The Digital Britain report, due to be unveiled tomorrow, is expected to take the £130m digital switchover surplus from the BBC and use it to fund services on other broadcasters.
It is understood the white paper will propose that up to £100m of the anticipated surplus is used fund independently-produced regional news programming on ITV, and that a further sum will be ploughed into children’s programming on ITV and possibly Channel 4.
Digital Britain is also expected to broadly approve the proposed joint venture between BBC Worldwide and Channel 4, which would centre on the BBC’s strong multichannel business through its 60% share in UKTV.
The changes would end the BBC’s 87-year monopoly on the licence fee - but would not necessarily bite into its core funding, as many reports have suggested. Instead it would reallocate the digital switchover surplus, estimated at around £130m.
However, it is certain to rile the BBC Trust which last month stressed that it is in sole charge of the licence fee and that it is unwilling to hand it over for any venture that did not fit with the BBC’s own public purposes and that the public would prefer to having the money handed back to them.
Trust chairman Sir Michael Lyons said at the time: “People would do well to remember that licence-fee payers give us their money in good faith, believing it will be spent on BBC services and content.” No one from the BBC Trust was available for further comment by the time of publication.
The decision to back a BBCW/C4 tie up represents a victory for C4’s chief executive Andy Duncan who has spent more than 18 months lobbying government for public funding. However, it comes as a blow to Five which has also been touting itself as a suitable partner to C4, and whose own business model is under pressure.
Digital Britain is also expected to crackdown on illegal downloads with the set-up of a new body with the power to censor illegal pirate websites, and to set a 2015 switchover date for AM and FM radio.
