BBC Must Keep Share

Stephen Dorrell, National Heritage Secretary warned the BBC last night that it would have to maintain a large share of the audience to guarantee continuation of the licence fee. He said, “If the audience narrows, the case for a universal licence fee will be weakened.” The government is committed to licence fee funding until 2001. Dorrell was speaking at a meeting of the Voice of the Listener.

Chris Smith, shadow heritage secretary spoke at the Media Week TV Summit yesterday. He said that the licence fee should remain the bedrock of the BBC’s funding for the foreseeable future, and that the BBC is the best guarantee of quality in British Broadcasting.