Government denies that it is looking to clamp down upon ‘competitive scheduling’ at the BBC
The UK government has distanced itself from claims that it is looking to intervene with the scheduling of flagship programmes.
During the weekend, the Mail on Sunday quoted a government source backed state intervention with the public broadcaster’s schedule to reduce “competitive scheduling”, claiming: "It would be obvious when ITV had a flagship programme they were hoping to get high ratings for and where it would be unfair for the BBC to take it on head-to-head”
Reports suggested that BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing could be moved to avoid it clashing with ITV and other commercial broadcaster’s prime-time output.
Labour shadow culture secretary, Maria Eagle said: “John Whittingdale (culture secretary) is behaving as if he were running the BBC – he is not. This kind of meddling in day-to-day scheduling decisions would be a completely unacceptable interference in the independence of the BBC. Labour will fight it all the way.”
A department for culture, media and sport spokesperson, denied the accusation, stating: “The government will be setting out its plan on the BBC charter in a white paper in May.
“The secretary of state has made it clear on a number of occasions that the government cannot, and indeed should not, determine either the content or scheduling of programmes.”