Elstein says BBC has ‘inverse Sarkozy syndrome’
September 30, 2009
The former Channel Five chief executive David Elstein has accused the BBC of “inverse Sarkozy syndrome: trying to seem smaller without actually becoming smaller”.
Elstein renewed his call – first made in a 2004 report by the Broadcasting Policy Group, which he chairs – for the BBC to be funded by a voluntary subscription. He pointed to the success of US channel HBO, arguing that there was “no credible BBC counter-claimant” to the critical acclaim accorded to the subscription cable service’s drama The Wire.
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