According to the BBC's annual report which was published today, the corporation spent £88 million on British comedy last year, an increase of 5% between 2006 - 2007. The BBC has also announced it will increase spending by 9%, to £96 million for 2007 - 2008.

The BBC says that it will mainly be spending the money on the more successful shows on BBC1, but money will also be going to more experimental shows on BBC3. However, the BBC says they may have trouble convincing viewers to watch their more experimental programming. The report quotes one viewer from Cardiff, who said in a survey: "Some of the new comedy is quite quirky, but it can be just random and unfunny."

Although the BBC is to increase its comedy spending next year, observers point out the BBC may soon be facing budget problems. The BBC director general, Mark Thompson, is analysing ways of making up an expected £2bn funding shortfall over the next six years following the lower than expected licence fee settlement in January. A central plank of the strategy is expected to be "fewer, bigger, better" programmes - i.e. the net result being more repeats.