British Broadcasting

In a 150,000-word report to Parliament last week, a committee headed by Lord Beveridge concluded that BBC should stay pretty much as it is.

Thorniest problem: where to find the money for radio and the increasingly heavy expenses of television? The committee thought BBC should continue, for the time being, to collect annual fees from set owners ($2.80 for radio, $5.60 for TV). Flatly rejecting advertising on the British air, the seven-man majority said: "Sponsoring . . . puts the control of broadcasting ultimately in the hands of people whose interest is not in broadcasting but in the selling of some goods or services or the propagation of particular ideas."

In an acid, one-man minority report favoring commercial sponsorship, Conservative M. P. Selwyn Lloyd said: "If people are to be trusted with the franchise, surely they should be able to decide for themselves whether they want to be educated or entertained in the evening."

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