Fifteen hours of quality ITV per week

Mary Ann Sieghart

The following suggestion is adapted from an article in the Times.

Opening up the airwaves is a fine idea. But the UK government should make sure that the quality of programmes on existing channels does not deteriorate. Should we despair? Not yet. There is a solution that any government could adopt in future without betraying free-market principles:

Instead of telling aspiring bidders at the ITV franchise auction that they must pass a quality threshold, the new ITC should let them bid on the basis that they can schedule as many game shows, soap operas and B-movies as they like. The winning company should, in theory, end up paying more than it would otherwise have done for the franchise because it has a licence to maximise its audience.

'Cream off the extra money the bidder has paid, and give it to a venture modelled on today's Channel 4'

But it should also be asked to set aside, say, 15 hours of its schedules per week (and not all in the early hours of the morning) for programmes which cannot necessarily finance themselves through advertising revenues. The ITC should cream off the extra money the bidder has paid, and give it to a venture modelled on today's Channel 4. That venture would consist solely of editors who would use the money to commission independent producers - or even ITV companies - to deliver high-quality programmes that would not otherwise be made.

The result: the Treasury pays out no extra money, Britain retains its reputation for excellent television, and, above all, the viewer has the greatest possible choice.

Mary Ann Sieghart, the Times, 1 Pennington St, London E1 (tel 071 782 5000).

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