In a submission to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport's consultation on the future of the BBC, ISBA has said that the BBC distorts the market and inflicts damage on commercial media, with the broadcaster operating "well beyond acceptable limits".
It says that the BBC is at a crossroads and that for advertisers, maintaining the BBC as it is and without change is not an option. The message echoes that of commercial broadcasters, which are keen to see changes.
One option put forward by ISBA is to free the BBC of its public service shackles, leaving it to behave competitively and commercially, redistribute the licence fee and encourage the BBC to develop new channels of funding beyond it.
The alternative would be to bring the BBC back within a more clearly and tightly defined public service remit, managing its funding and adjusting its governance to ensure that this is kept within and delivered.
"We call for government to describe and circumscribe the BBC's role and remit in this review," ISBA said.
ISBA, which is the voice of British advertisers, criticised the BBC for failing to meet its own editorial standards and independent production quotas without penalty and said that it should be regulated in the same way other broadcasters are.
The organisation also called for an end to the BBC being the only recipient of public funding, saying that all broadcasters should be able to apply for contestable public funds in return for public service commitments.
Calls have already been made elsewhere by broadcasters for the BBC's licence fee to be shared out with other stations that also have a public service remit, such as ITV1 and Channel 4, but do not get a slice of the BBC cake.
However ISBA also said it supported significant continued public funding of broadcast media.
ISBA represents advertisers in all areas of marketing communications, with 380 member companies operating in all sectors of business.
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