A former BBC director fears the broadcaster might some day become a subscriber-based service. “The second we move to a subscriber [TV] model you exclude the people who can’t afford it. All the homes that didn’t subscribe would be deprived of programmes that are important. Children’s programmes would be massively affected. You cut people off – especially the poor people of society. It is possible we will lose public funding and that the BBC will move in a subscriber direction, but that is a sad day I will not cheer.”