BBC Jam and the licence fee payers

I asked about the cancelling of BBC Jam at the Showcomotion festival. The BBC Trust member was very polite and eager to say that all materials that could be reused would be - by which they meant the Gaelic and possibly Welsh components. That’s good but it seems to be fairly minimal in relation to the the 90 projects, and (est.) £50 million licence fee spent.

The following day at a session on innovative video we saw three excellent examples of the materials that have been produced but may never see the light of day outside an industry conference. It’s clear from these that the licence payers - and their children - are being sheltered from some superb educational resources. Since the UK licence payer has invested this huge amount of money, whether willingly or not, in the BBC’s educational output, it seems odd of the BBC Trust to refuse to let them see - and benefit from - what they’ve already paid for.  

The Trust’s argument is that the release of these materials would distort the market for commercial producers. Yet it also feels like a cavalier decision to allow so much licence fee to go to waste when it could be adding value to our children’s education. Like having a food mountain and pouring it away instead of giving it away. How can there possibly be public value in suppressing excellent educational resources? It feels like burning books.

On other matters, the Trust canvasses opinion on its website. Is it possible the licence payers could be consulted over this matter in the same way, and asked whether they want their children to have these free to air resources that would help them to learn? Or whether they agree that having all these BBC resources would actually hurt the interests of UK and international businesses who need to earn a living?

It may be that we would all agree with the Trust in the end but I suspect it would seem ludicrous to most licence payers. The resources exist. Our nation’s educational needs are rising. The UK’s children and teenagers need every possible help to be as well-educated and competitive as possible in the 21st century. Here we have cutting edge resources made by some of the UK’s finest educational providers inside and outside the BBC.
Having seen the three examples, It’s clear they’re eminently usable, distinctive, cutting-edge and inspiring. Why shouldn’t UK learners have access to them?

The only parallel I can think of is that the BBC produces a soap opera called Eastenders. it is very popular but was created many years after ITV created a similarly popular soap called Coronation Street. I’m sure Granada must have been irritated by the BBC rivalry, yet the BBC still produces Eastenders. Why isn’t that damaging the interests of commercial entertainment providers? And why is the BBC shy of producing educational resources in the same way? It’s been in the business of doing so for over 80 years, far longer than it’s produced soap operas for. It seems a strange sense of priorities when Lord Reith’s heirs think stuff for our school children is less worth fighting for than Eastenders.