Ofcom will take charge of regulation distribution framework.
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The Culture Secretary will also point to the new 11-year Charter as evidence the corporation will be free from political interference.
At Sunday night’s TV Bafta awards, Wolf Hall director Peter Kosminsky hit out at the Government, saying it was trying to “eviscerate” the BBC, adding that he felt now “is a risky time for broadcasting in Britain”.
While rejecting a subscription model, the government said it welcomed “the BBC’s commitment to develop and test some form of additional subscription services during the first part of the next Charter period, and to consider whether elements of subscription could provide a more sustainable funding model in the longer term”.
But, Hall said, he disagreed with some of the proposals, including the number of government-appointed members to the BBC’s internal board of governors.
Specific details of who would elect the other half of the board have not yet been detailed. While the BBC receives about 3.7 billion pounds ($5.3 billion) a year in public funding, commercial TV companies are largely dependent on pay-TV fees and advertising, which has been squeezed by the rise of digital programming.
The BBC Trust will be abolished.
“The Scottish Government remains committed to working with the UK Government to deliver the ambitious agenda for the BBC that we have developed with audiences and the sector in Scotland”.
“As viewing habits shift away from linear television, viewers paying for a television licence to watch or record any television as it is being shown will increasingly foot the bill for public service content that many enjoy without any payment”, the report said.
His proposals were “totally out of step with the licence fee payers who value and support the BBC”, she said.
Mr Whittingdale has faced accusations he is trying to run down the BBC by backing the BBC board with Tory cronies and ordering it to stop the race for ratings.
“The government thinks there is a case for iPlayer to require verification – i.e. access should be conditional upon verification of licence fee payment – so that individuals in other countries, and those in the United Kingdom not paying the fee, can not access licence fee funded content for free”.
For the moment, the licence fee will remain.
Brian Cox was just one of the well-known names to speak out. “It would be a great travesty if the same old people, in the same old Westminster village, occupy the same old roles”. The rest is yet to be confirmed but it will be made of government appointees.
A senior Government figure acknowledged to Sky News that only a handful of stars would be caught at this level, rather than the hundreds that could have been caught if the bar had been set at £150,000 as originally mooted.
Ms Maria Eagle, media spokesman for the main opposition Labour Party, accused Mr Whittingdale of “ideologically-driven meddling”.
The BBC seemed broadly supportive of the White Paper, arguing that it meant it neither had to reduce its scale or scope, or sell commercial assets.
Whittingdale wants the BBC to be the “leading broadcaster in addressing diversity”.
The Culture Secretary even hinted it would have to be overhauled entirely.
A new mission statement for the BBC: “To act in the public interest, serving all audiences with impartial, high-quality and distinctive media content and services that inform, educate and entertain”.
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“We reject the suggestion that today’s White Paper gives the BBC certainty”.
