Manx Radio’s ’flawed’ funding model will be reviewed by a Tynwald select committee.

The call for a fundamental review of how public service broadcasting is provided was made in Tynwald by Garff MHK Daphne Caine.

She said this was not intended as a criticism of Manx Radio’s management or output but added: ’How the management interacts with government and how it is funded would seem to be inappropriate,’ she said.

She called for a select committee to look at the licence conditions and delivery model including financing.

She said a ’truly bizarre’ system had been allowed to evolve whereby reducing the subvention would mean potential cuts to services that Manx Radio cannot do without breaching its licence conditions.

Subvention

Mrs Caine explained the 2003 Darwin report proposed the station’s subvention increase from £250,000 to £950,000 by 2005.

A subsequent Treasury agreement allowed the subsidy to be inflation-linked and it rose to £978,000 in 2009.

On that basis, she said, it should have gone up to £1.2 million this year but instead it had been held at £850,000 for the last three years.

Mrs Caine questioned whether the station should have any commercial support at all.

She said the current subvention amounts to an extra £27 for every island resident on top of the £147 BBC licence.

’Would residents be happy to pay £50 to have Manx Radio fully public funded?’ she asked.

She said the island should get a fairer slice of the cake from the £5.1 million the BBC receives from the licence fee.

Treasury member Bill Shimmins (Middle) said there must be an opportunity to review the licence fee.

He said the current funding model was ’fundamentally flawed’ and the way the station competes for advertising revenue from companies that are not state subsidised was ’unfair, uncompetitive and not fit for purpose’.

Tynwald unanimously backed the call for a review.

Speaker Juan Watterson, Dr Alex Allinson and Tim Crookall MLC were voted onto the committee.