A war of words between the government and the BBC broke out on Wednesday when Mark Thompson, the broadcaster’s director general, accused a small group of "ideologically focused" people within the UK government of trying to undermine his organisation’s financial security.

Mr Thompson, in a pre-recorded interview with a BBC Radio 4 programme, said that there were no circumstances in which so-called "top-slicing" – the use of part of the £3.6bn licence fee to make programmes for other channels – would be a good idea.

To remove any part of the licence fee would represent an attack on the independence of the BBC and its ability to deliver on its public service remit, he said.

Thee BBC chief directed particular attack on the government and Ofcom, the broadcasting regulator, listing a series of causes – including the funding of Channel 4 and the provision of regional news programmes on ITV – for which the broadcasting regulator had been keen to top-slice the licence fee.

"There is a suspicion that for some years now there has been a small group of people ideologically focused on getting a wedge into the licence fee," Mr Thompson said.

His remarks are the BBC management’s first response to the Digital Britain white paper, published on June 16, which indicated that the government was going to take up to £130m a year from the licence fee to fund a number of projects.

Source: FT

Labels: BBC, TV Licence