ITC Response To BBC White Paper

The ITC has issued its response to the Government’s White Paper on “The Future of the BBC”, in which it proposes the franchising of commercial activities to a private-sector operator.

The ITC supports the BBC’s aim of exploiting its assets, such as secondary programme rights; however, the ITC points out that the BBC has no capital available to invest in new business or partnerships, and licence fee income should not be treated as such. It therefore proposes that the assets should be franchised to a wholly commercial undertaking selected by competitive tender.

The ITC also believes the BBC’s transmission function should be privatised and run in competition with National Transcommunications Ltd (NTL).