16 DECEMBER 1949, Page 14

Suggestions My own general view is that television (which will

never oust radio) is one of our own great achievements of this century. When you have a champion, and expect him to fight, you don't starve him. In fact, you pamper him ; for fat dogs hunt better than lean. In matters like this, where it is an affair of national prestige, 1100,000 wise is a million pounds foolish. With the opening of the Sutton Coldfield station, which is only the first of the new stations, television can see its way ahead, and I would suggest that it wants above all: (a) Studio and office facilities a great deal better than the ramshackledom of Alexandra Palace, which would lead to: (b) A more professional look in its programmes, (c) An agreement with the commercial interests governing sport (football and boxing and the rest) that will raise its out- side broadcasts to the level of the American systems, for it is only here that they excel us, (d) A full daily programme of at least five hours television, with eight hours on Saturday and Sunday,