Speaking at a dinner last night prior to the publication of the last Independent Television Commission annual report today, Patricia Hodgson, chief executive of the ITC, said that the new regulator would have to face the challenge of ensuring "what range and quality of broadcast services are necessary for a civilised society".
"The BBC is the public service marker. It needs to give us a vision of what that will mean in the changed market place, or Ofcom may be tempted to do it for them," she said.
Hodgson went on to say that there was a need for a strong third broadcaster to counterbalance the impact of the BBC and BSkyB, and suggested that Channel 4 could take on that role. She said: "ITV is finally achieving scale, but will go where its commercial interests take it. Channel 4 may be a key piece in the jigsaw but it hasn't yet got the scale it needs to play the part."
The ITC is one of the regulatory bodies which is to be subsumed by Ofcom, including Oftel, the Radio Authority and the Broadcasting Standards Agency, by the end of the year. Hodgson was passed over for the chief executive role, which was handed to Stephen Carter, former chief executive of NTL.
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