POWER, politics and skulduggery are the stuff of television - behind the screen as well as on it. What we watch is more than just a matter of idle choice.

So much so that Whitehall committees ponder the issue. Yesterday one such committee concluded that Rupert Murdoch should not be allowed to take over Channel 5 and took a stance against the creeping Americanisation of British television.

This gathering had one of those masks the Government likes - the Joint Committee on the Draft Communications Bill. It is tempting to conclude that such lengthy examinations of this problem or that are designed to put a toe in the water and see if the piranhas bite. Toe emerges as bone and gristle, the Government might think again; toe emerges wet but complete, Tony Blair gets his way.

The background to this latest committee is that the Government is looking again at the rules about the ownership of British television companies, as well as reconsidering cross-ownership, the term for companies who own both newspaper groups and broadcasting companies.

The Government is minded to relax the rules in a manner that would benefit, among others, Rupert Murdoch, the Australian-American media mogul. To anyone who leans vaguely to the left, and to some who don't, Murdoch is a figure of suspicion, a handy totem of much that is wrong with the modern media world.

In a sense, Murdoch is above politics because his single concern is to be ruthlessly successful in business. He bends and twists to the politics of this and other countries, diverting his newspapers in one direction or another to maximise the moment.

Murdoch already has a controlling stake in the satellite channel BSkyB and heads News International, which owns the Times, the Sun, the Sunday Times and the News Of The World. So much influence and he doesn't even live here. Massed together, Murdoch's newspapers can divert the flow of politics on many issues, including a referendum on the euro. Suspicious tongues suggest Tony Blair wants to keep Murdoch sweet over the euro and would therefore like to change the rules on TV ownership.

If the Government was to loosen the rules, Murdoch would have his foot in another door or his finger in another pie, depending on which metaphor of bodily intrusion you prefer. US broadcasters, including Murdoch's Fox TV, would be free to take over British companies such as Channel 5 or to own parts of ITV.

British TV is already heavily marked by American television and outright ownership of, say, Channel 5 by Murdoch would be alarming.

Just look at Sky 1 any day of the week. The schedules are always the same. TV wallpaper packed with American programmes, notably The Simpsons, Buffy and Star Trek.

The Simpsons is wonderful but wall-to-wall re-runs tire even the hardiest fan, while indicating that a Murdoch-owned Channel 5 would become just another pile-'em-high American TV shop.

Yes, there is a weakness in this argument, especially from someone who loves so many American programmes. ER, The Sopranos, 24, Six Feet Under, The West Wing, NYPD Blue, Frasier - all of these and more are some of the finest shows on television. But there is a big difference between importing the best American shows and potentially surrendering whole channels to US ownership.

At least the committee, chaired by Lord Puttnam, came out against what appears to be the Government's preferred option of boosting Murdoch's British TV ambitions. And in this stormy climate, thank heavens for a newly-resurgent BBC. The Corporation might not please everyone, but without this strong central pillar British broadcasting could more easily collapse into the Atlantic.

Updated: 10:41 Thursday, August 01, 2002