A SPECTATOR'S NOTEBOOK
THE views of the massed peerage on the B.B.C. and its future are interesting. My Lords Halifax, Bessborough, Brand and Sandford have all graced the columns of The Times in the past week, most of them to protest at the possibility of commercial advertising, or any element of it, being associated with the sound-broadcasting programmes. As a humble com- moner I venture to endorse that view with some emphasis. The B.B.C. has its faults, like every human institution except per- haps the House of Lords, and there are plenty of critics avail- able to point them out. That is as it should be. The B.B.C. is there to be shot at. I have directed a trifling missile at it myself this week. But on the whole it does its work extremely well, as an American quoted by Lord Brand affirmed with some admiration. This is definitely a case of bearing the ills we have instead of others that we know not of. But I agree too with Lord Bessborough that television is another story. Sound- broadcasting can be carried on efficiently on the fees of sub- scribers. Television cannot, .and it ought not to be supported either by public money or by part of the fees of subscribers who only want sound, not sight. A limited experiment with spon- sored television programmes would solve the financial prob- lem, and also provide a basis for judgements on which later decisions about sound programmes might be based.
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