The Liberal Democrats have called for Lord Carter's final Digital Britain report tomorrow to formally create a "partnership" fund, in part comprised of the BBC's £250m "switchover surplus", to pay for projects including a replacement ITV local news service.
The party is also calling for a new public service broadcasting governance body to protect the BBC and provide support for ailing commercial TV, radio and newspaper companies.
Don Foster, the Lib Dem culture spokesman, argues that the without a formal funding mechanism and independent governance structure, many of Carter's Digital Britain plans, and the partnership proposals put forward by the BBC, could end up as a form of "top-slicing" of the licence fee.
Foster wants the estimated £250m switchover surplus to be put into the proposed partnership fund. This is money left over from the £130m a year of licence fee funding set aside to help the most vulnerable and disadvantaged get digital TV receivers between now and 2012.
Carter wants some of this money to fund the rollout of universal broadband. Others have argued that some should also be used to pay for a replacement for ITV's local news service.
The current licence fee settlement ends in 2012-2013. After this, Foster wants the £130m a year in licence fee money ringfenced to subsidise digital switchover to go into the partnership fund.
"If the idea of partnership is done in such a way where it involves simply taking BBC resources, [such as] people, buildings and money, and giving it away, then that is top-slicing," said Foster. "If it is of mutual benefit then that is genuine partnership."
The Lib Dems' proposed partnership fund would also include any year-on-year licence fee increases the BBC might negotiate in the next settlement after 2013 and would acknowledge the value of existing partnerships, such as the roll-out of the iPlayer technology, to commercial players.
Governance would come from a new independent body, a public service broadcasting regulator, that would be responsible for overseeing the aspects of the operations of ITV, Channel 4 and Channel Five that are contained within their Ofcom public service broadcasting licences.
The new body would also oversee, and protect, the BBC, with all partnership deals having to adhere to tenets of its charter, such as having a benefit to licence fee payers. The BBC Trust would no longer exist as the corporation's governance body.
Ofcom would continue to be the media regulator but would relinquish responsibilities relating to public service broadcasting licensees.
According to Foster, this scheme could encompass, and police, plans such as the oversight of the BBC Worldwide/Channel 4 joint venture, and the BBC/ITV resource sharing plans to deliver regional news.
"If elements are simply handed over [by the BBC] then that would not be allowed, it would need to be demonstrated that the BBC does not actually lose anything without something in return," he said.
Foster also believes that the proposed model is flexible enough to allow some partnerships that have been rejected in the past to go ahead.
He cites the BBC's proposed £68m network of local video websites, which caused an outcry from rival news media companies and were rejected by the BBC Trust, as one example.
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