Speaking at the Royal Television Society dinner last night, Allen accused the BBC of failing to deliver regional programming and develop its own original ideas.
He said: "True the BBC are pumping a bit more money into news, but it isn't putting money into other things that connect people to their region -- the social life or the emotional life, call it what you will, of a region."
He also attacked the corporation for copying formats aired first on commercial TV, such as 'Fame Academy', which he called a pale imitation of ITV's 'Pop Idol'.
As a solution, he called for 10% of the £2.5bn the licence fee brings in for the corporation to be awarded to the commercial sector to develop "new, additional public-service programming on commercial channels".
Allen questioned the BBC's integrity and the perception that it is a publicly funded organisation, designed to to keep advertising-funded broadcasters "honest".
"For ages, people have bandied on about how the BBC exists to keep the rest of us honest. From where I'm sitting, in the last few years it has often seemed the other way round," he said.
His comments will add fuel to the contentious debate about the way the BBC is funded and how it uses the money. The issue is coming up for scrutiny in the corporation's charter review due in 2006.
ITV, which has traditionally beaten the BBC in the peaktime ratings war, started to lose out to its public service rival in the last couple of years for a combination of reasons. Firstly, the BBC has shaken up its schedule to appeal to a wider audience, while ITV's resources were drained by ITV Digital and the debilitating advertising downturn.
However, last year the network unveiled plans to inject £100m into its programming budget, a move that has been welcomed throughout the industry.
Allen said that ITV remained committed to regional programming and said that despite "one of the most sustained advertising recessions in living memory", ITV's regional advertising sales rose 4%.
If you have an opinion on this or any other issue raised on Brand Republic, join the debate in the .
_1.jpg)
.jpg)
