The report comes at a time of ‘significant crisis’ for the BBC, Ofcom said.
The number of complaints made about the BBC to broadcasting regulator Ofcom decreased in the year to March, according to a report.
There were 500 fewer complaints to the watchdog about the public service broadcaster than between April 2023 and March 2024, data in Ofcom’s annual report on the BBC showed.
Published on Friday, the report comes at a time of “significant crisis” for the BBC “involving editorial decision-making at the heart of its news and current affairs output”, Ofcom said.
Director-general Tim Davie and head of news Deborah Turness resigned in the wake of a leaked memo from former editorial adviser Michael Prescott which raised concerns that a speech by US president Donald Trump, featured in a Panorama episode in 2024, was selectively edited.
In the report, Ofcom reiterated its calls for the BBC board and executive to “take a firmer grip” when things go wrong, and “act swiftly and transparently when controversies arise”.
“The BBC must continue to find new ways to secure audience trust, no matter how they access news, to help it remain a valued and trusted institution,” the broadcast regulator added.
Ofcom said it received 2,204 complaints about BBC content in the year to the end of March, down from 2,709 the previous year.
The report said this was driven in part by fewer due impartiality complaints about BBC content than in previous years, but also as a result of a spike in figures for 2023/24 following the BBC’s coverage of the Israel-Gaza war.
People normally have to complain to the BBC first before they can escalate their complaint to the watchdog.
During the 2024 UK general election, Ofcom received nearly 400 complaints about the impartiality of BBC election content.
The regulator said none of the complaints warranted further investigation.
“On the basis of complaints we have received from audiences, the BBC has a good record of complying with broadcasting rules intended to ensure that programming is duly impartial,” the report said.
Since the period covered in the report, the BBC has faced numerous controversies including the livestreaming of Bob Vylan’s performance at Glastonbury where the punk rappers led chants of “death, death to the IDF” (Israel Defence Forces), as well as misconduct allegations surrounding former MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace.
Last month, Ofcom sanctioned the BBC for breaching the Broadcasting Code in its Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone documentary after the corporation failed to disclose a narrator’s links to Hamas.
Elsewhere, Ofcom said it would continue to monitor the impact that BBC’s expanded local news service is having on commercial local news.
It said its analysis in a previous report “found no significant evidence that the BBC’s expanded output is causally linked to the declines experienced by commercial providers of local online news”, but added “we recognised that these changes may be contributing to some degree and committed to continuing to monitor the potential impact”.
Owen Meredith, the chief executive of News Media Association – a trade body for national, local and regional news organisations, warned of a “structural imbalance” and said the BBC’s growth is contributing to pressures commercial providers face.
“Ofcom’s report exposes a structural imbalance that can no longer be brushed aside,” Mr Meredith said.
“The regulator acknowledges again that the BBC’s rapid growth in online local news is contributing to the pressures faced by commercial providers.
“Local news publishers – operating without the BBC’s scale and public funding advantage – are being squeezed at the exact moment when independent, plural local journalism has never been more vital to communities.
“We should celebrate the BBC’s strengths, but we must also ensure that its expansion does not inadvertently hollow out the diverse, sustainable local news ecosystem a healthy democracy depends on.
“A renewed charter must introduce guardrails, transparency, and the competitive fairness needed so that the BBC and commercial local journalism can genuinely complement each other – rather than tilt the market further out of balance.”
