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<p>Under the Royal Charter, the BBC has an obligation to provide impartial news and
information to help people understand and engage with the world around them. The Charter
requires the BBC public services to promote its Mission and Public Purposes, including
the provision of news in the UK through “online services”; it therefore allows for
the use of licence fee revenue for online news services. In doing so, the BBC is required
to have particular regard to the effects of its activities on competition in the UK
and to seek to avoid adverse impacts on competition which are not necessary for the
effective fulfilment of the Mission and the promotion of the Public Purposes.</p><p>Her
Majesty’s Government carefully considered the BBC's market impact as part of Charter
Review in 2015/16, and designated Ofcom as the BBC regulator to ensure the BBC is
robustly held to account on its competitive impact.</p><p>The Government also committed
the independent Cairncross Review into the future of journalism. This was published
in 2019, and urged the BBC to think more carefully about how its news provision can
act as a complement to, rather than a substitute for, commercial news.</p><p>The Charter
Mid-Term Review will look at the BBC’s market impact, evaluating how the BBC and Ofcom
assess the market impact and public value of the BBC in an evolving marketplace and
how that relates to the wider UK media ecology, including with regard to commercial
radio and local news sectors and other content makers and distributors.</p>
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