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Electronic Communications

Is the hon. Gentleman suggesting that the only way to deal with the commercial predicament faced by ITV, Channel 4 and all the other commercial broadcasters is to pump more money into the BBC through the licence fee? ITV says that, next year, the disparity between advertising-funded broadcasters and the BBC will be £1 billion. There comes a point when commercially funded broadcasters are simply not able to compete with the BBC in producing programmes for large audiences. When the BBC's commercial rivals can spend less on programming and when the BBC's own costs are falling, we have to ask whether it is appropriate for the corporation to have an inflation-busting £68 million rise.