Sir,

The BBC finds itself, as ever, in an untenable situation over its venture into digital broadcasting.  Critics accuse it of overt commercialism.  Had the BBC not made the entry into the digital age which it has done not only is it likely that the impact of digital broadcasting would have been much less remarkable than has been the case, but also the BBC would have been accused of being a dinosaur.  The BBC, on this issue as in so many before in its long history, has led the market rather than react to it as its main rival, ITV, certainly has done.

The BBC is a facet of British life that we should be deeply proud of.  It is now the sole public service broadcaster to cater for the majority of tastes at some point in its schedules.  It could fairly be argued that the range of programmes and thus the audience reach are not as broad as they once were, but this surely vindicates the BBC's entry into the digital era ushering in the real prospect of catering for true minorities.

It seems to me that the role of digital broadcasting is often exaggerated; it is fundamentally little more than an efficient modern distribution system enabling many more channels to be accomodated than was possible with the previous analogue services, and with much higher quality.  But this technology has strong parallels to that which was available in 1964 when BBC2 opened and was the first broadcaster in Britain to occupy the hitherto empty uhf spectrum.  It seems, in conclusion, no more justified to criticise the BBC for its foray into digital than it would have been, forty years ago, to condemn it for going on to uhf.  Our state broadcaster should lead the field and I am delighted that it has done  - demonstrating once again its relevance to the modern world and its ability to deliver shareholder value from the license fee.

Yours faithfully

James Burton Stewart