Letter: The search for quality broadcasting

Sir: In his article yesterday, Hamish McRae likened the British television industry to car manufacture; saying, apparently with relish, that if the ITV network were brought under a single ownership and the BBC privatised, we would have companies that could compete '. . . like a Rover or a BMW'. This concept unfortunately reduces everything to the search for pounds and pence, rather than accepting that individual quality should be brought into the equation.

To carry his analogy further, we should rather be looking to emulate Morgan, making quality products that the world wants without compromising for the sake of price. If we go down the path of bigger must be better, we will end up competing in the same markets as the American and Australian popular programming, eventually leaving that as the only market.

Gentlemen of the industry, some mergers must make sense for the sake of economies of scale, but please do not lose sight of the fact that we work in an artistic industry, and as such Mammon is not our only god.

Yours faithfully,

JOHN ALLAN

Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire

3 December