Letter: Producer choice

PETER KOENIG suggests that 'producer choice' is a BBC innovation (18 July). Central Independent Television turned its Birmingham studios into a wholly-owned subsidiary some years ago, telling producers that they could use CTF (as it was called) or outside companies, the goal being to make programmes as cheaply as possible. Historians of the Jurassic period of ITV will remember that 12 months later CTF went out of business and 400 redundancies followed.

Tim Horrocks, Birmingham