The BBC, in some respects, may function as a business enterprise, but it is essentially a non-commercial body that receives public funding to allow it freedom from commercial pressures. Accordingly, it doesn’t need recourse to advertising or to the ratings success that advertisers demand. And although ratings are not irrelevant, because they indicate that the Beeb is giving licence-payers due return, they shouldn’t determine the entire output. Quality is a requirement, too; and there should be ring-fenced, sacred spaces in the schedules where serious, quality content is the sole consideration, regardless of how few are tuning in.