Canadian Heritage Committee on Jan. 29th, 2008

[Ed Fast, Conservative, Abbotsford, BC]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Thank you for that.

We'll go to Mr. Bélanger for a short question and then I have one, sir.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

I have two questions and they will be short.

I would be curious to know the extent to which--and I guess I can find this out myself by going to your website--the BBC uses its website to meet the education and learning components of the public purpose, number one.

Number two, in our notes and in your comments you refer to the royal charter and also the agreement. Can you distinguish between the two, and what are the major differences between the charter and the agreement?

[Wilf White]

Let me start.

I'm sorry, I was focusing on your charter and agreement question. So let me answer your second question first, and then you can remind me of your first one. The charter essentially establishes the BBC and sets out how it operates and its powers. The agreement then puts flesh on the bones and says these are the things the BBC has to do in operating within the powers given to it by the charter. So the charter essentially says here are your purposes, and then the agreement says here are how your purposes need to be put together and delivered.

I'm sorry, I missed your first question.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you.

The first question was the extent to which your website is used on the education and learning aspect of your public purpose.

[Wilf White]

“Increasingly” is the answer.

We have found that school programming on television doesn't work the way it used to. It used to be very effective in promoting education and learning. Now, because of the time of day at which programming is broadcast and because different schools operate their curricula differently, we find that the linear provision of school content is not as effective as offering school content on demand. The great thing about broadband content for schools and for education is that it's always there. So a teacher can use it any time of day.

Better still, when the kid gets home and is doing some revision or some homework, he or she can also access that content. They don't have to worry whether, as in the past, they set the VCR to tape the program. It's there for them all the time.

So we are increasingly using broadband to reach children. We think that's the future.

[Mauril Bélanger, Liberal, Ottawa—Vanier, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Thank you for that.

The question Mr. Bélanger just asked was one of the questions I was going to ask, but being the chair, I would like to ask one small question.

We have done some studies on digital theatres, or through our studies have talked about digital theatres in England and the British Isles. Do you have any agreement with these theatres that BBC content might be broadcast in them?

[Wilf White]

At the moment, no, generally speaking, we don't, but the proposal is occasionally put forward to us. I think we'd certainly consider that, because we are open to anybody who wants to show our content to a wider audience as long as they do it in a way that we regard as proper. If they're making commercial profit from it, then that has to be done on a commercial basis. But we have been quite keen to share content with people who are not making commercial profit, because we take the simple view that once licence payers have paid for our programs, they should get them as conveniently as they want, and if they want to go and see something in a cinema or a theatre, that's fine.

We recently did a very successful commercial spinoff where The Blue Planet—I don't know whether you saw this series, but it's a series about the seas of the world—was then reformatted into a sort of movie format. That showed in British cinemas and around the world, but that was done on a commercial basis by BBC Worldwide. It was pretty successful, I think.

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Thank you very much.

I must say, on behalf of the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage, we thank you very much for this conference today and we appreciate your candid views. Again, on behalf of the committee, thank you very much to both of you for this great meeting.

[Wilf White]

Thank you, and my apologies again for the failure of our equipment. I'm rather glad the phone line wasn't operating or you might have heard some rather unparliamentary language from me.

[Some hon. members]

Oh, oh!

[The Chair, Conservative, Gary Schellenberger]

Great. Thank you very much, sir.

The meeting is adjourned.