2023 for the BBC: From hosting major events to navigating various investigations

The BBC has experienced a year of highs and lows from marking milestone anniversaries and hosting major events, to facing high-profile departures and a series of investigations.

With a new chairman on the horizon, the funding model to be reviewed and the uncertainty posed by artificial intelligence, 2024 is sure to bring its own host of opportunities and challenges.

As 2023 comes to a close, here is a round-up of the major events and issues the corporation has navigated:

– Fronting major events and TV successes

The BBC took the reins on organising Eurovision earlier this year in partnership with the European Broadcasting Union when the song contest came to Liverpool.

It led the coverage of the event, with the finale becoming the most watched since the current format of the contest began in 2004.

An average of 9.9 million UK viewers tuned in to see Swedish star Loreen crowned the winner, with the live broadcast experiencing a peak of 11 million viewers, according to overnight ratings.

The corporation also marked the 60th anniversary of the beloved sci-fi series Doctor Who, which was first broadcast on the BBC in 1963.

To mark the milestone, three episodes were aired across November and December which saw David Tennant and Catherine Tate return as the Doctor and his companion.

The broadcaster also scooped a host of awards for The Traitors after the new game show, which saw 22 strangers play a game of strategy and suspicion, gripped the nation.

It picked up the Bafta TV Award for best reality and constructed factual, a National Television Award for best reality competition and was renewed for a second and third series.

– Impartiality questions

The impartiality of the BBC’s news coverage and some of its presenters has been bought into question over the past year.

Concerns about the BBC’s reporting of the Hamas invasion of Israel in October and the Israeli government’s bombing of the Gaza Strip have been raised by ministers and pressure groups.

A report on October 17 about a blast at the al Ahli hospital “wrongly attributed” it to the Israeli military – which blamed a rocket misfire by Palestinian militants – according to the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Campaign Against Antisemitism.

The BBC acknowledged that it was “wrong to speculate” and apologised.

Campaign groups, Israeli President Isaac Herzog and Cabinet ministers have also been concerned about the broadcaster not using the term “terrorist” in relation to Hamas.

The corporation does not describe Hamas as terrorists but attributes the word to the group when used by others, such as the UK Government.

Elsewhere, broadcaster Gary Lineker comparing the language used by the Conservative Government to promote its asylum plans with 1930s Germany also led to strengthened social media guidelines for staff on issues of impartiality and civility.

This has led to the exit of former Countdown star Carol Vorderman, who claimed BBC Wales management told her to leave her radio show when she continued to express “strong beliefs” about Conservative policies.

– Cost-cutting and licence fee

The BBC has been reassessing its priorities over the last year as it seeks to make £500 million of savings after coming under financial strain due to the licence fee being frozen and inflation rising.

Last month the corporation announced that Newsnight will be reduced to a 30-minute programme, axing more than half of the show’s 60 jobs, amid a raft of changes to save the news division £7.5 million.

An extended hour-long edition of BBC News At One will relocate to Salford, Manchester, while BBC Breakfast, also broadcast from the city, will be extended by an extra 15 minutes daily.

Earlier this year the BBC announced it would broadcast 1,000 fewer hours of new TV programmes this year.

Other cost-cutting measures include moving a number of World Service TV and radio broadcast services online, and merging the domestic and global news channels.

Proposed plans for local radio stations to share more content and transmit fewer programmes unique to their areas resulted in BBC Local journalists taking strike action this year.

It comes as the latest Rajar report showed that the broadcaster’s weekly audience for local and regional stations has fallen by 20% in the past two years, from 9.2 million in the third quarter of 2021 to 7.3 million in the same period for 2023.

The BBC World Service experienced a sharper drop in listeners, with its average weekly audience down 33% from 1.4 million in July-September 2021 to 940,000 in the same period in 2023.

A BBC spokesperson at the time said the figures are “consistent” with those in the first quarter of the year but acknowledged the “dip” over the summer months, adding: “We’re determined to grow the impact of local radio across the country and we’ll be looking in detail at the listening changes over the last period.”

There was better news for the corporation at Radio 2, where the audience appeared to have stabilised following the departure of veteran broadcaster Ken Bruce to Greatest Hits Radio.

But it appears the pressure will not ease in the new year following the end of the licence fee freeze as from April it will rise by just 6.7% in line with September’s Consumer Price Index (CPI).

This means an additional £10.50 per household, taking the total to £169.50.

It had been expected to rise by around 9%, which would have been an uplift of £15 per household.

The Government has also announced a funding model review to look at how the BBC could be financed differently in the future.

– Current and former employees

Huw Edwards, who has been at the helm of significant political and royal events for the corporation, was named in July as the BBC presenter at the centre of allegations about payments to a young person for explicit images.

The BBC has announced reviews into protocols and procedures after concerns were raised by the young person’s family in The Sun newspaper.

The Metropolitan Police said in July that no criminal offence had taken place.

The corporation is also investigating comedian Russell Brand’s behaviour while he was working on its programmes, including his BBC Radio 2 show.

Brand has denied allegations of rape, assault and emotional abuse following a joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times and Channel 4 Dispatches, which was released in September.

His conduct is also being investigated by Channel 4 and Banijay UK, which bought Endemol, the company commissioned by Channel 4 to produce the Big Brother spin-off shows the comedian and actor hosted.

An independent inquiry by barrister Gemma White KC was also launched into veteran hip hop DJ and radio presenter Tim Westwood, after he was accused of sexual misconduct and predatory behaviour.

Westwood, who left BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 1Xtra in 2013 after nearly 20 years, has denied all allegations.

Ms White was appointed by the BBC board in August 2022 after an internal review.

In June, BBC director-general Tim Davie said there are outstanding equal pay cases that have not yet concluded.

Mr Davie told a parliamentary committee: “When we get to a situation which we go to tribunal, no-one wants that. All we’re trying to do is make a right call in terms of what’s the right thing to do with licence fee-payer money.”

Earlier this month it was announced that Samir Shah is the Government’s preferred candidate to take over as BBC chairman.

The role was vacated earlier this year by former Goldman Sachs banker Richard Sharp, who resigned after failing to declare his connection to an £800,000 loan made to Boris Johnson.