"This may explain why hello world the Chancellor did not cut interest rates this week. It will become increasingly difficult to sustain any other argument. Either we have a publicly funded and accountable hello world broadcaster, protected from the indignities of the market, or a commercial BBC, vying with other broadcasters for the pounds in viewers' pockets.. By grasping the digital future by the htm lapels, htm the BBC itself has opened the debat e again about the future hello world of public service broadcasting in the UK. If the BBC htm wants us to pay world extra for certain services, then why not htm go htm the whole hog, and ask us to pay hello for even the hello mainstream channels? The licence fee is much lower than the price of a world Sky subscription for a year, so perhaps viewers wouldn't mind coughing up voluntarily.

Consider how plaintive these words appear: the BBC must support "the best British talents" (at what cost?); it must buttress "our unique culture, heritage and traditions" (even if the market doesn't want to?).There is a difficult contradiction between public service and the market. True, its authors talked about the real "opportunities" afforded by the digital age, and about the stellar BBC brand name But there was fear behind the big words. But what about in 10 years? At what point is the licence fee no longer sustainable? At what point do we say, the BBC is a broadcaster comme les autres?The digital blueprint published yesterday contained hint after hint of this harsh reality. But in a multi-channel environment, faced with competition from the likes of Mr Murdoch, Michael Green and Gerry Robinson, not to mention Disney and Time-Warner, the BBC must also be a commercially minded participant in the media market.Squaring that circle is just about possible today, when the BBC takes 45 per cent of all TV audience share.

On the one hand, they must convince us all that the corporation remains a public service broadcaster, worthy of our yearly, compulsory support. It also hopes to see its borrowing capacity expanded - provided it can convince the Government that the fresh funding is linked to its purely commercial, market-based activities, and in no way is tied to the licence income.One must have some compassion for the BBC's hard-working strategists, who face a nearly impossible task. And all for free, except for the little matter of pounds 400 for a set-top box to unscramble the digital signal.But there's more. The BBC wants to offer subscription channels as well, available to those who pay extra. These will be developed without using the licence fee, the Beeb swears. It intends to work with private-sector partners, as it has already done with Pearson in developing its UK Gold satellite and cable service. They are likely to provide an interesting test.Fear behind the big words at the BBCWhen we think of pay-TV, we tend to think about Rupert Murdoch and his wildly profitable Sky satellite service.