Watch out: broadcasting is losing its diversity

The likely closure of FilmFour, the movie-making arm of Channel 4, is certainly bad news for what Tessa Jowell, the Secretary of State for Culture and Media, sometimes describes as the "ecology" of the media industry. Its demise would mean one fewer player in an increasingly concentrated, globalised set of businesses. True, FilmFour has recently failed to live up to its earlier promise, perhaps epitomised in its remarkable and award-winning treatment of Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting. Too many of its other offerings, however, failed to win either critical or commercial success.

We should be grateful, then, that the BBC is still there making excellent products through its own film-making arm. The British film industry needs all the help it can get, and the BBC's role is important in maintaining some sort of critical mass in an industry that is extremely footloose. Much the same could be said for the BBC's role in taking over the wreckage of ITV Digital, or its website or its various glossy magazines. But the success of the BBC in so many areas does raise a question about the state broadcaster becoming such a dominant player. ITV, through financial and creative failure, seems doomed. Without Coronation Street, it might already have been replaced by Sky. How long before Mr Murdoch makes a bid for the Rovers Return?

Still more alarming than FilmFour's likely demise for the health of Channel 4 is the suggestion from its new chief executive, Mark Thompson, that it is to continue its long march downhill from its original lofty remit towards the overcrowded mainstream, with job losses to match that poverty of artistic ambition. A natural competitor to BBC2 and BBC Four will fall and the corporation will extend its dominance.

The BBC is in an especially fortunate position during the present advertising recession. In a boom, the BBC is always adequately financed, as it is in a recession. Private companies have to deal with a much more capricious financial framework. So Ms Jowell should look again at how she can maintain that plurality of output across different media that all agree is a great strength. Otherwise, the BBC will be making a film about itself called "The Broadcaster that Ate the Industry".