The context in which broadcasting in the UK takes place has changed, and is changing, fast. In its external environment, the BBC is subject both to an unprecedented high level of public scrutiny and to a more extensively and intensively contested broadcasting market. However, contestation does not extend to funding. And the weight of history; the intrinsic difficulties posed by one to many, free to air broadcasting; and the imperative of safeguarding BBC independence have all weighed against an elaboration of co-production.