Channel 4 says that its funding model may collapse. It is one of several organisations attempting to get its hands on the BBC's licence fee, like so many members of a family scrapping over the assets of an elderly relative.

This argument over "top-slicing" coincides with a new review of public service broadcasting from Ofcom, the media regulator. What is now needed, though, is a much more imaginative debate about how to sweat our broadcasting assets, rather than the squabbling we have seen so far.