Biography

Product placement needs to be done transparently, with credits that make it clear it has taken place. But you have to trust the consumer. If it's overdone or tasteless viewers will switch off. And it's rife in British television anyway. There's product placement in movies that go on television and in imported American TV shows and dramas. And what about those sports events where sponsors' logos are worn on shirts? Product placement won't dramatically change the way we watch TV.

One of the most important functions of the BBC is to invest in original content, everything from Radio 3 to Strictly Come Dancing. But as the digital world challenges the television model and the way programmes are funded, the BBC's investment in programmes becomes even more important and that's particularly true of the money it puts into drama and children's programmes. But the most important function of the BBC is to be a trusted and reliable source of news and information and that's more important today than it ever was in the past, because the Internet is the home of rumour, gossip and paranoia. There can be no more acute expression of democracy than that there is a publicly funded news organisation that can criticise the government.