BBC presents radical plan to share resources
- Published: 23 June 2008 10:53
- Author: Katherine Rushton
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- Last Updated: 24 June 2008 11:26
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The BBC has made an unprecedented offer to share some of its resources with its commercial rivals in its submission to Ofcom for the regulator's report into the future of PSB in the UK.
Details of the proposal have emerged in press reports this morning. They include an offer by the BBC to share local or regional newsgathering resources and non-exclusive bulletins with ITV to help it cut the costs of its PSB footage, the Financial Times and The Daily Telegraph both report.
According to The Times, the corporation could also help commercial rivals by sharing technologies such as tapeless recording and by offering to exploit their programmes internationally through the BBC's commercial arm BBC Worldwide.
In addition, the corporation could relieve some of the burden on commercial stations by shouldering the cost of a marketing campaign for digital radio and improving its network coverage from the existing 90%.
The BBC's radical package are designed to avert the need to top-slice the BBC's licence fee to fund PSB programming on other channels post-digital switchover.
Director general Mark Thompson is expected to sound a strong warning that it would be a mistake to share the licence fee. "You tinker with that at your peril," he told the Times.
Commercial broadcasters are expected to welcome parts of the proposal – specifically the offer to share technology and non-exclusive footage.
However, the offer to exploit programmes internationally will be of less value to Channel 4, which as a publisher-broadcaster does not retain the rights of the programmes it airs, and ITV, which has invested in its own international rights programme.
The BBC will formally publish its report later today.
