TELL IT TO PBS:

BBC told to ditch ratings race to keep licence fee (SHARON WARD, 3/03/05, The Scotsman)

THE BBC will keep its licence fee for another 11 years but only if it ditches the glut of lifestyle shows which dominate its main channels, the government announced yesterday.

In one of the biggest overhauls in the Corporation’s 77 year history, Tessa Jowell, the Culture Secretary, said the Board of Governors would be scrapped, to be replaced by two new bodies.

In return for a continuation of the licence fee until 2016, she demanded an end to "copycat" programming in which the BBC tried to compete with its commercial rivals for ratings. Instead, there should be a re-commitment to quality public- service broadcasting.

The point of public broadcasting is not to ape the wasteland.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 3, 2005 8:34 AM