"It is important that more does not mean worse, which is why the BBC must continue to produce programmes that are a benchmark of quality," he said in an interview in the Radio Times.

The equipment to pick up digital broadcasts goes on sale on 1 October

On Wednesday this week the BBC will launch its new channel BBC Choice.

It will join BBC One, BBC Two and BBC News 24 as the first four channels to be broadcast on Britain's digital satellite and terrestrial services

BSkyB will also launch its 150 channel-satellite service on October 1, when the first satellite set-top boxes able to decode the free BBC channels will become available in the shops.

Eastenders "good quality"

Speaking about the BBC Mr Smith said: "It has been a cultural voice for 50 years, not hesitating to put on challenging programmes or to break new ground in the way news is reported."

He admitted that he enjoyed watching EastEnders, the BBC's flagship soap opera.

" Look at EastEnders, popular and of a very good quality ... I see it occasionally, and I'm impressed. A popular programme is no less worthy than highbrow entertainment."

Licence fee

Next year Mr Smith begins a review of the BBC licence fee.

He said that any judgement of the BBC would be based on quality and not ratings, and that the fee must remain the "cornerstone" of BBC funding with commercial income only supplementing it.

"The justification for a licence fee in a multi-channel age is that the core public service broadcaster acts as a benchmark against which everyone is judged," he said.

"Hurt" by critics

The culture secretary admitted he was hurt by critics who condemned his book Creative Britain as "semi-literate, unpublished, maudlin trash".

He also said that he was angered by the verdict of the all-party House of Commons Committee on Culture that he was a weak administrator too interested in "glamorous and trivial matters".