22 JULY 2000, Page 29

Turned off, tuned out

TO the big boys in the television league, the three-cornered scrap now awaited in Britain — Granada, Carlton and United must look like a scramble for promotion from the Third Division. Teams like AOL Time Warner (American, of course) or Vivendi (French) could walk all over them. With all our advantages, language among them, we have missed out on this market. It must be something to do with the peculiar structure which gives us two state-owned broadcasters, Channel 4 and the British Broadcasting Corporation itself. Like the National Health Service or Lloyd's of Lon- don, the BBC is one of those British institu- tions so much admired abroad that no for- eigner has dared to copy them.