Book excerpt: The BBC is an extraordinary national and global institution. Often one of the very few things people outside this country know about Britain is that it is the home of the BBC. The BBC's value lies not only in the organisation itself, but in its accumulated reputation, experience and goodwill, in its public service remit, and in its place at the centre of a vibrant broadcasting industry. It sets a standard in broadcasting quality, impartiality and independence that serves as a benchmark for others. For these reasons the BBC has a vast amount to contribute as an international standard of excellence in public service broadcasting. At a time when many media organisations are reducing their international coverage, relying on a few feeds and becoming more prone to crowd behaviour, there is a huge opportunity for the BBC to consolidate this global position. But the BBC also has a role as a beacon of enlightened values of openness, freedom of thought, toleration and diversity. As the world increasingly divides on ideological and sectarian grounds, it is vital more than ever today to preserve an educated public realm in which civilised debate and the mutually respectful exchange of ideas may flourish. What would it take to create another? It is very hard to imagine how it could be done. Yet this does not mean the BBC is beyond improvement, or secure from technological, financial or commercial challenge. First, its core activities are under serious commercial threat: from traditional competitors, from new online insurgents, from lower cost providers of access to high quality programming, among others. New technologies and ways of accessing programmes are pushing the BBC to consider long term alternatives to the licence fee. Secondly, the BBC is not well served by its often unwieldy bureaucracy, its internal politics, and a culture which has been criticised as arrogant and introspective. And finally, the BBC's Director General has argued that the licence fee is viable for the coming Charter period. But as commercial and technological pressures converge, as the BBC's market share continues to fall and a new generation consumes its media in innumerable new ways, there is the question whether or not the licence fee funding model can be sustained.