Viewers to foot bill for BBC mistakes

TV licence payers could be forced to foot the bill for the BBC's on-air mistakes if the Government accepts controversial plans for future media regulation.

A committee headed by Lord Puttnam says that media regulator Ofcom should be given the power to fine the BBC for lapses in programme standards like the recent burst of on-air expletives by Radio 1 presenter Sara Cox.

The proposals would mean licence payers would have to fork out if the regulator found the BBC to be in breach of its public service remit. The committee said the move would put the onus on the BBC to avoid sloppiness and be more accountable to viewers and listeners.

Lord Puttnam's committee has already set itself on a collision course with the Government, recommending that plans to open British broadcasting to foreign ownership should be scrapped, and that newspaper groups should be banned from buying Channel 5.

The BBC has argued that, unlike commercial broadcasters, it should not have to pay fines for mistakes because it would effectively be a tax on viewers. The committee said that argument was "unconvincing".

The Communications Bill proposes that the BBC should be regulated both by its own governors and by Ofcom.