MGEITF 2008: Iannucci Wants The BBC To “Clobber Critics” And Create Its Own HBO Service

Armando Iannucci, the comedy writer and producer behind Alan Partridge and The Thick Of It has said that the BBC should be making more money out of its content by setting up a paid-for subscription service similar to HBO in the US.

Speaking at the Alternative MacTaggart lecture at the MediaGuardian Edinburgh International Television Festival (MGEITF), Iannucci said: “What I feel is missing from our screens is a channel that encourages adventurism and experimentation, backed by money.”

He praised the BBC’s content but said it shouldn’t be afraid to face critism because he thinks “whatever the BBC says and does, it will get it in the neck”.

“What the UK lacks is its own HBO. It may be that collectively the likes of BBC 3 and 4 and More 4 and ITV 2 is meant to provide that, but the constraints of audience and budget they operate under stops them doing so,” he said.

Iannucci predicted that the BBC’s funding will be cut after the next election, with the possibility of Channel 4 receiving a slice of its licence fee, which means it needs to generate more income alongside BBC Worldwide, its commercial arm.

He said: “Let’s take a wager, that the BBC brand is the best TV brand in the world, and that people will pay for that brand because people like Good Stuff.”

Iannucci added: “I so want the BBC to clobber its critics by demonstrating what it does best, make brilliant output, in an environment in which this mission is unchecked.”

However, Iannucci admited that he doesn’t understand how the “economics of this would work” but adds: “I know we’d have to give a guarantee that the content on the channel would make its way eventually onto the BBC’s free-to-air channels.”

He suggested that if the BBC went ahead with his idea, it would “be free to sell quality shows much more aggressively on the international market”.

Iannucci’s final cry was for the BBC to be less-kind to its critics, and instead be more “assertive, aggressive, in how it answers them back”.

BBC: 020 8743 8000 www.bbc.co.uk