The BBC will on Monday make an unprecedented proposal to co-operate with commercial broadcasters.

Mark Thompson, director-general of the BBC, will suggest in a submission to the industry regulator that the BBC should help commercial rivals by offering to exploit their programmes internationally, and by sharing new technologies to help cut costs.

The BBC will propose sharing regional news resources, including non-exclusive footage, to help ITV with the costs of its regional bulletins, and it will tell commercial radio companies that it is willing to spend heavily to market digital radio and improve its network coverage from the existing 90 per cent.

The BBC plans to cut the costs of making programmes by 20 per cent by 2012 — a saving of £1 billion — by eliminating the use of videotape. Mr Thompson said he will also offer the replacement technology to rivals. “Those technologies are something we might share with other broadcasters,” Mr Thompson told The Times.

However, the offer will be accompanied by a warning that it would be a mistake to share the BBC’s licence fee so that ITV and Channel 4 could make documentaries and other less popular, up-market programmes.

“You tinker with that at your peril,” he said.

State-owned Channel 4 is eyeing public financial assistance to help to plug a looming deficit, including the possibility of a share of the licence fee.

Ofcom, the regulator, is reviewing the future of public service broadcasting amid concerns that viewing patterns will fragment as more people switch to digital multichannel broadcasting before analogue signals end in 2012.

Many industry executives argue that, as a result, business models of commercial broadcasters will come under more pressure because they cannot generate enough advertising to fund spending on programming.

Mr Thompson believes that Ofcom is too pessimistic about the plight of commercial broadcasters.

He dismisses concerns in the industry that after 2012 cash constraints will force commercial broadcasters to lower the quality of programming.

Arguing that there is little sign of a quality crisis in British television, he said: “The picture painted by Ofcom is too pessimistic. Look at the quality of the output across British television.”

Rival broadcasters are likely to welcome a BBC offer to share technology, but ITV is trying to press ahead with its own international expansion plans, while Channel 4 often does not have the rights to exploit the programmes it airs because they are made by independent production companies.

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