[Defiant]

I hope he finds an alternative venue and beats the BBC’s ratings. Not sure if he can, in the UK, don’t the control all the TV channels? Here, he could just go to AMC or TBS and do the same show.

[Vanders9]

I dont think he could. Its not that The BBC has a monopoly - there are plenty of other stations around. Unfortunately, I dont think any of them could do it as well as the Beeb. In the first place, although Top Gear makes a lot of money its also an extremely expensive program to make. It might be too rich a start up for most of the independent channels.

Secondly, and more importantly, the BBC is ironically more independent than the independent channels. Because its financed out of the public purse, it is not vulnerable to pressure from car manufacturers threatening to pull advertising revenue in the light of bad car revues (a problem that has plagued attempts to make an american Top Gear).