The BBC’s biggest challenge is not reach.
It’s relevance.
Matt Brittin’s recent comments about the BBC needing to “better understand where audiences are” and “experiment more bravely” will have been welcomed by many across the industry.
But being where audiences are is not enough.
The real challenge for the BBC is not distribution, experimentation or iterative testing. It is rebuilding relationships with audiences.
For decades, the BBC was more than a distributor of content. It was woven into public life. It created shared experiences, reflected the national mood and made audiences feel part of an ongoing cultural conversation.
However, as broadcasters increasingly behaved like streamers, some of that connection eroded. The BBC began to feel more like a content delivery system than the nation’s cultural anchor – reacting to culture rather than helping shape it.
For younger audiences, that gap was partly filled by creators – not because of the platforms they used, but because they restored immediacy, participation, community and human connection. They made audiences feel involved again in real time.
I don’t think the BBC needs to outdo YouTube; in the same way it shouldn’t try to outdo Netflix. At its best, the BBC has still been capable of creating multigenerational shared national moments during an era of audience fragmentation – Traitors, Line of Duty, Gavin and Stacey, and Strictly, to name a few.
But if it is going to evolve, reconnect and prove its value, it needs to do this more consistently. In practical terms, that probably means:
- more live and participatory formats,
- stronger audience communities around programming, news, sport and national events,
- cross-platform storytelling that extends beyond broadcast into ongoing audience conversation,
- a clearer and more confident editorial identity,
- and commissioning that shapes culture rather than simply responds to trends.
If Matt Brittin recognises that the central challenge facing the BBC is not technological adaptation alone, but cultural reconnection, his tenure could become genuinely transformative.
Because the future of public service broadcasting will not be defined simply by reach, but by whether audiences feel understood, involved and represented again.
As Matt Brittin begins his tenure, what do you think would make the BBC feel more relevant again?