Good morning, it is a joy to back at the Lowry. Happy 25th. And thank you for coming.
Visiting the new Radio 3 Breakfast show this morning, broadcasting alongside many other breakfast programmes, here in Salford, was a delight.
Today I want to speak about one thing: trust.
Trust in each other, trust in our institutions, trust in information and trust in the UK.
The glue that holds us together. The essential ingredient of a secure, cohesive society.
The enabler of a creative and competitive UK.
A happier place where the expectation that others will act in ways that are beneficial to us, the foundation of growth; personal, societal and economic.
Looking at the world today, I believe we all face a choice. It is a choice born of crisis. It is a choice that requires intervention, innovation and investment.
It is a choice to nurture trust in each other and our institutions.
It is a choice to grow involvement, and to stimulate our ability to think critically and to act generously.
To build a stronger society, strengthen democracy, increase security and stimulate economic growth which people feel more connected to.
And it is a choice to deploy technology in our interests while fostering joyous creativity.
An appeal to head and heart.
Last year I talked about the unique roles the BBC can play in today’s polarised world.
Roles which were not solely shaped by short-term commercial markets. Namely: to pursue truth with no agenda, focus on homegrown storytelling and bring people together.
Surely those roles are needed now more than ever.
Today I want to go further. I want to talk about how the BBC, the world's leading Public Service media organisation, of which I am so proud, can become even more precious and valuable.
An institution that builds social capital and stimulates growth in the online, AI age.
Now I tend to be a glass half full person, which believe me helps me cope with the wonders of being DG, but I have no doubt that we face a crisis. And it is crisis that has been well debated.
The dramatic rise of people who don’t feel involved, who feel others are benefitting from change, who feel lonelier in a connected world.
This speaks to a distance from, and in some cases a failure of our institutions, to listen, and better shape the world for those we serve.
I don’t want to catastrophise; we have so much to be proud of as UK: our tolerance, our innovative spirit, our creativity, our humour, our sense of fairness but I think that unless we act we will drift. Becoming weaker, less trusting, less competitive.
The future of our cohesive, democratic society feels, for the first time in my life, at risk. This speaks to issues way beyond party politics or one event, but to longer term factors such as the online revolution and globalisation.
With that in mind, we have been thinking how we can harness a precious national asset, the BBC.
How can it have maximum catalytic effect on the UK? How we can help families and the UK as a whole?
As we head into our new Charter, it is not a mindset of “defending the BBC” but asking how we serve everyone, everywhere.
To improve our chances of an inclusive, happier, and more trusting UK.
It requires brave choices in terms of investment and policy. The jeopardy is high. Maintaining the status quo will not suffice.
Now, before turning to the future, let’s take a minute to look at the issue of trust and the risks and opportunities that lie in front of us.
I talked last year about the seismic changes to the media industry as the internet upends business models. The old priesthood of broadcast institutions controlling, through restricted distribution, what you see and hear is truly over.
Some of these changes of course have been positive, think about how much choice you now have or the ability for everybody to have a voice.
But there is no doubt that this new age is fostering polarisation and threatening communal trust, and putting more power in the hands of global social media platforms.
Disinformation is thriving.
And free reporting and impartial content has never been under greater pressure.
Unrestricted journalism is in retreat. I’ve talked about this before but it gets worse. The latest World Press Freedom Index makes for grim reading as, shockingly, less than a quarter of countries are rated satisfactory or good in supporting free reporting.
Press freedom is at its lowest point ever in history. For over half the world’s population, press freedom is totally absent. A few weeks ago one our journalists, Mark Lowen, was expelled from Turkey. The pressure on our brave teams continues to grow.
Meanwhile, areas like local news and some of the UK production sector are under severe pressure. The whole sustainability of public service broadcasting is at stake.
These are not just issues for the angst-ridden leaders of old institutions or legacy companies. They are issues for every family and every community.
We see profound changes in people’s trust in the information that they receive, and their worry that those who have information are not acting in their interests: the so-called epistemic crisis where many feel there is no agreed backbone of facts upon which to base constructive deliberation.
The World Economic Forum has singled out disinformation as the biggest short-term risk we face globally.
RUSI, the security think tank, points to malign information, often supported, heavily by the way, by state actors, as a direct threat to our security and cohesion.
The World Values Survey revealed less than half of UK respondents now say that most people can be trusted. The latest British Social Attitudes report showed a record 45% of adults say they “almost never” trust governments of any party to place the needs of the nation above political interests.
Critically, this lack of trust does not simply lead to passivity. The recent Edelman Trust Barometer showed a direct relationship between lack of trust and a sense of grievance, active distrust, which creates a re-enforcing negative spiral that erodes social capital, risking disengagement from communal debate.
Those we disagree with become enemies not friends who think differently. Empathy withers without understanding.
At the start of May the BBC carried out research on how people feel about divisions in UK society and the state of public debate.
Three-quarters of people now say that UK society feels divided, and 6 in 10 say they feel exhausted by these divisions. Boy do I know the feeling. Less than half of us say we can share our views without fear.
This erosion of deeper connections, the decline in a sense of “we” versus “I”, has been a consequence of an online world where social media companies proliferate and, in my mind, was accelerated during Covid. Isn’t there is a shocking irony that in a globally connected age, loneliness is growing fast. Let’s remember that there are 8.4m single households in the UK – that’s nearly a third. Of course TV and radio provides vital companionship and the opportunity for connection and shared experiences.
Linked to this is how our thinking skills are developing. We are building an information rich age but is it an insight rich age? How are we sparking critical thinking and curiosity? The most precious of attributes. Helping people to listen, empathise, create, deliberate constructively. Research shows that underlying human intellectual capacity has not been diminished, but our ability to reason and solve problems peaked in the 2010s.
Importantly, researchers have found a direct causal link between higher levels of trust and increases in economic growth. And lack of trust is directly related to furthering inequality.
As Andy Haldane talked about in his recent RSA lecture, it is critical that we invest in building social capital.
So how do we act in the face of these challenges? We often excel at problem definition, but what can we do?
Despite the threats, I believe the opportunity for the UK is huge based on our strengths.
A society underpinned by strong institutions and democratic values. The second biggest exporter of services in the world, and the third largest exporter of creative services, a leader in foundational technology and upstream scientific development. A trusted place to do business. A soft power (or should that be hard power) superpower that leads the world in high quality media, outstanding universities and the best football league on the planet: all underpinned by deep trust.
I hope that you saw the good news story on the BBC. There are good news stories there. When Mark Easton dropped 10 wallets with cash in them in Belfast with a number to call to return to the owner when found. Wild optimists may have guessed 8 people may have called, 10 did. How life affirming.
So we have much to be proud of.
And I don’t want to be part of the generation that watched that disappear, to allow the UK to fall victim to division and mistrust.
So to work.
I began by saying that we face a choice, and the BBC can help.
Here are 5 urgent, bold choices I believe we can take to directly build trust.
All of them not only support our central task of creating outstanding homegrown content and services but also support the wider challenge of building trust.
These are:
The choice for the UK to be a global leader in trusted information.
The choice to help support our democracy from the roots up.
The choice to deploy cutting-edge technology and AI to help, not harm, our children and their futures.
The choice to maximise growth in our economy by investing in every part of the UK.
And the choice to ensure everyone benefits from digital transition.
Our vision is clear: create a growing, Reithian media organisation that offers exceptional value to its owners, the UK public, all based on building long term trust.
A creative organisation delivering world class content and services underpinned by our values.
At the cutting-edge of innovation, rapidly deploying AI for good. A global centre of excellence.
Before I talk about how the BBC could act to make these choices happen, it is worth noting that despite the stresses and strains the BBC starts from a strong place of which we can be proud.
2024 was a rollercoaster year, but despite all the headwinds, the BBC did rather well in delivering Value for All despite significant cost pressures. And that is British understatement.
Critically, by focussing on impartiality and transparency, trust in the BBC went up in 2024.
Over 80% of UK adults still use us every week and 94% monthly. Amazing numbers in an online age. Three-quarters of UK adults use BBC News weekly, and we’re the only UK media brand in the top 5 most used for young people.
We’re the world’s most trusted global news provider with an audience of 450 million weekly.
We’re seeing record growth online driven by rapid innovation, with iPlayer the UK’s fastest-growing VOD platform in 2024 ahead of all global competitors.
The BBC has always looked to tomorrow and the success of our platforms like Sounds or the News app is a great story.
And most importantly in my job, we are on form creatively. From Blue Lights, This City is Ours, Wolf Hall and Call the Midwife to the already much-loved Ludwig and Amandaland. Cracking. World class audio, brilliant sports coverage, documentaries like Solar System, Wild Isles and Inside Our ADHD Minds, and hits like The Traitors or Race Across the World. What a list.
This weekend we picked up 18 BAFTAs, more than any other broadcaster or streamer, not including Baby Reindeer made by BBC Studios. We’ve got 65 nominations for the Audio and Radio Industry Awards this evening. So good luck to everyone.
We still bring people together like no one else – I was humbled to watch our teams deliver VE day broadcasts this week. Think of the Euros or Eurovision, the cup final this weekend, Glastonbury or the Proms.
Over 20 million watching Wallace & Gromit and Gavin & Stacey. The joy of togetherness.
We continue to be the largest investor in UK-made programming. The BBC contributes £5 billion to the economy every year – for every £1 of direct economic impact, we generate £2.63 with 50% of our economic impact now outside London, compared to the industry average of 20%.
When it comes to organisational reform, the BBC is now more efficient and streamlined. This has not been easy. We’ve cut around 2,000 public service roles in five years.
And we continue to squeeze our overheads: 95% of our spend goes on making and delivering great content.
But we are not complacent. We believe that we must reform faster and get more support to avoid decline.
Also we need to listen, which is why we are asking millions of people to share their views on what we do and how we can improve.
So let’s turn to the ideas that we are exploring as we look ahead.
They are directly related to building trust and strengthening the UK as well increasing the value of the BBC for the public. I hope they provoke discussion.
They will require funding as well as sufficient flexibility for the BBC to innovate.
First, to make the UK a global leader in trusted information…
I hope that you will all be familiar with our work in tackling the risks of disinformation: doubling down on impartiality, championing free, fair reporting alongside landmark investigative journalism, investing in BBC Verify and InDepth as well as increasing transparency and frankly holding our nerve amidst culture wars.
We believe we can go further.
We want to help turn the tide by dramatically increasing our News presence on platforms like YouTube and Tik Tok to ensure we have a stronger position amidst the noise. We are already making progress. We are the biggest news account globally on Instagram, but we want to deploy new technology and skills to create more content that works on these platforms while incentivising links to our services.
And we need to build Verify across more services globally.
Also, we want to empower audiences as they seek answers – combining agentic AI with trusted BBC journalism to create a new gold standard fact checking tool. Our aim is to work globally with other public service broadcasters to ensure a healthy core of fact-based news.
And we want to open up our journalistic processes so people can see how we work; radical transparency driving increased trust.
Turning to the World Service, this week we published research on its unique impact as a champion for the UK.
The BBC is not only the most trusted international news brand. It is unmatched in driving favourable impressions of the UK.
BBC users are not only more favourable towards the UK itself and our values, they are also more likely to trust us and invest in the UK.
We have a plan to meet the need – the appetite – for impartial news across the globe by supercharging the World Service. Imagine the BBC reaching a billion people weekly – over double where we are today.
This involves action such as regionalising our content in key English-speaking markets and boosting our offer in the four big languages. With proper government funding, we believe we can drive significant benefits to the UK.
Second, help to support our democracy from the roots up…
Trusted local news is at the heart of the challenge to foster social capital.
I am so lucky to see the critical value of these local services as I travel across the UK visiting BBC offices and local partners. It is frankly inspiring.
Our ambition is to strengthen our local journalism while building support for the wider local news ecology which faces serious pressure.
We want to write a new chapter in our partnership with the wider local news sector.
The BBC helped bolster local news through our Local Democracy Reporting Service.
As a next step, we want to expand LDRS from its current focus on local authority reporting to include health authorities, police and crime commissioners, and deep analysis of the work of regional mayors. All available to partners.
But we can be more radical in supporting others. Can we ‘open source’ all our local video, news and audio content to enable local media partners to access it too?
Can we use the scale and reach of the BBC’s platforms to provide more prominent linking to commercial providers?
Of course, we’ll consult with partners. Before we confirm plans but we need a plural local news market.
Simultaneously, we want to strengthen the depth of BBC local journalism.
Our ambition is to establish specialist ‘BBC Insight’ teams in all our bases supporting greater investigative reporting, and expanding local BBC Verify and InDepth analysis alongside forensic data journalism.
We could do more to use local teams to help develop the next generation of local journalists – providing more development attachments for those inside and outside the BBC.
Also, we want to do more to build local engagement and togetherness - to facilitate civilised debate.
Any Questions was originally a regional show and we believe the time is right to introduce a dedicated, weekly multi-media debate strand across all local and nations services to provide a regular focus for topical local discussion.
Debate where people are listened to, treated with respect, building trust.
Our third choice is to deploy cutting-edge technology and AI to help, not harm, our kids and their futures…
We want to transform and grow our Education offer. Today Bitesize is the UK’s leading revision service, helping millions of children. But AI offers us the chance to do wonderful things in this area.
We are exploring whether we could make AI-powered learning opportunities available to every child in the UK, regardless of background – fully connected across all BBC content, and trusted by parents, teachers and exam boards.
We’re looking at whether we can put the power and reach of BBC Bitesize together with the power of agentic AI creating a personal learning companion for every single child aged 7-16. Evolving for those at different levels of attainment and with different needs. With the BBC’s commitment to safety and quality so users can fully trust it.
Our goal is to complement teaching not replace it.
I was in a school a few weeks ago in East London, teaching an A-level class…which made being DG a breeze. The inspirational teachers were very thankful to the BBC for the work we are already doing on disinformation.
Imagine if we could provide every single child in the UK with proper training on disinformation. Helping them to find and assess information they can trust, developing cutting edge media literacy tools and fostering critical thinking, working with tech partners who want to help.
It could mean developing qualifications around disinformation studies and media literacy.
Also we have a broader ambition to help everyone get the best start in life.
As well as providing world-class kids content, we want to make a universal offer to families by expanding our services for early years.
That includes a CBeebies Parenting offer for everyone, helping with everything from language skills to school readiness.
We want to offer a new BBC family account for every parent of a young child, evolving at key milestones from birth to leaving school, laying the foundations for a lifetime of BBC support.
Fourthly, we want to maximise growth in our economy by investing in every part of the UK…
Standing here in Salford, I do not need to shout about the BBC’s commitment to creating opportunity outside of London. Look outside the window. It’s truly amazing. We should be very proud of what has been achieved and thank you for your support.
And beyond the North West, it has been inspiring to visit world class BBC productions from everywhere from the Isle of Harris to Belfast, from the Welsh countryside (watch out for Death Valley) to the new Silent Witness set in a rejuvenated Digbeth.
We are already delivering big increases in our investment beyond the M25. Most of network television spend is now out of London. But we can do more.
Salford has the potential to be more than a national success echoing the words we heard earlier, it can be truly global media and sports hub generating thousands of jobs and we want to work with others to contribute to that.
We need more commissioners and senior leaders here and elsewhere across the UK, bringing more influence to bear on our output and services.
We believe that we can supercharge Salford while supporting a wider One Creative North plan – more output, more decision-making power, and more creative leadership.
We want more strategic partnerships such as what we have achieved in Belfast, Cardiff, the Midlands or the North East where the BBC is playing a catalytic role in building trust and belief in local opportunities.
And we should make the BBC a preferred, trusted partner for the next generation of content creators in every postcode, launching a comprehensive package of support for the UK domestic creator economy.
We plan to open the doors of our studios for social media creators to be able to generate new work and know that we have their interests at heart.
We want to provide every creator with more support, access, and opportunities – from skills training to tools, equipment and facilities.
Building on initiatives like BBC Introducing that that has launched careers from Ed Sheeran to Arlo Parks championing work from bedroom to Pyramid stage.
Helping to grow belief and trust that whoever you are whatever your background and wherever you live you can fulfil your potential.
Ensuring that the next generation of comedy writers, dramatists, entertainers, producers, engineers are grown in the UK and build value for the UK.
All of this helps to build a thriving creative industries sector not only growing hundreds of commercial businesses, millions of jobs, but also building strong partnerships with our cultural institutions, like here in the Lowry.
Finally, a choice to deliver a digital transition for all…
Over 100 years ago, John Reith and the pioneers of radio recognised the power of the new medium, and, wonderfully, amazingly, they harnessed it - in the public interest.
They established fundamental principles: everyone should benefit, information should be trustworthy, and programmes should not just amuse people but also enrich their lives.
Now, as DCMS explores the best way forward for the future of TV distribution, we believe the BBC can play a vital role in helping to support audiences to transition to digital in a way that’s fair and equitable, where access is guaranteed and no one is left behind.
I talked a few years ago about my belief that we needed to own digital switchover, not get dragged, and proactively shape the future.
At the BBC we have been working hard to build digital platforms and content to meet changing audience needs, enriching our offer and welcoming the possibilities of a post broadcast world.
We think now is the time to confirm an IP switchover in the 2030s, setting out the conditions and providing certainty to ensure success.
There are huge benefits, financially and socially, and we want to play our part, working with Government, with our sector and beyond to help - building trust that a digital world can work for all. The BBC can play a key role in innovating to ensure that the new world is inclusive and accessible.
To help, we want to double down on Freely as a universal free service to deliver live TV over broadband. And we are considering a streaming media device with Freely capabilities built in, with a radically simplified user interface specifically designed to help those yet to benefit from IP services.
So five big choices, all directly building trust not only in the BBC but each other.
Entertaining, informing, educating. Bringing us together.
Of course, they are all contingent on the BBC being properly funded and supported. Strong backing from government, regulators and partners is essential.
They also require the BBC to continue to deliver reform.
I will just say a few words about this before I close.
We want to transform the BBC through new technology. We want to create a new world class centre for AI driven innovation based here in the UK.
The majority of BBC staff are already using AI in their work and we see big potential as we develop our own bespoke LLM, deploying agentic AI capabilities.
This will all be done in support of our public service mission – never relinquishing editorial oversight. We are looking at new, major partnerships with the world leading big-tech companies, the hyper scalers.
As part of this, we are already working on the media supply chain, the processes behind the scenes that gets content from the camera to screen, from microphone to headphone. This will open up huge creative possibilities.
And it will allow us to drive efficiencies and reinvest into world-class content. The UK can lead the market in developing a new wave of smarter platforms, like iPlayer, with improved functionality.
I am interested in the opportunity to create significant value for the public in our ownership of proprietary technology in the media sector.
And we want to see BBC Studios continue to grow rapidly as a world leading media company in its own right. We have doubled Studios revenues and profits once and we want to ensure it has the capital and plans to double again, building services and production globally for its shareholders: us.
But internal reform will only take us so far.
Critically, we will need a strong Charter to enable growth, securing a universal public service BBC for a generation and safeguarding our independence.
We need a Charter that allows us to act faster – to be more agile and respond to the changing market, technology, and audience needs.
One which allows the BBC to extend our partnerships with other PSBs and enables the BBC and other UK players to build scale together.
When it comes to funding we are not asking for the status quo. We want modernisation and reform. But in doing so we must safeguard universality.
All the funding models that have been floated in the debate have their merits and drawbacks. But some such as advertising or subscription don’t pass the test of building a universal trusted public service.
Beyond that, we keep an open mind. And we continue to actively explore all options that can make our funding model fairer, more modern, and more sustainable.
When it comes to funding the World Service, we do need help. There has never been a more important time to invest in this priceless national asset. We believe the UK should be ambitious about its future – and the government should invest for significant growth, not survival.
There are other critical areas where we are calling for enlightened policy interventions to support the UK’s world-class creative industries and build trust.
There has been a lot said and written recently about the funding crisis facing the TV production sector.
We want to see increased incentives for UK production, including tax credits. It’s a system that’s proven to work but it should be reformed and extended to support key and at-risk genres, as well as to incentivise public service media objectives like encouraging production outside London, telling local stories and preserving IP within the UK.
We also need to see critically robust implementation of the Media Act at pace – to secure good PSB prominence on every platform. If people can’ t find our services, and prominence is simply secured by the highest bidder, then we can’t build connections and trust. I know Ofcom are on the case. The stakes are very high and we need rapid bold intervention.
As I mentioned earlier, we need a clear commitment from the Government to deliver a fully inclusive digital transition.
And finally we need to ensure that there is a sensible regime in place that ensures UK IP creators get fair reward for their work in the AI world.
Quite a list, but the case for decisive action and intervention has ratcheted up dramatically. We must press on and act.
In closing, this is not a moment for hesitation – it is a moment for a bold, collective choice to take on the trust crisis that, without intervention, threatens us all.
Will we, us, all of us, watch on as trust dissipates, or will we actively build it? Not just give up and watch it drift but do something. We are not simply victims of the market, I don’t buy that, we can lead.
The BBC is ready to play its full part—not simply defending tradition, but shaping the future.
A future where trusted information strengthens democracy, where every child has a fair start, where creativity fuels growth across the UK, and where no one is left behind in the digital age. A BBC that is acting wholly to serve and act in the public’s interest.
But we need help…a shared national vision that builds on the best of us.
With courage, collaboration, investment and imagination, we can create a UK that is more inclusive, more secure, and more successful.
Let us make the choice – together – to leave a legacy of trust.