Introduction

Good quality is a characteristic which everyone desires and agrees is a virtue whether this be

television programmes, educational provision from schools and teachers, new products, or

second hand cars. The problem is that quality is difficult to measure and judging quality

sometimes rests on asymmetric information. The quality of British television programmes

became an issue following the radical changes in regulation, structure and working conditions

which have taken place in the industry from the early 1980s to mid 1990s. Pressures to cut

costs in programme making took place alongside the industry changes. Many commentators

have queried whether competitive pressures in the form of lower budgets for programmes and

the bidding down of hourly wage rates have reduced the quality of programmes (Murroni and

Irvine, 1997). An alternative view is that competition can lead to more efficient use of

resources and that quality need not suffer if increases in efficiency result, especially alongside

productivity-enhancing technological changes. For example, forcing employers to break up

(over) manning and job demarcation agreements could increase efficiency and quality remain

constant but at lower prices. Licenses to broadcast given to commercial companies following

government tenders have had quality safeguard clauses as part of the contract. However,

since these are difficult to measure they are also difficult to write into contracts. Clearly,

there is a wider range of concerns about quality where the BBC is concerned because of its

role as a public service broadcaster. In this paper we consider programme makers’ views

about the changes in quality that have resulted over the 1990s and see how this is related to

their experiences. This examination of quality in the television industry gains more

importance from the fact that this is only one of a number of industries where changes in the

structure of the industry have led to changes in the nature of...