On Friday, the great and the good from the television world will gather again for the Edinburgh International Television Festival sponsored by The Guardian. Because it is sponsored by that newspaper, other media have become more reluctant to report it and as a result it has become less important in the television year for the "Suits" to attend.
This year, the head honcho at the BBC, Mark Thompson will explain why his salary is three times larger than the PM's and why his Pensions and countless others in senior positions works out to be over £100k p.a. and sometimes £200k p.a. or more. You could rightly ask what planet do these public servants live on and why the BBC Trust hasn't resolved this issue?
The BBC needs to have its budget severely cut. This is the only way (all others have failed) to bring it to book. We do not need endless channels either on tv or on the radio. We need a News output that is the best in the world across all platforms including the internet. The way that BBC World is funded outside the licence fee needs re-thinking. It also needs a major overhaul as its programmes are dire and an embarrassment when travelling abroad.
WE need for 2012-15
On television
BBC1 and BBC 2
BBC 3 and BBC 4 should become C4 and Channel 4 More or failing that BBC 3 should become BBC Sport and BBC 4 should become BBC Education with the Open University running it.
BBC World should be funded from the Licence Fee and its shareholders should be ITV, C4 and the OU
On Radio
Radio 1 and Radio 2 should be allowed to take advertising to fund Radio 4,5 and 6.
On the Net
One News Only web site
One UK only web site
From 2015
The Licence Fee to go to Ofcom; any public sector media company would be able to bid for funding following the way in which ITV companies did back in the mid 1990s. The BBC would be given 80% of the licence fee until 2018. After that its News output would be guaranteed by the Government and the rest of its output would have to bid against other public sector players.