A slope

Not much new in the Sunday Telegraph lead, attempting to second guess the Digital Britain report, due out on Tuesday, and what it means for the BBC licence fee. It's clear that the £130m that was ringfenced to help support digital switchover is up for grabs in the eyes of Carter/Ofcom. And the The Telegraph attempts to make the BBC twitch, by saying new Culture Secretary Ben Bradshaw, is in "robust mood".

It's a tiny proportion of the BBC's total income, but Sir Michael Lyons is right to regard this as a slippery slope. On occasions, though, the BBC itself took the first step on this slope of sending the licence fee in unclear directions - with ever-increasing commitments to take independent productions, fund DAB transmission, and the current strange offer to give away access to news facilities.

If, eventually, money is given to regional news consortia of private companies (providing they sign up to some public service pledge), and ad revenue perks up, who will decide when the subsidy is unnecessary ?