Fincham: BBC One must be "open to everyone"

BBC One controller Peter Fincham has underlined BBC One's necessity to appeal to all quarters in a keynote Edinburgh speech.

He warned against allowing one particular genre to "over-dominate schedules", arguing that it would take "the diet from varied to monotonous".

"We have so much airtime to fill, so many slots to commission for, that sometimes I think we revert too easily to the familiar," Fincham admitted. "Occasionally you look at a BBC One show and say to yourself, 'it's there because it's there because it's there'."

Like many of his colleagues, Fincham recognised the importance of on demand programming to the station's future. "Within a few years we'll access programmes like we access music on the iPod. The idea of 'appointment to view' will be an anachronism. It's not the channels, stupid - it's the programmes."

He continued: "The challenge for BBC One is to make sure we're one of the favourites for everyone - on whatever platform our programmes are delivered. The licence payer funds BBC One more than any other BBC service, so what should we give them in return? The best channel. This means striving for the best production value, the best story-telling, the best talent."

As an example of a productively ambitious series, Fincham has commissioned Origin of the Species from the Natural History Unit. "This will be a series with the breadth of ambition of the best that BBC One has done - its The Blue Planet and more. 'When will it be on air?', I asked. 2009, I was told. Fair enough. It's a long time to wait, but if it's something that goes further, digs deeper, tells us more, casts its net wider - let's do it. That's what we're here for."