediate
occupations

Routine andmanualoccupations

275
54
68
17
53
150
423
197
152

621
87
148
28
145
262
942
346
262

60.6
62.9
60.5
69.8
54.9
54.5
56.6
65.8
62.8

12.1
14.2
12.4
11.4
12.1
16.6
13.4
12.4
13.6

27.3
22.9
27.1
18.8
33.0
28.9
30.0
21.8
23.6

6,317

1,389

2,841

59.9

13.2

26.9

638
775

432
490

87
104

119
181

67.7
63.2

13.6
13.4

18.7
23.4

1,413

922

191

300

65.3

13.5

21.2

World Service Group
Other

718
174

524
102

63
21

131
51

73.0
58.6

8.8
12.1

18.2
29.3

Other

892

626

84

182

70.2

9.4

20.4

12,852

7,865

1,664

3,323

61.2

12.9

25.9

BBC Studios

Grand Total

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

249

Additional Information

All staff socio-economic background (parental degree) distribution by contract type: 31 March 2020

Return to contents

Equality Information Report
Leadership staff socio-economic background (parental occupation) distribution: 31 March 2020
Parental Occupation (numbers)

Parental Occupation (%)

Division

Total

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

351
86
131
39
136
230
403
293
187

233
57
76
28
81
132
237
198
107

46
10
17
*
17
44
49
35
27

72
19
38
11
38
54
117
60
53

66.4
66.3
58.0
66.7
59.6
57.4
58.8
67.6
57.2

13.1
11.6
13.0
*
12.5
19.1
12.2
11.9
14.4

20.5
22.1
29.0
26.2
27.9
23.5
29.0
20.5
28.4

1,859

1,149

248

462

61.8

13.3

24.9

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution,
Branded Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

205
143

145
96

23
14

37
33

70.7
67.1

11.2
9.8

18.1
23.1

BBC Studios

348

241

37

70

69.3

10.6

20.1

World Service Group
Other

143
16

109
16

15
*

19
*

76.2
57.1

10.5
*

13.3
*

Other

171

125

19

27

73.1

11.1

15.8

2,378

1,515

304

559

63.7

12.8

23.5

UK Public Service

Grand Total

Intermediate
occupations

Routine andmanualoccupations

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

Intermediate
occupations

Routine andmanualoccupations

All staff socio-economic background (parental occupation) distribution by job family: 31 March 2020
Parental Occupation (numbers)

Job familyCommissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/Engineering
Not AllocatedGrand Total

Total

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

Intermediate
occupations

151
5,677
565
2,969
3,416
74

91
3,627
367
1,712
2,006
62

12,852

7,865

Parental Occupation (%)

Routine andmanualoccupations

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

Intermediate
occupations

Routine andmanualoccupations

14
714
69
427
434
*

46
1,336
129
830
976
*

60.3
63.9
65.0
57.7
58.7
83.8

9.3
12.6
12.2
14.4
12.7
*

30.4
23.5
22.8
27.9
28.6
*

1,664

3,323

61.2

12.9

25.9

Leadership staff socio-economic background (parental occupation) distribution by job family: 31 March 2020
Parental Occupation (numbers)

Parental Occupation (%)

Job family

Total

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

Commissioning
Programming
Sales/Marketing
Support/Admin
Technical/Engineering
Not Allocated

105
971
114
798
371
19

62
611
78
511
234
19

10
124
13
107
50
*

33
236
23
180
87
*

59.0
62.9
68.4
64.0
63.1
100.0

9.5
12.8
11.4
13.4
13.5
*

31.5
24.3
20.2
22.6
23.4
*

2,378

1,515

304

559

63.7

12.8

23.5

Grand Total

Intermediate
occupations

Routine andmanualoccupations

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

Intermediate
occupations

Routine andmanualoccupations

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

250

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Parental Occupation (numbers)

Parental Occupation (%)

Total

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

A
B
C
D
E
F
SL
Not Allocated

513
1,597
4,129
4,228
1,418
709
251
*

298
910
2,531
2,604
896
454
165
*

76
252
509
523
171
95
38
*

139
435
1,089
1,101
351
160
48
*

58.1
57.0
61.3
61.6
63.2
64.0
65.7
*

14.8
15.8
12.3
12.4
12.1
13.4
15.1
*

27.1
27.2
26.4
26.0
24.7
22.6
19.2
*

Grand Total

12,852

7,865

1,664

3,323

61.2

12.9

25.9

Grade band

Intermediate
occupations

Routine andmanualoccupations

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

Intermediate
occupations

Routine andmanualoccupations

All staff leaver and joiner distribution by socio-economic background (parental occupation): 31 March 2020
Parental Occupation (numbers)

Category

Total

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

Leavers
Joiners

1,847
1,959

1,145
1,246

Intermediate
occupations

221
266

Parental Occupation (%)

Routine andmanualoccupations

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

Intermediate
occupations

Routine andmanualoccupations

481
447

62.0
63.6

12.0
13.6

26.0
22.8

All staff leaver distribution by socio-economic background (parental occupation) and reason for leaving: 31 March 2020
Parental Occupation (numbers)

Parental Occupation (%)

Reason for leaving

Total

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

Voluntary
Redundancy
End FTC
Other Involuntary
Other

893
210
707
34
*

568
117
440
19
*

106
29
83
*
*

219
64
184
13
*

63.6
55.7
62.2
55.9
*

11.9
13.8
11.7
*
*

24.5
30.5
26.1
38.2
*

1,847

1,145

221

481

62.0

12.0

26.0

Grand Total

Intermediate
occupations

Routine andmanualoccupations

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

Intermediate
occupations

Routine andmanualoccupations

All staff internal mover distribution by socio-economic background (parental occupation) and reason for leaving: 31 March 2020
Parental Occupation (numbers)

Parental Occupation (%)

Internal move type

Total

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

Attachment
Promotion
Transfer

645
420
943

394
270
610

105
51
141

146
99
192

61.1
64.3
64.7

16.3
12.1
15.0

22.6
23.6
20.3

Grand Total

2,008

1,274

297

437

63.4

14.8

21.8

Intermediate
occupations

Routine andmanualoccupations

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

Intermediate
occupations

Routine andmanualoccupations

All staff socio-economic background (parental occupation) distribution by contract type: 31 March 2020
Parental Occupation (numbers)

Parental Occupation (%)

Total

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

Continuing
Fixed Term less than 1 yr
Fixed Term 1 yr +Flexicon11,586
1,004
257
*

7,058
644
161
*

1,484
146
34
*

3,044
214
62
*

60.9
64.1
62.6
*

12.8
14.5
13.2
*

26.3
21.4
24.2
*

Grand Total

12,852

7,865

1,664

3,323

61.2

12.9

25.9

Contract typeIntermediate
occupations

Routine andmanualoccupations

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

Intermediate
occupations

Routine andmanualoccupations

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

251

Additional Information

All staff socio-economic background (parental occupation) distribution by grade bands: 31 March 2020

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Equality Information Report
All staff socio-economic background (parental occupation) distribution by length of service: 31 March 2020
Parental Occupation (numbers)

Parental Occupation (%)

Total

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

<1
1-<3
3-<5
5-<10
10+

1,664
2,580
1,150
2,267
5,191

1,077
1,693
696
1,410
2,989

229
303
147
287
698

358
584
307
570
1,504

64.7
65.6
60.5
62.2
57.6

13.8
11.7
12.8
12.7
13.4

21.5
22.7
26.7
25.1
29.0

Grand Total

12,852

7,865

1,664

3,323

61.2

12.9

25.9

Length of service (yrs)Intermediate
occupations

Routine andmanualoccupations

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

Intermediate
occupations

Routine andmanualoccupations

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

252

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Additional Information

Freelance (reporting is shown separately for our staff and freelancers)
Percentages for gender, age and religion and belief data in this section are calculated as a proportion of the total freelancer population.
For all other characteristics, where some freelancers have chosen not to provide data, percentages are calculated as a proportion of the
known population who declared a response for that characteristic. This aligns with the methodology used in the BBC’s Diversity andInclusion Strategy 2016-2020.
Freelance age distribution by division: 31 March 2020
Age band (numbers)
Division

BBC Design &Engineering
Chief Customer
Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy &External Affairs
Finance &Operations
Managing Director
Group
Nations andRegions
News and Current
Affairs
Radio and
Education
UK Public Service

Age band (%)

Total

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

<20

20-29

30-39

40-49

50-59

60+

46

*

*

12

10

*

13

*

*

26.1

21.7

*

28.3

488
699

*
*

100
205

170
190

127
168

63
106

24
27

*
*

20.5
29.3

34.8
27.2

26.0
24.0

12.9
15.2

5.0
3.9

48

*

*

12

12

*

11

*

*

25.0

25.0

*

22.9

35

*

*

12

*

*

*

*

*

34.3

*

*

*

189

*

14

16

51

64

44

*

7.4

8.5

27.0

33.9

23.2

3,286

52

919

627

652

571

465

1.6

28.0

19.1

19.8

17.4

14.1

1,378

*

348

355

296

245

130

*

25.3

25.8

21.5

17.8

9.3

1,724

*

539

392

370

273

141

*

31.3

22.7

21.5

15.8

8.2

7,893

72

2,140

1,786

1,691

1,347

857

0.9

27.1

22.6

21.4

17.1

10.9

319

*

58

101

98

50

11

*

18.2

31.7

30.7

15.7

3.4

BBC Studios (Sales& Distribution,
Branded Services &Management)
BBC Studios (TV &Radio Production)

6,166

38

1,535

1,621

1,480

1,013

479

0.6

24.9

26.3

24.0

16.4

7.8

BBC Studios

6,485

39

1,593

1,722

1,578

1,063

490

0.6

24.6

26.6

24.3

16.4

7.5

World Service
Group
Other

510
265

*
*

101
49

155
43

116
78

85
56

53
35

*
*

19.8
18.5

30.4
16.2

22.7
29.4

16.7
21.1

10.4
13.3

Other

775

*

150

198

194

141

88

*

19.4

25.5

25.0

18.2

11.4

15,153

115

3,883

3,706

3,463

2,551

1,435

0.8

25.6

24.5

22.9

16.8

9.4

Grand Total

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

253

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Equality Information Report
Freelance disability distribution by division: 31 March 2020
Disability (numbers)

Disability (%)

Division

Total

Disabled

Not
Disabled

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

38
328
513
35
32
139
2,410
994
1,175

*
12
43
*
*
*
179
72
102

37
316
470
34
28
132
2,231
922
1,073

*
3.7
8.4
*
*
*
7.4
7.2
8.7

97.4
96.3
91.6
97.1
87.5
95.0
92.6
92.8
91.3

UK Public Service

5,664

421

5,243

7.4

92.6

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution, Branded Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

262
3,800

31
250

231
3,550

11.8
6.6

88.2
93.4

BBC Studios

4,062

281

3,781

6.9

93.1

World Service Group
Other

414
152

22
10

392
142

5.3
6.6

94.7
93.4

Other

566

32

534

5.7

94.3

10,292

734

9,558

7.1

92.9

Other
BAME

White
British

Other
White
Background

Grand Total

Disabled

Not
Disabled

Freelance ethnicity distribution by division (numbers): 31 March 2020
Ethnicity band (numbers)

Division

Mixed
Black Ethnicity

Total

BAME

Asian

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

37
406
579
41
31
126
2,603
987
1,382

*
51
112
*
*
15
225
170
146

*
13
32
*
*
*
80
53
49

*
19
31
*
*
*
75
45
41

*
15
39
*
*
*
60
48
49

*
*
10
*
*
*
10
24
*

32
313
427
35
29
107
2,173
692
1,163

*
42
40
*
*
*
205
125
73

UK Public Service

6,192

727

239

217

215

56

4,971

494

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution, Branded Services &Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

293
5,105

37
419

11
100

11
130

14
165

*
24

234
4,359

22
327

BBC Studios

5,398

456

111

141

179

25

4,593

349

World Service Group
Other

425
205

236
23

51
*

52
*

25
*

108
*

149
167

40
15

Other

630

259

56

59

31

113

316

55

12,220

1,442

406

417

425

194

9,880

898

Grand Total

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

254

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Ethnicity band (%)

MixedBlack Ethnicity

Other
BAME

White
British

Other
White
Background

Division

BAME

Asian

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

*
12.6
19.3
*
*
11.9
8.6
17.2
10.6

*
3.2
5.5
*
*
*
3.1
5.4
3.5

*
4.7
5.4
*
*
*
2.9
4.6
3.0

*
3.7
6.7
*
*
*
2.3
4.9
3.5

*
*
1.7
*
*
*
0.4
2.4
*

86.5
77.1
73.8
85.4
93.5
84.9
83.5
70.1
84.2

*
10.3
6.9
*
*
*
7.9
12.7
5.2

UK Public Service

11.7

3.9

3.5

3.5

0.9

80.3

8.0

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution, Branded Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

12.6
8.2

3.8
2.0

3.8
2.5

4.8
3.2

*
0.5

79.9
85.4

7.5
6.4

BBC Studios

8.4

2.1

2.6

3.3

0.5

85.1

6.5

World Service Group
Other

55.5
11.2

12.0
*

12.2
*

5.9
*

25.4
*

35.1
81.5

9.4
7.3

Other

41.1

8.9

9.4

4.9

17.9

50.2

8.7

Grand Total

11.8

3.3

3.4

3.5

1.6

80.9

7.3

Freelance gender distribution by division: 31 March 2020
Gender band
(numbers)
Division

Gender band (%)

Total

FemaleMale

FemaleMale

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

46
488
699
48
35
189
3,286
1,378
1,724

*
210
257
36
25
93
1,332
645
875

37
278
442
12
10
96
1,954
733
849

*
43.0
36.8
75.0
71.4
49.2
40.5
46.8
50.8

80.4
57.0
63.2
25.0
28.6
50.8
59.5
53.2
49.2

UK Public Service

7,893

3,482

4,411

44.1

55.9

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution, Branded Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

319
6,166

127
2,700

192
3,466

39.8
43.8

60.2
56.2

BBC Studios

6,485

2,827

3,658

43.6

56.4

World Service Group
Other

510
265

268
79

242
186

52.5
29.8

47.5
70.2

Other

775

347

428

44.8

55.2

15,153

6,656

8,497

43.9

56.1

Grand Total

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

255

Additional Information

Freelance ethnicity distribution by division (percentage): 31 March 2020

Return to contents

Equality Information Report
Freelance sexual orientation and gender identity distribution by division (numbers): 31 March 2020
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (numbers)

Total

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbianHeterosexual/straight

PreferOther not to say

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

46
488
699
48
35
189
3,286
1,378
1,724

*
*
19
*
*
*
76
42
47

*
14
16
*
*
*
76
42
53

*
*
*
*
*
*
26
10
15

26
315
434
28
27
86
2,026
658
1,014

*
25
46
*
*
13
153
88
91

10
68
82
*
*
24
335
204
224

*
56
94
*
*
57
594
334
280

*
*
15
*
*
*
58
28
26

*
52
96
12
*
23
380
205
227

UK Public Service

7,893

195

209

67

4,614

426

951

1,431

134

1,003

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution, Branded
Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

319
6,166

*
128

17
184

*
64

206
3,752

26
298

36
976

19
764

*
94

66
742

BBC Studios

6,485

137

201

70

3,958

324

1,012

783

103

808

510
265

12
*

*
*

*
*

310
166

34
*

88
37

59
49

*
*

61
15

Division

World Service Group
Other
Other
Grand Total

775

13

*

*

476

39

125

108

11

76

15,153

345

417

144

9,048

789

2,088

2,322

248

1,887

N/A

Transgender

LGBTQ+

Freelance sexual orientation and gender identity distribution by division (percentage): 31 March 2020
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity (%)

Bisexual

Gay manGaywoman/
lesbian

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

*
*
2.7
*
*
*
2.3
3.0
2.7

*
2.9
2.3
*
*
*
2.3
3.0
3.1

*
*
*
*
*
*
0.8
0.7
0.9

56.5
64.5
62.1
58.3
77.1
45.5
61.7
47.8
58.8

*
5.1
6.6
*
*
6.9
4.7
6.4
5.3

21.7
13.9
11.7
*
*
12.7
10.2
14.8
13.0

*
11.5
13.4
*
*
30.2
18.1
24.2
16.2

*
*
2.1
*
*
*
1.8
2.0
1.5

16.1
14.3
18.3
30.8
10.0
21.3
16.1
24.2
18.5

Division

Heterosexual/straight

PreferOther not to say

UK Public Service

2.5

2.6

0.8

58.5

5.4

12.0

18.1

1.7

18.1

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution, Branded Services &Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

*
2.1

5.3
3.0

*
1.0

64.6
60.8

8.2
4.8

11.2
15.9

6.0
12.4

*
1.5

24.7
16.7

BBC Studios

2.1

3.1

1.1

61.0

5.0

15.6

12.1

1.6

17.2

World Service Group
Other

2.4
*

*
*

*
*

60.8
62.6

6.7
*

17.3
14.0

11.6
18.5

*
*

16.7
8.3

Other

1.7

*

*

61.4

5.0

16.1

13.9

1.4

13.9

Grand Total

2.3

2.8

1.0

59.7

5.2

13.8

15.3

1.6

17.5

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
The percentages for each individual group in the sexual orientation and gender identity tables are calculated as a proportion of the total BBC staff population; the total LGBTQ+ figure is
calculated as a proportion of the known population excluding those who have chosen not to declare or where data is missing* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

256

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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Religion and Belief (numbers)
Division

Total

AtheistBuddhist Christian

46

*

*

PreferNone not to say

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

N/A

*

*

*

*

*

*

11

*

*

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer
Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External
Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

488
699

55
60

*
*

71
103

*
*

*
*

*
10

*
*

100
147

137
168

64
98

56
95

48
35
189
3,286
1,378
1,724

*
*
13
182
125
174

*
*
*
*
*
*

*
*
28
529
129
239

*
*
*
*
*
*

*
*
*
*
*
10

*
*
*
22
13
*

*
*
*
*
*
10

12
17
32
815
281
342

10
*
33
756
273
437

*
*
21
366
207
214

*
*
56
589
328
278

UK Public Service

7,893

620

21

1,115

24

32

55

34

1,755

1,833

985

1,419

BBC Studios (Sales &Distribution, Branded
Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio
Production)

319

32

*

17

*

*

*

*

96

102

49

18

6,166

646

27

881

*

37

19

18

1,119

1,738

916

758

BBC Studios

6,485

678

27

898

8

39

19

20

1,215

1,840

965

776

World Service Group
Other

510
265

47
25

*
*

48
54

*
*

*
*

41
*

*
*

130
34

94
59

89
43

56
47

Other

775

72

*

102

*

*

41

*

164

153

132

103

15,153

1,370

51

2,115

34

74

115

54

3,134

3,826

2,082

2,298

Grand Total

Freelance religion and belief distribution (percentage): 31 March 2020
Religion and Belief (%)
Division

AtheistBuddhist Christian

Hindu

JewishMuslim

Sikh

Other

PreferNone not to say

N/A

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

*
11.3
8.6
*
*
6.9
5.5
9.1
10.1

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

*
14.5
14.7
*
*
14.8
16.1
9.4
13.9

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
0.6

*
*
1.4
*
*
*
0.7
0.9
*

*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
0.6

*
20.5
21.0
25.0
48.6
16.9
24.8
20.4
19.8

23.9
28.1
24.0
20.8
*
17.5
23.0
19.8
25.3

*
13.1
14.0
*
*
11.1
11.1
15.0
12.4

*
11.5
13.7
*
*
29.6
17.9
23.8
16.2

UK Public Service

7.9

0.3

14.1

0.3

0.4

0.7

0.4

22.2

23.2

12.5

18.0

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution,
Branded Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

10.0
10.5

*
0.4

5.3
14.3

*
*

*
0.6

*
0.3

*
0.3

30.1
18.1

32.0
28.2

15.4
14.9

5.7
12.3

BBC Studios

10.5

0.4

13.8

0.1

0.6

0.3

0.3

18.7

28.4

14.9

12.0

World Service Group
Other

9.2
9.4

*
*

9.4
20.4

*
*

*
*

8.0
*

*
*

25.5
12.8

18.4
22.3

17.5
16.2

11.0
17.7

Other

9.3

*

13.2

*

*

5.3

*

21.2

19.7

17.0

13.2

Grand Total

9.0

0.3

14.0

0.2

0.5

0.8

0.4

20.7

25.2

13.7

15.2

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

257

Additional Information

Freelance religion and belief distribution (numbers): 31 March 2020

Return to contents

Equality Information Report
Freelance socio-economic background (school type) distribution: 31 March 2020
School Type (numbers)

School Type (%)

Total

A state-run orstate-fundedschool– non-selective

A state-run orstate-fundedschool – selectiveon academic,
faith or othergroundIndependent or
fee-paying
schoolBBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

19
211
354
24
29
79
1,666
581
812

14
165
253
14
24
49
1,298
416
634

*
21
43
*
*
10
165
42
70

*
25
58
*
*
20
203
123
108

73.7
78.2
71.5
58.3
82.8
62.0
77.9
71.6
78.1

*
10.0
12.1
*
*
12.7
9.9
7.2
8.6

*
11.8
16.4
*
*
25.3
12.2
21.2
13.3

UK Public Service

3,775

2,867

358

550

75.9

9.5

14.6

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution,
Branded Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

199
2,434

152
1,812

15
198

32
424

76.4
74.4

7.5
8.1

16.1
17.5

BBC Studios

2,633

1,964

213

456

74.6

8.1

17.3

World Service Group
Other

156
68

98
48

22
11

36
*

62.8
70.6

14.1
16.2

23.1
*

Other

224

146

33

45

65.2

14.7

20.1

6,632

4,977

604

1,051

75.0

9.1

15.9

DivisionGrand Total

A state-run orstate-funded
A state-run or school – selective
state-fundedon academic,
schoolfaith or other– non-selective
groundIndependent or
fee-paying
schoolFreelance socio-economic background (parental degree) distribution: 31 March 2020
Parental Degree(numbers)
Division

Parental Degree (%)

Total

Yes

No

Yes

No

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

18
213
355
24
29
76
1,609
656
795

10
99
192
10
12
37
804
394
418

*
114
163
14
17
39
805
262
377

55.6
46.5
54.1
41.7
41.4
48.7
50.0
60.1
52.6

*
53.5
45.9
58.3
58.6
51.3
50.0
39.9
47.4

UK Public Service

3,775

1,976

1,799

52.3

47.7

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution, Branded Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

208
2,380

124
1,260

84
1,120

59.6
52.9

40.4
47.1

BBC Studios

2,588

1,384

1,204

53.5

46.5

World Service Group
Other

260
63

162
37

98
26

62.3
58.7

37.7
41.3

Other

323

199

124

61.6

38.4

6,686

3,559

3,127

53.2

46.8

Grand Total

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

258

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Parental Occupation (numbers)

Parental Occupation (%)

Total

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

BBC Design & Engineering
Chief Customer Officer Group
Content
Corporate, Policy & External Affairs
Finance & Operations
Managing Director Group
Nations and Regions
News and Current Affairs
Radio and Education

20
218
352
24
29
75
1,652
637
797

12
137
222
12
18
52
1,000
440
480

*
21
53
*
*
*
193
68
93

*
60
77
*
*
14
459
129
224

60.0
62.8
63.1
50.0
62.1
69.3
60.5
69.1
60.2

*
9.6
15.1
*
*
*
11.7
10.7
11.7

*
27.6
21.8
*
*
18.7
27.8
20.2
28.1

UK Public Service

3,804

2,373

446

985

62.4

11.7

25.9

BBC Studios (Sales & Distribution,
Branded Services & Management)
BBC Studios (TV & Radio Production)

209
2,377

144
1,521

20
267

45
589

68.9
64.0

9.6
11.2

21.5
24.8

BBC Studios

2,586

1,665

287

634

64.4

11.1

24.5

World Service Group
Other

258
63

193
43

20
*

45
11

74.8
68.3

7.8
*

17.4
17.4

Other

321

236

29

56

73.5

9.0

17.5

6,711

4,274

762

1,675

63.7

11.4

24.9

DivisionGrand Total

Intermediate
occupations

Routine andmanualoccupations

Highermanagerial andprofessional
occupations

Intermediate
occupations

Routine andmanualoccupations

All staff data reflects UK-based employee contracts only.
Leadership is defined as Band E and above.
Totals for each characteristic differ due to varying disclosure rates.
* Data has been replaced with an asterisk where figures are below sample size.

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

259

Additional Information

Freelance socio-economic background (parental occupation) distribution: 31 March 2020

Return to contents

Index
Subject index

Page number

Access services

130

Audience accountability

65

BBC Global News40-41, 56, 104

BBC Studios

40-41, 52-55, 104

BBC Studioworks

57, 104

BBC World Service

40-41, 50

Chairman’s message

06-07

Charitable work

67

Commercial Operations

51-57, 104

Committee reports

71-80, 90-110

Consultations

64

Content spend by service – by nation

140-156

Content spend by service – network

137-139

Coronavirus response

04-05

Corporate compliance72

Developing our people

59-63

Director-General’s statement

08

Diversity and inclusion

37-39, 222-259

Efficiency savings

47

Environmental sustainability

66

Financial statements

158-221

Human rights

58

Licence fee income and expenditure

42-50

Market context

16-17

Nations and regions

32-39, 107-108, 140-156

Partnerships

68

Pay disclosures

81-88

Performance against public commitments

113-135

Public purposes

18-41

Reach by service

137-139

Remuneration – BBC Board

77

Remuneration – BBC senior managers

78, 85-88

Risks and opportunities

95-102Service performance137-139

Severance pay

62

Staff – headcount and location

31, 60-61

Strategy

10-17

Talent costs

62

Time spent with each service

137-139

Trading fairly

109-110Viability statement

260

103

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

Return to contents

Copyright and photographer credits
Page 40
BBC News – BBC/Phil Coomes

Contents page
Seven Worlds, One Planet – BBC Studios

Page 41
BBC News – BBCThe Trial of Christine Keeler – BBC/Ecosse Films/Ben Blackall

Page 42
Upstart Crow – BBC/Colin Hutton

Page 2
BBC iPlayer – BBC

Killing Eve – Sid Gentle/BBC America

Page 3
Travelling Blind – BBC/Spun Gold

Page 43
Glyn Isherwood – BBC/Emma Lynch

Page 4

Page 45
Central Square broadcast centre – BBC

BBC News Online – BBCPage 5
Big Night In – BBC/Comic Relief/Children In Need
Culture in Quarantine – BBC/Birmingham Royal Ballet
BBC Bitesize – BBCPage 7
Sir David Clementi – BBC/Emma Lynch
Page 8Tim Davie – BBCPage 9BBC News – BBCPage 10
Line of Duty – BBC/World Productions Ltd
Page 12
Killing Eve – Sid Gentle/BBC America
Page 13
Brexitcast – BBCPage 14
BBC News – BBCPage 15
Election 2019 – BBC/Jeff Overs
Page 17
RuPaul’s Drag race UK – BBC/World of Wonder/Guy Levy
Page 21
Newsnight – BBC/Mark Harrison
Page 22A Week to Beat the World – BBC/Rumpus Media
Page 23
Super Movers – BBCPage 24
His Dark Materials – BBC/Bad Wolf/HBO
Page 25
Have You Heard George’s Podcast? – BBCPage 48
BBC Sounds – BBCPage 51
Seven Worlds, One Planet – BBC Studios
Page 52
Our Girl – BBC/Ilze Kitshoff
Page 53
Famalam – BBC/Rory lindsay
Page 55
Seven Worlds, One Planet – BBC Studios
Page 56
Talking Business – BBC/Henry Iddon
Page 57
Later... with Jools Holland – BBCPage 58
Noughts + Crosses – BBC/Mammoth Screen/Ilze Kitshoff
Page 61
Miriam Baker – BBC/Miriam Baker
Page 64
BBC audience engagement – BBC/Fraser Cameron
Page 65
BBC audience engagement – BBC/Emma lynch
Page 67Interview in Northern Zambia – BBC Media Action Zambia
Page 69
The last Igloo – BBC/Swan Films/Oskar Ström
Page 70
BBC Board – BBC/Emma Lynch
Page 71
BBC Next Generation Committee– BBC/Rhodri Talfan Davies
Page 117
Cbeebies Bedtime Stories – BBC/Pete Dadds
BBC 6 Music Festival 2020 – BBC/Sarah Jeynes

Pages 26
Race Across the World – BBC/Studio Lambert

Page 140
A Fresh Guide to Florence with Fab 5 Freddy – BBC Studios/Eddie Knox

Page 27
This Classical Life – BBC

Only Connect – BBC/Parasol Media Limited

Page 28
100 Novels That Shaped Our World – BBC/David Emery
Gentleman Jack – BBC/Lookout Point/Jay Brooks

Additional Information

Front cover
Strictly Come Dancing – BBC/Guy Levy

Page 162
Defending the Guilty – BBC/Big Talk/Mark Johnson
The Capture – BBC/Heyday Films/Nick Wall

Pages 30

Page 226
Last Tango in Halifax – BBC/Lookout Point/Stuart Wood

Trigonometry – BBC/House Productions

Trigonometry – BBC/House Productions

Page 32
Hidden (Craith) – BBC/Severn Screen/Warren Orchard
Page 33
Elizabeth is Missing – BBC/STV Productions/Mark Mainz
Page 34
Mountain Vets – BBC/Rare TV/William Kelly
Page 35
BBC Local Radio New Voices – BBCPage 36
Years and Years –BBC/Red Productions/Matt Squire
Page 38
My Left Nut – BBC/Rollem/Steffan Hill

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

261

Return to contents

Feedback
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262

BBC Group Annual Report and Accounts 2019/20

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