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A group of peers has proposed that part of the BBC licence fee should be shared to fund regional programmes for commercial broadcasters.
A report from the House of Lords Communications Committee published on Wednesday has proposed that the BBC should share the licence fee with other broadcasters to support regional news and public service programmes.
The committee called for a new fund to be set up to support struggling public service broadcasters.
The fund would be created using the so-called "digital switchover surplus", an expected £130m.
Despite a proposal to merge Channel 4 and BBC Worldwide being rejected, the committee welcomed a partnership between the two as a "quicker and less disruptive" way of providing extra resources to Channel 4.
Peers warned of the "dangers" if the BBC was to become more dominant in the provision of news and current affairs.
Committee chairman Lord Fowler said: "We do not want to go back half a century to a time when the BBC was the monopoly provider of public service broadcasting. That would be bad for the public and bad for the BBC.
"We believe that more partnerships between the BBC and other companies including Channel 4 are essential.
"We want to see a limited fund set up to which broadcasters could apply for help in programme making."
He said the proposed fund would present "a more flexible solution than creating a new organisation with all the potential problems that involves".
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