The Government is considering a legal limit on any possible “top-slicing” of the BBC’s licence fee to help fund news programming on ITV, in an apparent attempt to placate resistance from the BBC and the BBC Trust towards the concept of sharing the licence fee.

According to The Guardian, a “government insider” has said that the potential 3.5% “top-slice” could include a legal mechanism that prevents future Governments from increasing the allocation: however no new legislation would be needed to make funding available for public service programming on non-BBC networks in this way.