BBC: Charter 2017

Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall Excerpts

Thursday 17th September 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

The licence fee is one of the issues that we will be looking at as part of the charter review, so I think that the answer is no.

[Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall (Lab)]

My Lords, following on from the question of the noble Lord, Lord Low, will the Minister explain why, by implication, it is all right for competitors to compete but not all right for the BBC to compete? I come from a sector—the theatre—where public funding substantially adds to its diversity and creativity and the commercial competitors, as it were, of funded theatres are very well aware of how much they owe to their colleagues in the funded sector. Is that not also true of the BBC and the independent sector?

[Baroness Neville-Rolfe]

I agree with a lot of what the noble Baroness says. Both public service broadcasters and commercial operators contribute to the creativity and greatness of the UK industry. The BBC has an arm worldwide which sends programmes such as “Sherlock” to China, which is incredibly important. It is a misapprehension to think that we are not looking at the BBC’s commercial arm as a positive, but we need to make sure that there is no unfairness or bad competition.