Letter: 'Top of the Pops' a partnership

Sir: In your two articles about Top of the Pops last week you quoted remarks made by me at our private sales meeting last week. Let me make my position clear.

We have never wished to influence the editorial integrity of the BBC in terms of the artists that it chooses for Top of the Pops and we recognise that ultimately we have no control over where the corporation chooses to schedule its programmes.

Similarly, it is a decision for the artist and the record company how we choose to present our artists' work in terms of staging, design, etc, and the extent to which we are prepared to fund that. It is also up to the artist, and the record company, which TV shows they choose to appear on - inevitably a function of the size of the audience. The relationship between the record industry and the BBC is a partnership where we are both serving the same audiences and we both want the same thing - the best broad-appeal, high-quality, accessible music programmes. We occasionally disagree about the best tactical way of achieving that.

PAUL BURGER

Chairman and Chief Executive

Sony Music Entertainment

London W1