[tellyblues]

Regarding comedy being affected by cuts, it's the case that comics nowadays choose not to tie themselves down to doing sitcoms like they would have years ago and do panel shows, quizzes etc instead, so figures will be affected by that. If we're talking about total spend on comedy then that can also be affected by the level of the talent involved so Brendan O'Carroll for example may not get paid as much or relative to what whatstheirface got back then, which is fair enough really.

I don't think a basic BBC if it were to happen should consist of just news and arts programming. There would be entertainment but it would be mainly repeats. There has to be incentive for people to pay for the extra content available elsewhere.