BBC Trust

The Trust has opened a public consultation today seeking views from audiences on the BBC's News and current affairs output.

The review, announced in February, is the latest in the Trust's rolling programme of service reviews.  It will examine the performance of the BBC's network news output against the commitments set by the Trust in the BBC's service licences and its broader public service role. 

The review will cover the BBC's network news and current affairs for UK audiences across TV, radio and online, including:

• On TV, the daily national bulletins on BBC One, relevant weekday morning output (such as the Daily Politics) and Newsnight on BBC Two, 60 second news on BBC Three and World News Today on BBC Four. The review will also follow up on our 2012 service reviews of the News Channel and BBC Parliament.
• On radio, news bulletins and Newsbeat on Radio 1 and 1Xtra, news bulletins on Radio 2 and 3, Radio 4's daily news programming (Today, World at One, PM, The World Tonight) and daily politics output, 5 live's daily news output (largely its weekday daytime schedule) and news on the Asian Network.
• Online, the news sections of the BBC's website and the Red Button, including mobile apps and social media. Current affairs output includes Panorama, This World and around 40 hours of output on BBC Two and Three, as well as political strands such as Question Time and the Daily Politics.  On radio this includes the range of Radio 4 and 5 live's current affairs and politics programming. 

The review will particularly focus on what audiences think about the quality and distinctiveness of BBC News and current affairs, the ways that audiences consume and access BBC News, and how well positioned it is to deal with future challenges such as changing audience viewing habits and technological shifts. 

BBC Trustee Richard Ayre said:

"No part of the BBC is more important to its audiences than its journalism.  Now the Trust is going to ask in detail what those audiences expect of the BBC, what they appreciate most, and where they think we could give them an even more distinctive service. In a world where people can choose their news when and where they want it, and from a huge range of sources, we want to understand how best the BBC can retain their trust and confidence so that it remains clearly their number one choice."

In addition to the public consultation the Trust will also carry out audience research.  This review will not look at impartiality, because the Trust already has a rolling programme of major impartiality reviews underway, or at the market impact of BBC News, because that is outside the scope of all the Trust's service review work.  

In summer 2012 the Trust concluded its first five-year cycle of service reviews.  Trustees agreed at that time that one of its first reviews in the second round would be BBC News. The review was announced in February 2013. 

The terms of reference for the review can be found here.  The review is expected to conclude in spring 2014. 

Notes to Editors

1. More information on service reviews carried out by the Trust can be found here.
2. The Trust has previously reviewed the BBC News Channel and BBC Parliament but this is the first time all the BBC's news services have been reviewed together. 
3. The review will focus on the BBC's news services for UK audiences and will not include BBC World Service or Global News.