As a Brit, I know I should like BBC wildlife shows and Channel 4 sitcoms. And I should probably bolster ITV’s ad story by watching endless Agatha Christie murder mysteries.

But the truth is I’m not that bothered, and nor are my kids. In my rare moments of downtime, I usually default to U.S. movies while they go in search of The Simpsons, SpongeBob, iCarly or America’s Next Top Model. The only Brit shows we all unite behind are The Apprentice (a U.S. format) and (copro) Doctor Who.

Is it really so bad that I like Hollywood content? Well, my car’s French, my wife’s Irish, my favorite footballer is Spanish and I like Thai food. So the fact that U.S. drama and comedy works for me doesn’t strike me as a character flaw – but rather a reflection of the global cultural ecology we live in. I’m not averse to homegrown, but it doesn’t mean I want to trade my Nikes for a pair of British-built plimsolls.

So why am I bothering to tell you all this? Well it’s because Channel 4 U.K. chief executive Andy Duncan recently went on record to say that public broadcaster the BBC should stop spending licence fee money on foreign drama acquisitions like Heroes, Mad Men, The Wire and Damages.

Duncan says the BBC should spend its budget on original programming and leave the acquired content to commercial broadcasters.

As a sound bite, this makes sense, and it will probably raise a few cheers from the Canadian camp where there is clear concern about the volume of acquired U.S. content on TV.

But the reality is that Duncan’s logic doesn’t bear detailed analysis. There are various reasons for this. Firstly, I pay the BBC to deliver me a high-quality broadcast service, not to subsidize domestic producers. While I sympathize with the plight of any recession-hit company, I don’t really care where a show comes from as long as it meets certain quality criteria.

Secondly, the BBC is where I go looking for good drama, regardless of its country of origin. In a landscape which boasts thousands of TV channels, I wouldn’t find a show like Damages on C4 because I wouldn’t expect it to be there. For me, C4 is about Big Brother, shock dox, rebarbative comedians and counterculture drama like Shameless and Skins. It doesn’t want me as a viewer, so I don’t go there.

Thirdly, it’s just not true to imply that the BBC dominates U.S. acquisitions. Channel 4 may lose out to the BBC on some tasty L.A. Screenings morsels, but BSkyB, ITV and RTL (the owner of Five) are certainly capable of acquiring the content they want. And so is thematic channel Living.

Finally, it seems to me that the BBC has a balanced approach to acquisitions. It keeps them out of mainstream primetime and, for the most part, focuses on shows like Damages and The Wire, which don’t interest its rivals.

The point I’m making is that acquisitions are not some kind of second-best alternative or necessarily a sly way of saving money. They can be schedule enhancers which have a right and proper place in the public broadcaster mix. This isn’t just because acquisitions give broadcasters access to a larger pool of content suppliers, it’s also because they allow broadcasters to behave in a more tactical way with regard to scheduling.

At a time when the trend in domestic production is towards smaller pools of suppliers and more risk-averse content, critically acclaimed shows from other territories can add variety (as we have seen during the format boom).

There’s no question that the BBC can be a bully in other commercial areas, and that it needs to be reined in. But Channel 4’s real problem in drama is not the BBC’s acquisitions policy, it’s the fact that the ad-funded model seems increasingly out of step with serious drama.

In the emerging world of on-demand viewing via large HD TV screens, the BBC – like subscription movie channels and on-demand – allows me to watch strong narrative content without interruption (unless I choose to interrupt). However, the consumer trend towards ad-skipping means commercial broadcasters are being forced to pack their programming with ever more ads, promotions and onscreen idents. This is fine in the context of entertainment, but is a mood-killer in drama.

The truth is, if C4 did secure the rights to a drama I liked, I’d probably wait until it came out on DVD and buy it from Amazon or eBay. Even though they’re American.