David Keith Elstein, is Chairman of openDemocracy.net and the Broadcasting Policy Group.
Educated at Haberdashers' Aske's Boys' School and Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where he gained a double first in History, he has been a visiting Professor at the University of Westminster, University of Stirling and University of Oxford, having been the inaugural Visiting Professor in Broadcast Media at Oxford in 1999. His six lectures there were entitled "The Political Structure of UK Broadcasting 1949-99". He was the lead author of the Broadcasting Policy Group's 2004 publication, "Beyond The Charter: The BBC After 2006". He advocates changing the funding model of the BBC and replacing the licence fee with voluntary subscription.
He is also a director of Kingsbridge Capital Advisors Limited, and was previously a supervisory board member of two German cable companies. He has also chaired Screen Digest Ltd, DCD Media plc, Luther Pendragon Holdings, Sparrowhawk Media, the British Screen Advisory Council, the Commercial Radio Companies Association, Really Useful Theatres, XSN plc, Sports Network Group plc, Silicon Media Group, Civilian Content plc and the National Film and Television School. He was also a director of Virgin Media Inc and Marine Track Holdings plc.
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