Media : A Slumping BBC Rallies for Ratings : Britain’s once-revered TV network, under fire and full of dissension, is banking on a soap opera to pull in viewers.

It was, critics said, symbolic of the current drift and uncertainty that characterize what was once an almost universally revered British institution.

The top brass of the British Broadcasting Corp. retreated to a luxurious country hotel near the resort spa of Bath and spent tens of thousands of taxpayers’ dollars, supposedly in order to map the BBC’s future.

But when they emerged three days later, nothing had been decided.

Battered by falling ratings and internal dissension, the institution that was once the qualitative standard by which other broadcasting networks were judged finds itself off course and without a compass, even as it comes under increasing fire from media experts and the Conservative government.

As the BBC founders in its 70th year, morale among its staff of 23,500--threatened with prospective cuts of 10,000--has plummeted.

Complained senior correspondent Michael Buerk, a sometime news anchor: “None of our program editors and senior managers have been broadcasters, which is like having nobody at the top of the Royal Air Force who can fly.”

The government is stepping up its pressure, issuing thinly veiled warnings that the institution known familiarly here as “Auntie” or “the Beeb” must justify the national licensing fee that provides its operating income.

That fee, assessed in every British household with a TV set, is 80 pounds (about $145) annually, and enables both BBC-TV and BBC radio to broadcast without advertising.

Even as the broadcasting chieftains met near Bath, the BBC was preparing a hugely expensive new soap opera, called “Eldorado,” to prop up its early evening entertainment schedule. The $18-million show is shot at a specially constructed village in Spain.

“Eldorado” is designed to replace a lagging celebrity talk show, hosted by Terry Wogan, and will run three times a week at 7 p.m.

In its own press releases, BBC publicists describe the new show, set among an international expatriate community on the Costa Del Sol, as a heady brew of “sun, sand, sangria--and, of course, sex.”

Noting falling ratings, BBC executives suddenly announced that the first episodes of “Eldorado” would be moved up from the scheduled autumn release to July--to give the soap a head start over the tough, fall-season competition.

The choice of “Eldorado”--and the criticism of its expense and content--mirrors the running argument inside the executive suites at Broadcasting House in Central London: Should BBC-TV concentrate on quality programming at the risk of losing viewers to independent, commercial television; or should it compete tooth and claw, offering popular sitcoms and game shows and thereby raising its ratings to justify the licensing fees?

Through the years BBC has won praise around the world for its programming--documentaries like David Attenborough’s “Life on Earth,” Kenneth Clarke’s “Civilization” and Jacob Brosnowski’s “Ascent of Man”; Shakespeare plays and modern original dramas, and lighter fare such as “Monty Python,” “Fawlty Towers” and “Steptoe and Son,” which was the model for “Sanford and Son,” which starred the late Redd Foxx.

BBC radio’s World Service brings its highly acclaimed news and features in English and more than 50 other languages to listeners around the globe.

Nevertheless, Britain’s Independent Television (ITV), whose two networks accept advertising, has made steady inroads from its inception in September, 1955. Of the four national TV channels, ITV’s Channel 3 currently enjoys about 40% of the audience, with BBC 1, the flagship station, running behind at about 30%--the largest gap in 20 years.

BBC-2, the “Beeb’s” smaller, specialized channel, which devotes long hours to such events as billiard and darts competitions, is running neck-and-neck with its opposite, ITV’s Channel 4, at about 10% each. Cable stations are still under 10%--but this figure is expected to rise, particularly since the satellite operation BSkyB purchased the rights to English soccer.

The top audience-gainers in Britain have long been the prime-time soaps--ITV’s leading “Coronation Street” followed by BBC’s “Eastenders” and BBC’s Australian import, “Neighbors.”

Adding a sense of urgency to the argument over whether the BBC should go up-market or down is the fact that its charter--which spells out the terms of its broadcasting role and its relationship with the government--is up for renewal in 1996.

The BBC’s director general, Michael Checkland, has assigned 15 in-house task forces to examine various facets of its operations as part of preparations for a report, due in September, making the network’s case for renewal of its charter. The report is expected to plump for a 24-hour satellite news channel, similar to CNN. It will also examine the need for the existing five domestic radio channels.

Meanwhile, the government is preparing its own recommendations. Should BBC remain a major network, or be scaled down in the style of U.S. public broadcasting channels? The government will also discuss revenues and budgets.

BBC officials and Secretary of State for National Heritage David Mellor, who has responsibility for government support of arts and television, say they hope both reports will encourage the widest possible public debate on the role of the BBC for the next decade after charter renewal.

But the BBC is having trouble trying to reach internal agreement on what its role should be.

A preliminary study by several of its committees--leaked to the media a few weeks ago--suggested that senior BBC officials were highly critical of various aspects of the corporation’s management.

The report contended that the main current affairs programs were “flat and dull,” and argued that news teams “failed to explain matters of central concern to the nation.”

A key problem is a split at the top, according to BBC sources.

BBC answers to a 12-member board of governors whose members and chairman are appointed by the Queen on the recommendation of the government. That effectively gives the ruling party in Parliament the ability to stack the board with sympathetic members and thus steer BBC policy.

Currently, the board chairman and senior BBC executive is Marmaduke Hussey--who has refused to renew the contract of Checkland, the BBC’s chief operating officer. Hussey has announced that Checkland’s deputy, John Birt, will take over next April.

Checkland, who has refused to retire quietly, and Birt are barely on speaking terms, BBC insiders say, differing on many policy issues and splitting top management into rival camps.

Both Checkland and Birt are opposed to the BBC’s taking advertising to raise revenues. But beyond that, their respective intentions are mostly clouded in mystery.

“Birt won’t say what he has in mind as long as Checkland is there,” said one former producer, now with ITV. “And nobody knows whether Birt will carry out any plans left behind by Checkland.”

“Waiting for Birt,” is how The Guardian’s media critic Georgina Henry describes the BBC situation, adding: “Birt has been reluctant to say what he thinks, and many staff, and some of his most senior executives, don’t trust him.”

Checkland, a longtime BBC executive, is thought to favor the status quo, though he will only say publicly that “we are not prepared to let our intentions dribble out. We will have a coherent statement in the autumn.”

Birt, an outsider who joined from the independent rival in 1987, is believed to champion deep budget cuts such as the reported plan--enthusiastically approved by the government--to cut 10,000 jobs in the coming months.

While most everyone agrees that the BBC is vastly overmanned, such deep cuts would change the nature of the whole BBC operation--under which its in-house staff of producers, writers and technicians creates 75% of its programs.

Birt is said to favor the custom of “producer choice,” under which the producer can farm out all aspects of program-making to outside writers, cameramen and technicians on a cost-competitive basis.

“That means that all the talent and technique built up over the years will go down the drain,” one longtime BBC correspondent said. “If it carries into news, it will mean the end of the world’s best news-gathering organization.”

Meanwhile, the BBC has the Conservative government looking over its shoulder, seeking to keep it politically in line. The Tories accused the BBC of biased reporting and programming during the campaign leading up to last April’s national election, which the Conservatives nevertheless won.

BBC officials maintain that any government in power is unhappy with its independent stance: that Labor Prime Ministers Harold Wilson and James Callaghan were equally distressed with their treatment at the hands of the BBC as was “Iron Lady” Margaret Thatcher.

Mellor’s open-minded approach has calmed some fears that the government will attempt to dictate to the BBC.

“I recognize that broadcasting is an important part of a free society,” Mellor said recently.

“There has always been chafing between broadcasting and the politicians; that is the essence of it.

“My concern is that the debate on the BBC should recognize the important role that the BBC has played in Britain for three-quarters of a century, and we should together try and find the best way for ensuring that we have a lively, vigorous, free, sensible broadcasting environment for the next century.”

Up the Down Ratings

The BBC’s flagship station, BBC 1, is hoping to gain ground on Independent Television’s Channel 3, while the more specialized BBC 2 is neck-and-neck with ITV’s Channel 4. Share of viewers (in percent)

BBC 1

BBC 2

ITV

C4