The Stage

Whittingdale backs bid to share BBC licence fee with other broadcasters

Published Tuesday 1 February 2005 at 11:55 by Liz Thomas

Shadow culture secretary John Whittingdale has given strong backing to proposals suggesting licence fee money should be given to other broadcasters to produce public service programmes as part of a radical overhaul of the BBC board of governors.

The plans outlined in a report by Lord Burns’ expert panel recommended that the governors should be replaced by an external body independent of government, the Public Service Broadcasting Commission, which would hold the Corporation to account and make sure its services were in the public interest and giving value for money. The body could also decide if some of the licence fee money should go to other broadcasters if it decided the BBC was not fulfilling its role.

Whittingdale said: “It is a very good idea to allow other channels to apply for this financial support, there seems no logical reason why the BBC should have a monopoly on the money particularly if it is falling short of its commitments.”

He added he felt that Lord Burns’ recommendations for a PSBC, which would also be independent of media regulator Ofcom, were broadly sensible as the current system of governance was failing desperately. “It is clear from Hutton and more recently the Jerry Springer issue that there is something of a discrepancy in its role. With Jerry Springer the governors said the decision to air the show was one for management, one they would not interfere with as they may need to act if there were any complaints.

“However under the Communications Act, Ofcom is the body that investigates issues of taste and decency and it is Ofcom that will rule on the matter. So if the governors say they have no role pre-transmission and there is clearly no need for them post-transmission then it is difficult to see what they are there for.”

In a letter to culture secretary Tessa Jowell, Lord Burns warned the current system of governance compromised the BBC’s independence and reforms planned by Corporation chairman Michael Grade did not go far enough. The recommendations will be considered for inclusion in the government’s upcoming Green Paper on BBC Charter Review.