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The media watchdog Ofcom will be given a role in assessing the impact of changes to BBC services on the communications market.

Tessa Jowell, secretary of state for culture, media and sport, also said that the BBC must make entertainment a top priority, but at the same time should not chase ratings or copy successful formats on other channels.

In the white paper published today, the Department for Culture, Media & Sport outlined its vision of the trust and Ofcom working "in partnership" to apply public value tests as a check against the BBC's potential to overshadow commercial operators and limit consumer choice by expanding its services.

The trust is to conduct a public value test for new BBC services and for "significant" changes to existing services, using Ofcom's expertise to conduct a market impact assessment.

In a change from the green paper, the DCMS has expanded Ofcom's remit to cover cases of significant changes to existing services as well as new services, citing the need to win the confidence of those outside the BBC.

Ofcom's work is to be overseen by a steering group drawn jointly from the trust and Ofcom, with independent members where agreed.

BBC chairman Michael Grade welcomed the white paper and draft charter and agreement, saying that it required the BBC to make radical changes to the way it operates to satisfy licence fee payers and the wider media industry.

"The new governance model lays on the trust a duty to represent the interests of the licence fee payers both as paymasters of the BBC and as consumers with an interest in wider choice. An overhaul of the BBC's governance to a modern structure that serves the licence fee paying public is long overdue."

Mark Thompson, BBC director-general, said the new governance arrangements would provide a framework for the BBC to operate within, and allow the corporation to concentrate on its core job of providing programmes and services that inform, educate and entertain.

"The public purposes set out in the white paper are a clear remit for the BBC to deliver, but achieving them will be a challenge and not a simple box-ticking exercise.

"The BBC is passionate about quality content and we want to deliver on every appropriate platform programmes that are innovative, distinctive and entertaining."

He added that the BBC was "developing a creative strategy" that would be the BBC's creative blueprint for the next charter and would set the UK's benchmark for quality content.

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