Granada chairman, Charles Allen, has delivered a scathing attack on the BBC, arguing that the Corporation should lose 10% of its licence fee to fund public service programming on commercial channels.
Despite the fact that ITV pulled in almost £1.7 billion in revenue last year, Allen told industry figures at the Royal Television Society last night that the public service elements of the BBC should continue to be funded through the licence fee.
However, he called on the Government to “consider top-slicing 10% of the licence fee and earmark that £250 million or so for new, additional public service programming on commercial channels.”
He bemoaned the fact that ITV trails behind the BBC by a “sizeable margin” in terms of revenue and criticised the annual £300 million “super tax” that the commercial network has to pay. “In contrast, somewhere along the line, the BBC picked up a Community Chest with pay the bearer £2.5 billion every year and increase it annually by 1.5% while you are at it,” he said.
Allen spoke scathingly of the Corporation and questioned its commitment to public service programming. He said: “ITV, Channel 4 and Channel Five over the past year – we have all been doing our public service best to shame the BBC into doing what it was set up to do.”
He added: “If we have success with PopStars, they feel compelled to slap £5 million of the licence fee on Lame Academy.”
Allen went on to argue that the BBC should spend more licence fee money on innovative programmes that “provoke, challenge and inspire”. He said: “The BBC should be judged on its individuality and distinctness not on how many people it has persuaded to paint their bathroom the same shade of purple or go and start a trout farm in the Dordogne.”
The licence fee has been the subject of much debate over recent weeks after Culture Secretary, Tessa Jowell, warned the Corporation that it would face a comprehensive review to win the renewal of its charter, which runs out in 2006.
Last week influential Government advisor, Barry Cox, called for the abolition of the licence fee and suggested that the BBC should be partially funded by subscription.
