A Modest Proposal

 

Champagne may be being readied at the BBC with the news that Ofcom wants to give the corporation much greater freedom to set their own programming targets free from the 148 quotas which presently require them to provide certain amounts of public service programmes - i.e. arts, religion, documentaries, etc. 

This would allow the BBC to to set it own targets and mark its own homework, and to use its £3.5 billion a year in licence fee funding to become even more like its commercial rivals and even less like a public service broadcaster.

Last Saturday, BBC One viewers saw Celebrity Mastermind followed by Celebrity Catchpoint followed by Celebrity The Wall followed by Pointless Celebrities. With any luck, thanks to Ofcom, they could soon be enjoying Celebrity BBC Weekend News read by Michael McIntyre. The news department could select ten stories to cover and 'spin the wheel' to decide which ones are covered and the order they're covered. BBC reporters like Mark Easton and Orla Guerin could then emerge through dry ice and talk about how awful things are and then wave goodbye to the audience at the end of their reports to lift viewers' spirits again.