Writer calls for slimmed-down BBC

Reuters - Friday, July 4 10:57 am

LONDON (Reuters) - The BBC should be slimmed down to just one television and one radio channel, the co-writer of the "Yes, Minister" political satire said on Friday.

As it is funded by a tax on all television-owning households, the BBC should focus on BBC1 and Radio 4 to produce more distinctive programmes, Sir Anthony Jay said in a report for the right wing think-tank the Centre for Policy Studies.

"The only possible approach is zero-based reconstruction," said Jay, who co-wrote the 1980s TV hit series about a dithering minister and later prime minister that was much admired by former premier Margaret Thatcher.

"The BBC spends more than four billion pounds every year, most of it on programmes indistinguishable from what is available on competitive channels," Jay said.

"The principal reason why so much of the BBC's output is so undistinguished is lack of money. Its resources are too thinly spread over too many channels.

"A new, much smaller, self-funding public service broadcaster, consisting essentially of one television channel and one speech radio channel, would have a unique role in our national life."

With younger people spending more time on the Internet and turning away from traditional sources of entertainment and information such as the BBC, Jay also predicted the licence fee would eventually have to be abolished.

"Once viewers receive all their programmes on their PCs, the licence fee will be gone," said Jay.

(Reporting by John Joseph; Editing by Steve Addison)

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