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Hall slams ‘destabilising’ proposals

BBC director general Tony Hall will claim changes to the current licence fee proposed by former employees of the pubcaster would “destabilise” the UK’s entire TV industry.

Hall will tell the Oxford Media Convention on Wednesday that sharing the licence fee with other pubcasters such as Channel 4, known as top-slicing, would hit output and damage quality.

He will say that the result would be “less and less funding for content and services that we know people love. And by weakening the BBC, you also weaken the competitive intensity that underpins the success of UK broadcasting.”

Hall’s comments will come after the BBC’s former chairman Michael Grade recently argued that licence fee funding should be shared between broadcasters.

Roger Mosey, who oversaw the broadcaster’s London Olympics coverage and was the BBC’s editorial director, has also suggested sharing the licence fee. Presenters including current employee and veteran broadcaster David Dimbleby have suggested reducing the BBC’s overall output by merging two of its channels, BBC2 and BBC4.

But Hall will argue that changes to the current funding model “risk de-stabilising a broadcasting model that works.”

“Would contestable funding mean more choice for audiences? Audiences have never had a greater, richer amount of media choice,” he claimed.

His comments come as the BBC seeks to renew its royal charter, which sets out the constitutional framework within which it must work, including its public purposes, guarantees of its independence and the duties of the governing BBC Trust and the executive. The current agreement runs until December 31, 2016.

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