BBC licence fee income should be cut and money handed to ITV, Channel 4 and other broadcasters to make up for a shortfall in children’s and regional programming, MPs on the Culture Select Committee said yesterday.

There was also criticism of the BBC for refusing to consider closing BBC Three and BBC Four, its digital channels, which have struggled to win audiences.

John Whittingdale, the Conservative chairman of the committee, said that “there was a case for intervention” to plug a supposed gap in quality, which has been estimated to be worth as much as £300 million annually by the early years of the next decade.

Money should come from either the BBC licence fee or general taxation, Mr Whittingdale said. “But we don’t want the overall amount of public money going to broadcasters going up, so if money came out of general taxation, the licence fee should be cut,” he added, meaning that in either scenario there would be less money for the BBC.

ITV has cut the amount of children’s programming it shows on ITV1 from ten hours to five hours a week in the past two years. It is lobbying to cut its regional news commitments.

The MPs also concluded, in a report entitled Public Service Content, that Channel 4 should be eligible for broader financial support, because the Big Brother broadcaster is at risk of running into losses as its share of viewing declines as more people switch to digital.

The MPs want Ofcom, the communications regulator, to examine the possibility of supporting particular types of programming, rather than persist with proposals to create a “Channel Six” broadcaster with £300 million a year. Ofcom is preparing for an analysis of “public service broadcasting” next year.

Times Recommends

• No room for Baldrick in overstretched army
• Freecycle booms as middle class feels squeeze
• Marksman gets £5,000 over ‘serial killer’ quip