Technology minister Lord Carter is to propose "top slicing" the BBC's budget by up to £130 million to help under-pressure ITV and other programme makers, the Sunday Telegraph said.
His White Paper - to be presented to Cabinet on Tuesday - could also call for Channel 4 to receive financial support through a partnership with BBC Worldwide, the corporation's lucrative commercial arm.
Under the reported proposals, up to £100 million of the BBC's funding could be used to pay independent companies to make regional news programmes for ITV.
And another £30 million of licence fee money could be made available for producers to make current affairs documentaries to be viewed either on television or on the internet.
The Telegraph said Ben Bradshaw, the newly-appointed Culture Secretary, held a meeting with senior BBC executives in the last few days to discuss the proposals.
A spokesman for the Department of Culture, media and Sport declined to comment but confirmed the long-awaited report would be put to ministers this week.
The BBC was unavailable for comment. But last month Sir Michael Lyons, chairman of the BBC Trust, said the licence fee should be used to pay only for BBC-related content.
He said: "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.
"To suddenly tell them midway through the settlement that their money is being siphoned off, as some have suggested it should be, would be more than an act of bad faith, it would be tantamount to breaking a contract."
A victory has been achieved in the fight against the disgracefully threatening letters sent by the BBC's TV Licensing arm. The company responsible for sending the letters, Proximity London, was fired by the BBC on Friday after it was found that millions of letters contained false statistics.
" A spokesman said: ‘Mark Thompson and Mark Byford do not have cars drive them to work from their homes, which are outside London. They take the train and are collected from the station.‘They are working on the train and continue to work in the car. As the most senior figures in a global media organisation, the confidential or sensitive nature of some of their phonecalls or communication mean it would not be possible for them to take public transport or taxis.’
The two cars and drivers are also available for other executives when Thompson or Byford are not using them.
The BBC was at the centre of a political bias row last night over claims a senior executive told reporters to ‘go easy’ on the Labour Government now it is lagging behind the Tories in the polls.According to a well-placed source, the man in charge of BBC Radio 4’s flagship Today In Parliament told his staff that it was right to be ‘aggressive’ when things were going well for the Government but not when it was in trouble.
That would be the BBC that fixes competitions, like this oh and the by now infamous Blue Peter competition fix. Then has to explain the concept of honesty by sending its staff on a mandatory new training programme to teach honesty to BBC staff: link.
That would be the same BBC that has failed to promote proper debate on major political issues because of the inherent liberal culture of its staff, a report commissioned by the corporation has concluded: link
That would be the same BBC that employs people from terrorist channel Al Jazeera...link who also apologized to the Taliban terriorist scumfucks: link
That would be the same BBC that claims terrorists are an urban myth created by the jews and JW Bush...link
BBC offers aid and moral support to Taliban terrorists, claim that no army is as mobile as them: Link
That would be the same BBC that lies about casualty figures in the Lebanon: Link as well as fawning support for Palestinian terrorist scum: link
THE BBC last night faced accusations of pro-Brussels bias as it was revealed that the corporation had taken out £141m in “soft” loans from the European Union.
The broadcaster has taken out three separate low interest loans from the EU-backed European Investment Bank (EIB) to fund the expansion of its growing commercial empire.
It also emerged that the BBC has received grants from the EU worth £1.4m over the past five years.
The Brussels deals raise awkward questions for the corporation about its coverage of European affairs and its burgeoning profit-making arm whose interests extend to property, publishing and the internet.
The details of the loans and grants stretching back six years emerged in a letter written by Zarin Patel, the BBC’s finance director, to Bob Spink, a Conservative MP.
The first £66m loan in 2003 was used to fund “the fit-out” of a new building in the BBC’s Media Village development in west London, which was later sold for a profit. The second loan for £25m and the third for £50m were made to BBC Worldwide, the corporation’s profit-making arm, to pay for the acquisition of overseas rights to programmes made by the BBC in the UK.
The EIB has described itself as “an autonomous body set up to finance capital investment furthering European integration by promoting EU policies”.
Oh and statues to its own vanity:
The BBC was embarrassed last night by e-mails that showed it "invented" a justification for spending £60,000 of licence payers’ money commissioning a Tracey Emin sculpture.
Emin's Roman Standard sculpture of a bird on a post was bought by the BBC at a time when Mark Thompson, its director-general, was announcing big cost cuts.
A laptop and several memory sticks containing personal information about children and their families has been stolen from a vehicle involved with the production of a BBC TV programme.
The information included names, addresses and mobile phone numbers of children, and dates when families were planning to go on holiday.
That would be the same BBC who ban on the word faggot in the Pogues song Fairytale of New York, as detailed on their website here. Then about 24 hours later they climbed down and decided that the word faggot was okay again. A humiliating climbdown.
The BBC not worth a bent copper coin of taxpayers money.
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