Writing in today's Financial Times, BBC director-general Mark Thompson indicates that he would support a merger between Channel 4 and Five in order to save them costs and preserve his precious licence fee from any proposed top-slicing.

Sadly for Trisha Goddard, who has just been dropped by Five for being too expensive (yes, really) his intervention hasn't come soon enough.

Interestingly it was four years ago while Thompson was at C4 that a merger between the two stations was first mooted; it subsequently came to nothing. The rationale is still the same though and seems reasonable enough - cost efficiencies could be achieved by merging back office functions a merger while an increase in scale would create greater clout for negotiations, particularly in advertising.

Well that's the theory, but in practice what would a merged C4 and Five look like and how big a bargaining chip would its ad sales team have? Well here are some choice cuts from their terrestrial schedules today: as well as Going for Gold and Going for Gold Extra, Neighbours x2, Home and Away x2, a very old repeat of The Simpsons, Celebrity Dine With Me and Celebrity Big Brother, there is a TV movie and the 1954 film Three Coins in the Fountain.

Not great stuff to work with really is it - in fact in the entire day for both channels there are only two hours of what could be called original and distinct programmes worth advertisers buying into - the excellent War Zone on Five and the voyeuristically intriguing Half Ton Son on C4.

A merger is only part of the solution; better content for both is the key.