BBC 'being used' in TV switchover

By Kevin Young
BBC News entertainment reporter

Sir Christopher Bland was chairman of the BBC from 1996 to 2001

A former BBC chairman has criticised the British government for demanding that licence fee revenue is spent on the switchover to digital television.

"This is using the BBC and the licence fee to fund government policy," said BT chairman Sir Christopher Bland.

He also said the BBC should not spend large sums on acquiring sports rights.

Sir Christopher, who chaired the BBC's Board of Governors from 1996 to 2001, was responding to the government White Paper on the corporation's future.

Digital responsibilities

The White Paper calls for the BBC to be at the forefront of making the switch from analogue to digital TV - where all viewers will need some type of digital receiver - by 2012.

The BBC must inform the public of the changes and provide help for those who are aged over 75, have disabilities or live in the poorest households.

This was "a potentially very dangerous road for the BBC", Sir Christopher said. "

"To help establish and fund schemes to help the most vulnerable consumers make the switch is not fine at all.

"It [the BBC] shouldn't be funded to do stuff that the government should do itself."

A BBC spokesman responded: "That's a matter purely for the government."

'Trusted guide'

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport, responsible for the White Paper, insisted that "the BBC should continue to act as a trusted guide for licence fee payers during the switchover".

The BBC wants the licence fee to rise by 2.3% above inflation

A spokesman said the process would "deliver specific advantages to the BBC" because it would "no longer have to waste money maintaining both an analogue and a digital terrestrial network".

It would also extend the availability of the BBC's digital TV channels to viewers unable to receive them through an aerial, the department added.

Sir Christopher, now the chairman of BT, made his comments at a meeting organised by the Voice of the Listener and Viewer lobby group in London.

He also discussed the trend of broadcasters spending large amounts of money on acquiring exclusive television rights to sports.

"The BBC brings remarkably little to sport," he said. "I don't believe that the BBC should go over the top on sports rights.

"Of course it's a kind of iconic thing in the BBC, winning sports rights," he added. "Has the world been a worse place because the BBC didn't have Match of the Day? I'm not sure."

Emphasis on entertainment

He believed it was right that the BBC should make entertainment a top priority, as demanded in the White Paper.

Viewers "want to be entertained, they don't always want to watch Attenborough, they don't always want to watch Paxman, they want to watch Strictly Come Dancing, and good luck to them", he said.

Sir Christopher told the meeting he did not believe the BBC would secure the annual licence fee increase - 2.3% above inflation - it has requested.

"I think the BBC will do well if they get inflation. I think that will be an appropriate level of settlement," he added.

He also called for plans to relocate some BBC departments to Manchester to be dropped unless they "will be good for the BBC".