Stressed by Choice: a Business Model Analysis of the BBC

To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2008.00564.x Byline: Julie Froud (*), Sukhdev Johal (*), Adam Leaver (*), Richard Phillips (*), Karel Williams (*) Abstract: This paper aims to explain the recent defensive strategy of downsizing at the BBC. The paper rejects the analysis of both industry practitioner and neoclassical economics academic critics who represent the corporation as an all-powerful, abusive player in a market and instead develops an alternative concept of the business model, which focuses the pressures of financial viability and stakeholder credibility to explain the restructuring. We argue that the BBC's business model is stressed because it struggles to deliver what key stakeholders want and expect from the corporation, from a pot of revenue that is limited by regulation. The BBC's problem is compounded by demands for more programming hours following its move into digital and by the increasingly formalized demands of regulators on behalf of an absent consumer. The paper concludes that without reflexive, business-model-centred regulation, it is likely that the BBC's business model will become unsustainable. Author Affiliation: (*)Centre for Research on Socio Cultural Change, 178 Waterloo Place, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK Article note: Corresponding author email: adam.leaver@mbs.ac.uk