Ex-Doctor Who boss warns the BBC as we know it is doomed

Updated

Former Doctor Who boss Russell T Davies has warned the BBC is doomed to be exterminated.

"My take on it is that we've lost. The problem is that this isn't the fight for the BBC," the 52-year-old screenwriter told an audience at the Radio Times Festival at Hampton Court.

"People keep on saying, 'Oh I'd fight to death for the BBC.' There isn't a fight. You can submit some opinions to the green paper.

"In 10 years' time, everything we understand the BBC to be, will be gone."

The writer, who revived and ran the BBC series Doctor Who from 2005 until 2010, added: "What the Government wants, and what is going to happen - because I honestly think this battle has been lost - is we're heading towards some sort of subscriber service."

He branded the threat to the broadcaster "a disgrace".

Davies, whose other series include Queer As Folk and Cucumber, also addressed the revelation that the Government has been considering privatising Channel 4 - currently a publicly-owned, commercially-funded trust.

"The Culture Secretary John Whittingdale said in Edinburgh, I'm not looking at privatising Channel 4," he said.

"And now it turns out, of course, and we know this - yes they are looking at privatising Channel 4 and the plans have been there for a long time."

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