article_snippet: But London Mayor Boris Johnson today insisted the idea of funding the full slate of BBC output was now in doubt, and the BBCneeds to think about the BBC future'.
article_snippet: So the BBC BBC needs to think about the BBC future.'
article_snippet: This thing needs to be trimmed, This thing needs to be cut but you are never going to get away from the situation in which people feel the certainty that we are supporting really, really high quality broadcasting in this country.'
article_snippet: The basic question is do you need public sector broadcasting.
article_snippet: Should we be putting taxpayers' money into broadcasting?
article_snippet: The argument would be we put taxpayers' money into supporting all sorts of arts, and taxpayers' would die in this country if you didn't have support for the arts. '
article_snippet: I think you probably do need to support quality broadcasting, proper fantastic productions that BBC BBC specialises in. '
article_snippet: Whether you need to support the whole machine… BBC BBC can be extremely anti-competitive.
article_snippet: BBC take huge sums of money from the taxpayer, from the licence payer, and use the licence payer to cross-subsidise businesses that demolish local newspapers, local websites.'
article_snippet: A BBC spokesman said: 'We agree with Boris on supporting high quality public broadcasting in this country, and that it would be a shame to lose that, which is why it is important that BBC BBC is able to continue offering the high quality news, drama, and entertainment the British public loves.'
article_snippet: In fact, I'm going to go further and argue that if we didn't have a BBC funded by a licence fee, such is the world we face, we'd have to invent a BBC funded by a licence fee.'
highlights_snippet: Senior Tory warns the BBC uses public money to 'demolish' local rivals .
  