To a company that broadcasts into the community, corporate responsibility plays a key role in business strategy. Oliver Wagg talks to Ben Stimson about how BSkyB manages responsibility across its diverse network of operations
Managing corporate social responsibility in the media sector comes with a distinct set of challenges. For one, social impacts take on a whole new dimension in an industry where they are less direct and harder to measure.
As WWF UK and SustainAbility noted in their 2004 survey of corporate responsibility in the media and entertainment sector, the media’s impact is not environmental but psychological and intellectual. Given that these companies “shape public opinion and help frame the terms of public debate” it is vital that they take heed of their corporate responsibilities.
Although regulated by Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, British Sky Broadcasting does not face public service broadcasting requirements like those that apply to Channel 4, the BBC and ITV. In return for privileges such as public funds or broadcasting spectrum, these broadcasters are obliged to operate under a set of obligations relating to their operations and programming. Yet the satellite TV broadcaster does not shirk its responsibilities, realising fully the power of its Sky TV brand in motivating and inspiring young people through, for instance, sports (Living for Sport) or through websites (Reach For the Sky). Indeed social responsibility plays a role in Sky’s mission of becoming the leading “entertainment choice” in the UK, says chief executive James Murdoch. “We’ll do it the Sky way, and that means having responsible business practices and being a profitable company. These are not mutually exclusive – we can do both,” he says in Sky’s Corporate Responsibility Review 2004-2005.
Sky is certainly a profitable company. In the 12 months to June, Sky, which has 9,958 full-time equivalent employees, made a profit of £757m before tax on a turnover of over £4bn.
The operator of the UKs biggest digital pay television platform, Sky, was formed in 1990 by the merger of News Corp-owned Sky and British Satellite Broadcasting. Today News Corp subsidiary News UK Nominees owns a 37% stake in BSkyB, with News Corp chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch chairing the board.
Corporate responsibility lies in the communications department at Sky, with Ben Stimson, director of corporate responsibility, reporting directly to the communications director (now Mathew Anderson, who took over from Julian Eccles in November) as well as along an additional ‘dotted line’ – to the Corporate Responsibility Steering Group, chaired by non-executive director Gail Rebuck. The steering group meets quarterly to provide senior direction and is supported by the Corporate Responsibility Taskforce, made up of senior operational managers from across the business.
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
Sky uses multiple approaches to stakeholder consultation – some formal, and some more ad hoc – to make sure it is aware of the issues facing it, and the media sector. It is closely involved with the UK’s Media CSR Forum, which in 2004 engaged KPMG to undertake a stakeholder consultation and analysis project to identify and consult more than 130 external opinion leaders from the media, the CR community, socially responsible investors and the financial community. The report identified five key issues for the sector: transparent and responsible editorial policies, corporate governance, integrity of information, impartial and balanced output and investing in and supporting staff.
On the investor side, Sky is also committed to maintaining regular open dialogue with investors and maintains inclusion in the FTSE4Good Index and the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. The company is also included in the Business in the Community’s index of Companies that Count.
Sky engages with its employees through the Sky Forum, which began in November 2004 with 67 members representing 48 business areas. All members of the forum are Sky people elected by Sky people, who can out forward any issues that they have to their forum member, the company says in its Corporate Responsibility Review 2004-05.
In the past, accusations of anti-union behaviour have been, rightly or wrongly, levelled at Sky. In 2003, Trades Union Congress General Secretary Brendan Barber alleged Sky was “scaring and bullying employees away from voting for union protection at work.” Since then, the government introduced new legislation on unfair practices during recognition campaigns.
To date no application for formal union recognition has received approval by Sky staff. The company has created the Sky Forum – a way to make sure that relations between employees and managers “are good enough that you don’t get problems.” Is the forum just a way of getting around union recognition, Briefing asks? “No, this is not a direct response. I don’t see there’s anything wrong with making sure you have the best possible dialogue between managers and employees,” Stimson answers.
REPORTING
Sky’s CR review is targeted at both specialist and non-specialist audiences. “The primary audience is still the traditional stakeholders, but I was very keen that we wrote [the report] so that if the ‘man in the street’ picked it up he or she would find it accessible. It should be possible to put on the coffee table, but equally it’s got to work for the experts,” says Stimson. “It will be interesting to see if the ‘CSR purists’ are offended by the look and lighter tone of the report,” Stimson says.
Stimson believes a crucial aspect of good reporting is encouraging and acting on feedback. “One of my big beefs about CSR reporting is that no one is actually clear who they are for.” Sky has pledged £1 for every feedback form it receives through its website to charity partner The Chicken Shed Theatre Company.
After conducting extensive market research, through focus groups, Sky concluded that language clearly played a vital role in the successful communication of its values. “There are CSR issues that subscribers talk about, but it just doesn’t come across in what I’d call ‘CSR language’,” Stimson says. For example, many would not understand the company has an environmental impact, but would care about what their children watched on TV. Improved parental control functionality was part of the company’s response to this.
Sky does not currently seek independent verification for its report, but Stimson has the ambition to do this once Sky has improved the volume of data. “We want to concentrate on getting the activities right, rather than on making sure it passes assurance for the sake of assurance.”
SOCIAL IMPACT OF PROGRAMMING
Measuring the impact of programming is a complex task and one the industry has been struggling to implement effectively for some years. “If you take the analogy of an oil company and its CO2 emissions, our emissions are our programming, so I think we do need to be aware of their impact and managing some of those impacts,” Stimson says. Because Sky is required by UK law to maintain an open platform it does not have control over all of the content broadcast across its network. Sky currently produces 28 channels, which are broadcast on its network alongside 400 third-party channels. “We do of course manage the platform, but it’s complicated by our lack of control over the content and our challenge is to help people navigate a wide range of choices.” And quite often viewers do not make the distinction between Sky channels and the rest, something that Stimson says is challenging.
What Sky can do, Stimson says, is give subscribers as much information about programming as possible: the TV equivalent of product labelling. Sky is currently improving its electronic programme guide (EPG) to ensure that viewers have more accurate information on the content of channels and can therefore make the right choices for them.
MAKING IT BIG
The ubiquity of TV means broadcasters can potentially have an enormous impact in the communities they serve. Sky’s own activities run from the purely philanthropic to cause-related marketing, or as Stimson prefers to label it “social marketing”.
Sky utilised an innovative search method to find its current charity partner, The Chicken Shed Theatre Company. Dubbed Makeitbig the scheme offered 160 charities the opportunity to have a three-minute film made about them. Sky engaged the Media Trust to make films about the short list of ten charities. The films were screened on the Community Channel and the Customer Channel on Sky so that people could vote for their favourites. The selection panel, which included James Murdoch and Fiona Mactaggart, under secretary at the Home Office eventually selected the Chicken Shed Theatre Company, informed by viewers and employees, with NCH coming a close second.
Sky’s selection procedure has a huge advantage over the more conventional methods: the short-listed were not left empty handed as many continue to use the films to help with further fund-raising. “We asked what could we do that was unique to us: the answer was, make and show short films,” says Stimson. “It’s called Makeitbig for a reason: we find an organisation that’s not necessarily at the front of people’s minds and we help them grow and develop.”
SOCIAL MARKETING
At the other end of the CCI spectrum, Sky runs Living For Sport, which aims to re-engage young people who may be at risk of dropping out. Run in conjunction with the Youth Sport Trust and the Department of Education and Skills (Dfes), it uses sport to inspire 11-16 year olds and helps their schools through a structured programme of activities. The results are clear: for many of those taking part it has resulted in improve school attendance, reduced level of detentions, improved punctuality and a renewed enthusiasm for school life. Sky is aiming to provide up to 500, or one in seven, secondary schools with access to this programme for a three-year period. “This kind of programme is definitely about social marketing, being brand and loyalty focused work. The business motivation is there as well as wanting to have an impact on schools.”
“The impact the Sky brand has on that teenage group is impressive – we’re not Nike, but Sky certainly has an appeal,” Stimson says, pointing to recent research by the Future Foundation showing Sky was near the top of the list when people were asked which brand would they trust for information and advice. The Foundation found that Sky was top of the list when people were asked which organisation’s sponsorship would make them sit up and notice. “Living For Sport is about inspiration, not sports talent. It’s always been my view that if you’re an innovative organisation you should do innovative community investment”.
Reach For The Sky (http://www.sky.com/reach) fits into the same category, providing young people practical information on careers in Sky’s business areas. “We’re trying to position it as a service for young people, accessible to all, that offers valuable advice to anybody from the super ambitious to offering advice about sex, drugs and alcohol at school and haven’t even thought about a career.” The website, launched in 1999 as part of the millennium project, it is run with partners such as YouthNet, the UK’s first exclusively online charity.
Overall, Sky focuses on a combination of volunteering and funding in local communities. In 2005, the company launched a new employee-volunteering programme called Make A Difference, whereby all employees are eligible for up to 16 hours of paid leave to do volunteer work. Already over 3% of employees are volunteering.
Sky measures and monitors all its community programmes using the LBG model, managed by the publisher of Briefing, The Corporate Citizenship Company. Sky says the model helps it continuously improve the measurement and reporting of its community investment activities. In 2004-2005, Sky contributed £5.15m in cash, time, in-kind donations and management costs.
TAKING THE AGENDA FORWARD
Sky’s extensive community investment demonstrates the company’s determination to reconcile the competitive demands of becoming the country’s leading entertainment company with the challenges of conducting business responsibly. Here Sky’s powerful brand plays a key role: its community activities focus on entertainment, sport and media – areas where the company is well known and trusted. In contrast, Sky has perhaps made less progress on measuring, reporting and managing the social impact of its output – its broadcasting. As we have seen, there is no simple way of doing this in the media sector. Sky’s 28 channels are a decent starting point for doing something. But its ownership of the platform means there are wider issues around the content it distributes, which the company is slowly beginning to address.
Ben Stimson joined BSkyB as its Director of Corporate Responsibility in February 2001. Since joining Sky he has developed corporate responsibility, community and environmental strategies for the company and established a team to deliver the work. Prior to joining Sky, Ben was a management consultant, initially to private sector companies including Compaq and Hewlett-Packard, and then to not-for-profit organisations such as Amnesty and the Refugee Council. His current role at Sky combines his experience in the private sector with his knowledge of the voluntary and public sectors.
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