The future of the BBC Licence Fee was covered in several publications this month including The Times and The iPaper.
Discussions on the fee have started this month as the Government prepares to publish a Green Paper outlining the options for discussion before the end of the year.
The Royal Charter which sets out the funding for the Corporation runs until 2027 and the discussions over the next couple of years are regarded as critical for the future of the BBC.
The Times reported that the Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has ruled out using general taxation for the BBC and is also planning to stop current politicians from presenting news programmes – a direct swipe at Nigel Farage who has a regular show on GB News.
The paper reported that Nandy is considering a ‘mixed’ funding formula for the BBC to help try and protect it from future Government interference. The mixture would include elements of a licence fee plus commercial funding and some subscription services. She was quoted as saying ‘it is too easy for politicians of any political persuasion to be able to pull that funding in order to use a stick to beat them (BBC) with’.
The Licence Fee raises £3.7 billion a year which is 65 per cent of the BBC’s income. Other money comes from commercial activities, grants, royalties and rental fees.
It’s paid for by 80 per cent of households but evasion has now risen to around ten per cent with a 300,000 drop in the number of licences bought last year.
The Times said the BBC DG Tim Davie is keen to explore more partnerships with US tech and media companies for big budget programming.
Nandy told the paper that she regards the BBC as one of the two most important institutions in the country alongside the NHS.
Meanwhile in The iPaper an article reported that the BBC had ruled out a Netflix style subscription as a non-starter. The Corporation has already started charging US users £6.50 a month for access to news and rolling event coverage.
But the BBC claimed a subscription to cover all services for UK users would amount to £580 a year – much more than the current universal £174 charge.
In other news, the four UK terrestrial broadcasters including the BBC wrote to the Government to appeal for help. They said they were facing severe competition from the mainly US digital streamers.
The Head of ITV told The iPaper that British broadcasting was a huge engine for economic growth and our services and skills were the envy of the world and needed protecting.
Finally, several papers reported the success of the current Celebrity Traitors show which smashed viewing figures with 6.5 million tuning into the launch programme. That makes it one of the most successful BBC reality shows in recent years.
