Events | 2009.09.19
BBC in battle over two fronts
The BBC faces a battle on two fronts to preserve its exclusive hold on the licence fee and to prevent future cutbacks being imposed on it, after attacks from both Labour and the Conservatives.
Ben Bradshaw, the culture secretary, suggested the BBC could be forced to hand over some of its licence fee, while Jeremy Hunt, the shadow minister for culture, warned that a Conservative government would rein in the corporation.
"The BBC finds itself caught between a hostile outgoing Labour government and an even more hostile incoming Conservative one," said an industry source.
The debate about the BBC\'s future has intensified as the problems facing commercial broadcasters such as ITV and Channel 4 have deepened and amid a political climate dominated by the question of public sector cuts.
James Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, last month launched a withering assault on the corporation, giving a focus to the complaints of rival broadcasters that it abuses its funding position to act in an overly commercial manner.
This week, appearing in front of the industry\'s leaders at the Royal Television Society convention in Cambridge, Bradshaw said Murdoch "did us all a favour" by raising concerns about "the BBC\'s size, its remit and impact".
He alarmed BBC executives by warning that there "may well be a case" for a smaller licence fee and attacking the BBC Trust, its regulatory and governance body, for refusing to entertain the idea of "top slicing" the licence fee.
Sir Michael Lyons, the BBC Trust chairman, hit back at the government, claiming it had refused to ask the public if they would like to see licence fee money earmarked to meet the cost of digital switchover returned to them rather than diverted for other purposes.
The BBC director general, Mark Thompson, characterised Bradshaw\'s criticism of the trust as political meddling and pointed out that it had been created by the current government.
Hunt echoed Bradshaw\'s criticism of the Trust and said the BBC had spent too much expanding its services. "Some of the new channels have small audiences but still cost a lot of money. The case needs to be made for this kind of thing."
He opposes the government\'s plans for top slicing the licence fee, but has vowed to freeze the licence fee and cap executive salaries.
The BBC believes any surplus in the licence fee should be handed back to viewers. While it remains adamant that it should not be forced to share the licence fee, it has volunteered to examine the scale of its activities in TV, radio and online.
But the former Labour culture secretary, James Purnell, said it should not cut back on its activities to appease its critics. "If you start to have the BBC contracting, it will have very bad long-term consequences on the kinds of people you attract and their ambition," he said.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/sep[...]cence-fee-labour-conservatives
