The BBC has outlined five key proposals as part of its Charter Review process which will govern how the Corporation operates into the next decade.

An expansion of its existing digital services, shifting investment out of London into the regions and a new test of public value are some of the proposals outlined by Mark Thompson, the BBC's Director General today.

Speaking at the launch of the 130 page manifesto Building Public Value, Mr Thompson set out a vision of how the BBC sees itself after its Royal Charter comes up for review in 2006.

The Charter, which runs for 10 years and will run until 2016, is granted by the Government to the BBC and governs how it operates as a public service broadcaster.

The BBC has said that it wants to improve public access to its digital services in the run up to the switch over from analogue to digital services by 2012.

Mr Thompson said: "We can help build an infrastructure, but digital Britain will only come to life if it also becomes a creative space in which the best ideas and the best talent can meets audiences who are hungry for originality and quality."

He added: "Creating a fully digital Britain is a public challenge the BBC must help to lead. It is a Britain from which the BBC, and only the BBC, can ensure no-one is excluded."

Michael Grade, the BBC chairman, also introduced what he called the public value test. It will measure what public benefit each programme will bring.

He outlined four areas which each programme must fulfil to pass the public value test - quality, impact, audience reach and value for money. "I want a BBC that delivers wonderful programmes that offer something of value to everyone," he said.

The BBC also intends to invest £1 billion in the regions over the next 10 years, the centrepiece of which will be a new regional centre in Milton Keynes. There will also be a dedicated news service in 60 different British cities.

Another of the five points laid out in the manifesto is reform of the BBC's Board of Governors which will now operate completely independent of management.

The Board of Governors, which regulates BBC programmes and services, was heavily criticised in the Hutton report into the death of Dr David Kelly, the weapon's scientist.

Lord Hutton said the governors had failed to properly investigate the claims made by Andrew Gilligan in his his BBC Radio 4 Today programme report.

The manifesto's fifth main point is that an independent body should set the licence fee, not the Government, as it does now.

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