Thompson Calls for “Realistic Funding” for BBC

LONDON, October 11: BBC director-general Mark Thompson has
declared that “realistic funding” through a new, long-term license fee
settlement is essential if the BBC is to fulfill the Government's goal for the digital
switchover laid down in the broadcaster’s new 10-year charter.

"Few people outside the industry have registered the
scale of task, or the scale of the money required,” said Thomson in a speech. “This
is a project of great size and intricacy. The risks are formidable. If it is
under-resourced it will fail. It's a simple as that – and the failure
will impact on many millions of households."

Thompson added the BBC as presently funded, and through
savings and efficiencies, can only cover 70 percent of the costs necessary to
live up to the full mission proposed by the government, and that it needs
additional investment.

"If all that was wanted in the new Charter was a
steady-state BBC with the same line up of services and the same level of
quality, we could deliver that well within our current resources,” he said, but
stressed that the BBC “is wrestling with many of the same issues as the rest of
the public sector: how to reform and modernize; how to drive efficiencies and
improve quality at the same time.”