The BBC Licence Fee DEAD

VoR

VoR

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What curious timing to make this headline-grabbing announcement :side-eye:




The BBC licence fee will be abolished in 2027 and the broadcaster’s funding will be frozen for the next two years, the government has said, in an announcement that will force the corporation to close services and make further redundancies.

The culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, is expected to confirm that the cost of an annual licence, required to watch live television and access iPlayer services, will remain at £159 until 2024 before rising slightly for the following three years.

She said this would be the end of the current licence fee funding model for the BBC, raising doubts about the long-term financial future and editorial independence of the public service broadcaster under a Conservative government.

Dorries said: “This licence fee announcement will be the last. The days of the elderly being threatened with prison sentences and bailiffs knocking on doors are over. Time now to discuss and debate new ways of funding, supporting and selling great British content.”

The decision, confirmed by government sources, was briefed to the media as part of a range of measures designed to shore up public support for Boris Johnson after he has faced calls to resign as prime minister.

The BBC will have to negotiate with the government over an entirely new funding model when the final licence fee funding deal expires in 2027 – with potential options including a subscription service, part-privatisation, or direct government funding.

The Mail on Sunday quoted an ally of Dorries as saying: “There will be a lot of anguished noises about how it will hit popular programmes, but they can learn to cut waste like any other business. This will be the last BBC licence fee negotiation ever. Work will start next week on a mid-term review to replace the charter with a new funding formula.

“It’s over for the BBC as they know it.”

The source added that “the days of state-run TV are over” and praised the growth of US-run private sector companies such as Netflix and YouTube.

Although the BBC will continue to receive £3.2bn a year in licence fee income, the costs of making its programmes are increasing rapidly due to rising inflation and competition from the likes of Netflix. As a result, the corporation will have to make hundreds of millions of pounds in spending cuts in order to balance its books.

If the BBC had been allowed to increase the licence fee in line with inflation – currently at 5.1% – the annual cost would have risen to £167 in April.

The BBC has already made substantial cost savings behind the scenes, meaning the next round of cuts are likely to hit on-air services. As a result, the public should prepare for the BBC to provide less high-end drama and sports coverage, pad schedules with cheaper programmes, and potentially close some channels or services altogether. This could in turn erode support for the BBC if the public no longer feel they are receiving value for money from the licence fee.

The new licence fee deal will cover a five-year period to 2027, with the cost to the public likely to rise in the final three years – although this increase could also be at a below-inflation rate, meaning further cuts to BBC output could be required.

Dorries’ allies said there would be no further licence fee deal under a Johnson government and they would start negotiations on an entirely new funding model for the corporation. The BBC’s existence and ability to raise money is underpinned by a royal charter that expires at the end of 2027.

The BBC has already been preparing for the end of the licence fee, with proposals including a universal levy on broadband subscriptions or funding the broadcaster with a grant from general taxation – although this could undermine its editorial independence and leave it even more at the whim of government anger. Making the BBC a paid-for subscription service similar to Netflix is difficult due to the widespread popularity of broadcast radio and Freeview television services, which cannot be put behind a paywall.

Negotiations over the amount the BBC can charge for the licence fee have been ongoing for some time, with a final deal delayed by Dorries’ appointment in the autumn. The government has repeatedly criticised the corporation’s news output, claiming it is biased against the government and linking negative coverage of the prime minister to the licence fee negotiations.

The BBC has faced repeated deep real-terms spending cuts since the start of the Tory-Liberal Democrat coalition government in 2010, with the Conservatives forcing the broadcaster to pay for free licences for the over-75s – then blaming it when they took the benefit away.

A BBC source said of the licence fee proposals: “There has been similar speculation before. There are very good reasons for investing in what the BBC can do for the British public, and the creative industries and the UK around the world. Anything less than inflation would put unacceptable pressure on the BBC finances after years of cuts.”
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My prediction is that this doesn't get followed through. I also don't see it being popular with anyone but the hard right and hardest left.
 
Not *necessarily* dead - obviously we've got an election happening between now and 2024, so need to wait and see what Labour's response is.

(It may also be that shifting to an endowment model - or letting iPlayer be monetised internationally - is a far better way forward anyway. Not that I'd expect the Tories to go for THOSE per se)
 
The BBC is one of the few Bri'ish things that can actually claim to be WORLD-BEATING in a lot of ways, so of course the Tories want to see it reduced to little more than BRITBOX, or worse, ITV.
 
Also if it ends up being recommended that it shifts to a subscription model I can see that causing quite a lot of unintended consequences. It'd almost certainly immediately be the biggest player in the game and potentially be bad news for other subscription media full stop in terms of getting crowded out.
 
Subscription model for the biggest programmes which appeal the most to Tory voters. If Grandma Tory turns on Strictly to see nothing but a big sign which says, "you must pay £5.99 to watch this programme thanks to Nadine Dorries and her Tory Scum mates", they'll soon change their tune.
 
At last. I always thought that the process looked really really bad almost like a con and wondered why people put up with the letters and the threats and everything.
Couldn't the BBC just make an arrangement with the country's electricity providers to collect the corresponding fee through their electricity bills?
 
The license fee does feel like an anachronism but it’s an almost impossible issue to solve without a major shift in what the BBC is perceived to be. Any sense of a BBC under threat will go down like a tonne of bricks across the country (bar the extremes) - it is always the nation’s ‘go-to’. Just think about any event that the BBC and ITV screen simultaneously - the proportion of viewers on the BBC will always dwarf the latter.

Suspect that a subscription model may end up being a roaring success and solve the entire issue, but I cannot see there being the coalition there to implement it. Commercials is probably a total no-go too. I can see this being pushed into the long-grass in the end.

Also, final point, one of Britain’s enduring strengths is its soft cultural power. The BBC is a massive part of that and anybody who underestimates that is very foolish.
 
Gangsta Nancy Lam said:
The BBC is one of the few Bri'ish things that can actually claim to be WORLD-BEATING in a lot of ways, so of course the Tories want to see it reduced to little more than BRITBOX, or worse, ITV.
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I can guarantee you that Global iPlayer, BBC Store, Britbox and recently BBC Select in the US have all tried and failed to make a dent - it's not for lack of trying!

The last programmes the BBC could demand top money for are all well over a decade old (Sherlock, Doctor Who at its popularity peak, Clarkson Top Gear). All the Natural History Unit stuff plays well but there is FIERCE competition in the market - and crucially the most popular BBC stuff on VOD platforms is always drama/comedy. We've done lots of research to show that the majority of people just want to watch VOD to unwind and that while they claim to want the BBC to show them top of the range docs and factual entertainment programmes, when it comes to 8pm after dinner, the majority of people just want to watch less high-brow (or should I say middle-brow) stuff.

The main source of income internationally for the BBC is the Dancing with the Stars license and selling middle of the range programmes to cable/satellite channels around the world (of which there are A HELL OF A LOT), hence their very aggressive pursue of the Chinese market a few years ago (that took them nowhere).

When you talk to people outside of the UK everyone will tell you that BBC is famous for their news reporting, but hardly anyone outside the UK is going to start watching PANORAMA or NEWS AT TEN. They have their own versions of those programmes that speak to them a lot closer to home than any BBC reporting would do. To say nothing of places like India where BBC reporting is popular but incredibly controversial and seen as colonialist propaganda by both progressive and conservative factions. So any success in this area is always going to be limited.
 
Yes, the licence fee feels anachronistic but I don't think there is yet an alternative that achieves:

- Some degree of independence from Government (rules out money from direct taxation)
- Independence from commercial interests (rules out Ad funded)
- Encourages niche high quality programming for micro-audiences (I think this is the biggest drawback of a subscription model, BBC Alba DEAD)
- Allows for money losing but otherwise worthwhile endeavours, such as investigative journalism. (Again, I fear a subscription model wouldnt help here either)

It may be there are better ways of funding it in the modern world than the licence fee but I don't for a second trust Nadine Dorries to find them.

I also think freezing the licence fee could be a mistake for the ultimate goal of removing the licence fee. The BBC will need to make cuts, those cuts will piss people off, and they'll (hopefully) react badly to the BBCs funding being curtailed further still, and (correctly) blame the government for it.
 
Gangsta Nancy Lam said:
The BBC is one of the few Bri'ish things that can actually claim to be WORLD-BEATING in a lot of ways, so of course the Tories want to see it reduced to little more than BRITBOX, or worse, ITV.
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Just like the NHS in many ways. Strange how the Tories, who seem so keen to paint us as some global icon on the world stage, seem intent on dismantling two of the few things we are actually admired for.
 
I believe this is the year that the licence fee for our national broadcasting will end as we know it. it'll be financed through tax instead

fine with me. the selection is shit anyways
 
lolly said:
Just like the NHS in many ways. Strange how the Tories, who seem so keen to paint us as some global icon on the world stage, seem intent on dismantling two of the few things we are actually admired for.
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It will be flogged as “there’s no reason something as British as the BBC can’t become bigger than Netflix, with all its great British content it can become a market leader”

*sticks Union Jack on logo*
 
PercyPig said:
It will be flogged as “there’s no reason something as British as the BBC can’t become bigger than Netflix, with all its great British content it can become a market leader”

*sticks Union Jack on logo*
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I mean we already have BritBox. You know, where about 75% of the content was made by the BBC.
 
ZenGiraffe said:
Yes, the licence fee feels anachronistic but I don't think there is yet an alternative that achieves:

- Some degree of independence from Government (rules out money from direct taxation)
- Independence from commercial interests (rules out Ad funded)
- Encourages niche high quality programming for micro-audiences (I think this is the biggest drawback of a subscription model, BBC Alba DEAD)
- Allows for money losing but otherwise worthwhile endeavours, such as investigative journalism. (Again, I fear a subscription model wouldnt help here either)
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I think an endowment model probably comes closest to covering all these.

Lucy Powell for Labour on Radio 4 Today said the BBC shouldn't be getting a licence fee cut, so I think that probably indicates Labour will be opposing scrapping it...
 
WHatever the outcome or impact on this, I fucking hate the fact that this useless woman might get to be the one to do it.

She should have her hand in NOTHING of importance, in order to befit her talent and expertise. The idea that she will be written in the annals of BBC's history is QUITE disgusting.
 
So… I mean maybe I’m misunderstanding all of this, but couldn’t they just put adverts on the BBC like all the other channels?

It’s not like the whole network is just going to wink out of existence
 
Diddy said:
So… I mean maybe I’m misunderstanding all of this, but couldn’t they just put adverts on the BBC like all the other channels?

It’s not like the whole network is just going to wink out of existence
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Of course, but commerciality = chasing ratings = lowest common denominator = ITV.

And fuck ITV.
 
I mean even iPlayer could transition into a streaming service like every American network has?
 
I discovered a 70 minute Bernardine Evaristo interview on iPlayer the other day, that's probably had less than 10,000 viewers TOTAL but I was so happy that it existed.
Aside from perhaps youtube, I can't think of any other platform that would have even thought about creating it in the first place, and certainly not to the same quality.
 
Has Gaby Roslin said anything? I am really enjoying her new yoghurt adverts where I pretend I'm hearing her say that 8 out of 10 people can't stand her.
 
His toupee is getting more and more ridiculous. Cock off back to France you gremlin and STAY THERE!
 
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