A government-appointed commission wants a new body to oversee Britain's public broadcaster, the BBC, with the power to force it to share its 2 billion pound ($3.76 billion) annual subsidy with rivals. The review by Lord Burns is sure to raise hackles at one of the world's best-known broadcasters for its recommendations that the BBC's own Board of Governors should be scrapped in favour of a new Public Service Broadcasting Commission. Britain levies a tax, known as the TV licence fee, on every UK household with a television, and all the proceeds currently go to the BBC.
But under the Burns report's recommendation, the new commission would be able to allocate some of the tax revenue to other channels to promote public service broadcasting.
The BBC has fiercely defended its exclusive access to the licence fee, saying that any move to share revenues with other broadcasters would confuse the public and result in less support for the fee.