Without BBC Four we wouldn’t have had Charlie Brooker’s Wipe, The Thick of It, Twenty Twelve, Only Connect, Nordic dramas, Slow TV and countless insightful documentaries and shows on the arts.

You need to nurture the shows on the little channels to let them flourish on the big ones. If you cut the smaller channels, the bigger ones suffer.

The BBC might point out the future for BBC Four is online rather than a conventional broadcast channel, but remember visibility has been a big problem for BBC Three.

BBC Three has had to air some of its biggest shows on BBC One just to make themselves seen.