A public review of the BBC reveals that viewers don’t value the public broadcaster’s arts programming. “Some will see these figures as further evidence of dumbing down. Public service broadcasting, they will conclude, continues to be squeezed by competitive pressures on audience share and reach, forced to abandon the cultural high ground in pursuit of endless makeover and reality TV strands, and tacky celebrity journalism such as Thursday’s Channel 5 documentary on Michael Jackson’s face. But the reality, as so often in these kinds of debates, is more complex.”