Former BBC chairman Michael Grade has criticised its Saturday night talent show The Voice as a “clone” as a new survey suggested that more than 40% of people thought the corporation should do fewer entertainment shows.
The Radio Times poll of 9,000 viewers and listeners said 96% of people supported the idea of a publicly funded broadcaster and 91% thought the £145.50 annual charge was the best way of paying for it.
But 41% of people thought the BBC should do fewer entertainment shows, at a time when The Voice has become a lightning rod for critics This includes culture secretary John Whittingdale, who says the BBC is guilty of aping its commercial rivals.
Grade told the magazine that he would not have bought The Voice, an acquired format which will return for its fifth series next year.
“It’s just a clone; there’s nothing original about it,” said Grade. “The chairs turn around, that’s it. It’s not enough for me.”
The survey also revealed that 43% of people did not believe the BBC should have three mainstream popular music stations in Radio 1, Radio 2 and 6 Music.
But it remains to be seen what the response would be if one of them faced the axe. When the least popular of the three, 6 Music, was threatened with closure five years ago, it prompted an unprecedented listener backlash and U-turn by the BBC.
The survey, to mark the launch of the first Radio Times festival taking place this weekend, also suggested viewers were fed up by scheduling clashes between the BBC and other channels, with 42% of people saying the corporation should avoid high profile head-to-heads.
ITV last month asked the BBC not to schedule Strictly Come Dancing against its own Saturday night talent contest, The X Factor.
Only a quarter of people surveyed said the BBC “tries to cover too much”.
Radio Times editor Ben Preston said the survey showed “clear support for a high quality publicly funded broadcaster” but there was also “considerable concern about competitive scheduling and derivative entertainment formats which the BBC would ignore at its peril”.
With the BBC set to ask over-75s to voluntarily pay the licence fee when it takes over the estimated £700m cost of free TV licences for older people, 80% of respondents said they would “consider paying for a television licence” even if they were entitled to a free one.
Channel 4 News presenter Jon Snow, who will be appearing at the Radio Times festival, said: “The BBC alone must decide how to spend the licence fee.”
“I’m horrified at the idea that politicians should have any say at all with regard to the editorial content of the BBC or what programme they should or should not run. Enough money has been docked from the BBC budget; how they spend what’s left is up to the BBC.”
A spokesman from the department of culture, media and sport told the Radio Times: “The BBC is one of this nation’s most treasured institutions, playing a role in almost all our lives. We are committed to a through and open charter review and want to hear everyone’s views.”
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