ITV's Grade supports top-slicing license fee

June 30, 2009 Outgoing ITV executive chairman Michael Grade has hit out at BBC bosses, slamming the pubcaster's so-called "partnership proposals" and instead supporting the idea of "top-slicing" the BBC license fee to support ITV's regional news. Grade, a former chair of the BBC board of governors, said that the BBC Trust and BBC management had taken on Ofcom and the government in an "ideological campaign to protect the BBC's monopoly of the license fee," following the Digital Britain white paper, which calls for the BBC license fee to be shared with other broadcasters. Speaking at the Institute of Economic Affairs annual broadcasting conference, Grade said that the BBC's offer of partnership support to help ITV's regional news coverage had "unfortunately evaporated on close examination" and that of £20 million ($32.9 million) offered in partnership savings by the BBC, only about £7 million ($11.5 million) had panned out and would not in any case be available until 2016.

Subscribe to the Hollywood Reporter and see the entertainment industry from its best angle: the inside looking out. Complete access to real-time news and exclusive analysis that goes behind the scenes from film to television, home video to digital media.

   Subscribe now.