Mellor Confident For BBC Future

David Mellor told the MRG Conference on Friday that he believed “the renewal of the BBC Charter in 1996 would now be straightforward.” The present changes being made were quite radical, but “the test is whether these reforms would deliver a better product or a demoralised organisation.” Mellor is optimistic. “These reforms have also taken the ground from beneath the critics’ feet.”

“One sees in the product of Mr Murdoch the future – and it doesn’t work.” It is “bastardised TV.” The commercial sector can be beneficial to the BBC – “in fact it strengthens the case for the BBC.”

Mellor,like Michael Grade, was strongly opposed to advertising on the BBC – if it did take advertising “we would have to re-open the whole commercial TV debate, specifically the sums paid by all the ITV companies for their franchises. Privatising Radio 1 and 2 would simply damage commercial radio.”

“If we are going to have a BBC – and there is as compelling a case for it now as when it was first set up – then a universal levy must be paid for it.”