Stewart told the north-west region CBI dinner in Liverpool last night that the BBC needed a "shakeup" to help protect commercial news providers who are struggling in the recession.
The comments come days after ITV announced it was axing its contract with ITN to supply online news on the broadcaster's website. It has been reported that this will result in 40 redundancies.
Stewart has welcomed recommendations made in the Digital Britain report by Lord Carter last month. It suggested top-sliceing the licence fee to help pay for ITV local news services.
The news caster is a former presenter of ITV1's flagship News at Ten bulletin. He has said the BBC could benefit from a ‘Beeching' report in to how the corporation operates.
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