Forum for former BBC staff - Cameron: BBC must be reined back

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Cameron: BBC must be reined back (Read 2750 times)

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Cameron: BBC must be reined back
May 9^th, 2006, 6:03am

This is taken from the Financial Times:

Cameron calls for curbs on BBC
By Emiko Terazono
Published: May 9 2006 03:00

David Cameron, leader of the Conservative party, has called for measures to curb the BBC from over- expansion at the expense of small and local businesses in local television, online and other new media services. Mr Cameron, speaking yesterday to regional newspaper executives, said: "We've all seen in our own constituencies small internet businesses, often involved in education or other information provision, working away to create a market, to make some money, and then the BBC comes along and squish, like a big foot on an ant, and that business goes out. And I think that we need to look at ways of actually making sure that the BBC doesn't over-extend itself."

He said there needed to be a "a better set of rules that stops the BBC from charging in . . . and actually putting other people who are struggling to provide a market, out of work."

The comments follow an extensive debate over the BBC's licence settlement hosted by the government last week, in which the corporation's commercial rivals questioned its bid for an annual increase in its licence fee of inflation plus 2.3 per cent a year

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Re: Cameron: BBC must be reined back
Reply #1 - Jun 6^th, 2006, 2:07pm

This is taken from Broadcast Online:

Cameron accused of “caricaturing the BBC”
by David Rose
June 6, 2006

New Broadcasting Minister Shaun Woodward has accused Conservative leader David Cameron of “caricaturing the BBC”.

During his first appearance in the House of Commons since being appointed to the role, Woodward defended the BBC against criticism voiced by Cameron last month that the corporation’s plans to develop ultra-local news threatened the future of local newspapers.

“He caricatured the BBC and claimed that it squashed all sorts of businesses,” Woodward told MPs. ”The BBC has been the source of, and a benchmark for, the greatest broadcasting anywhere in the world.”

Andrew Robathan, Tory MP for Blaby, complained the BBC was not providing value for money from the licence fee and no longer delivered high-quality public serviced broadcasting.

He queried whether in today’s digital age, when television pictures can be received on mobile television, a tax on TV ownership was the right way to deliver high-quality public service broadcasting in the 21st century.

Woodward hit back claiming that: ”The majority of people are extremely satisfied with the service the BBC provides. We have concluded that the right way to proceed for the foreseeable future is through the licence
fee.”

He added that the outcome of the funding review, which will determine the level of licence fee from April 2007, would be announced “later this year”.

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