Broadcaster faces wrath of the Tories

BBC review

Are we saying goodbye to EastEnders and Strictly? To the "downmarket" entertainment output of the BBC? And to the corporation's cherished independence? Are subscriptions on top of the licence fee on the way? And whither the BBC goes, will RTÉ be close behind?

There is little doubt that the unspoken subtext of the UK government's Green Paper announcing a major "review" of the BBC is the deep antipathy in which it is held by many Tory MPs, their conviction that it is politically biased and needs to be defanged. That reality, and a commercially driven onslaught – veteran broadcaster David Dimbleby put it bluntly: "the Murdoch press is an enemy of the BBC for commercial reasons" – mean it now faces a serious existential threat to its character and mission.

Other newspapers groups , it has to be acknowledged, are also worried by the development of the BBC’s extensive online free news presence, a direct and subsidised competitor to financially struggling newspaper sites . A similar case can be made against RTÉ in Ireland.

But the Green Paper, the BBC warned with some justice, “would appear to herald a much-diminished, less popular, BBC. That would be bad for Britain and would not be the BBC that the public has known and loved for over 90 years.”

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British culture secretary John Whittingdale has seized on the opportunity of the 10-year review of the BBC's charter next year to publish the Green Paper and announce a committee to examine the charter. Nothing about the BBC, it is said, is to be regarded as sacrosanct. It has been told that it will have to find out of its own resources the £750 million cost of OAP licence fees. Its 19,000 staff and annual budget of about £4.8 billion are no longer safe. The logic is clear: the BBC is to become smaller, less costly and less competitive with newspapers and private television.

Mr Whittingdale suggests that "The BBC, as a public institution, should not have the same imperatives as commercial companies, such as trying to maximise audience share", and asks whether the corporation should continue to strive to be "all things to all people". He argues that it would be "completely wrong" for the government to decide the schedule – whether to broadcast The Voice or the Great British Bake Off – but the logic of his Green Paper appears to be that the BBC should confine itself to uplifting Reithian television leaving the popular to commercial TV. That's not the view of audiences, two-thirds of whom a recent poll showed , want the BBC to "entertain" – something for everyone.

Unencumbered by a coalition partner, the, Tory government now has the opportunity to do things which the party has been dreaming of for years. Many are worried, with reason, that the “discussion” just launched will be nothing of the kind. The BBC has every reason to be very scared.