A self-perpetuating department of state

Barry Cox, commercial TV old-timer, says we should get started on the long slog to an open market for television now:

“Does a mature liberal democracy such as the UK really still need an institution such as the BBC in its present form? It is, in effect, a self-perpetuating department of state but without an elected politician at its head. Like other departments of state, it is funded by taxpayers’ money, but unlike them it is guaranteed more money than it needs to do the job for which it has been created.”

(from Media Guardian)