BBC creates $12.3 billion, claims report

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) generates £7.6 billion ($12.3 billion) a year for the U.K. economy, claims a report to be published later this month. The report, leaked to the Guardian newspaper, has been commissioned by the pubcaster to illustrate how much economic activity the BBC is responsible for. According to figures supplied by financial firm Deloitte, the U.K. would lose $6.5 billion if the BBC were privatized. Additionally, Britain's independent producers would be worse off to the tune of $2.3 billion if the corp. ceased to exist, the report claims. The report is designed to help persuade U.K. policymakers that far from being a drain on national resources, the BBC is a source of dynamic economic activity that can play an important role in helping the U.K. kickstart its moribund economy. It comes as the BBC fights to counter a wave of attacks from both ends of the political spectrum. News Corp. topper James Murdoch last year called for the BBC to become "far, far smaller." Media minister Ben Bradshaw has also said he thinks the pubcaster has reached the limit of its expansion.