New push to replace BBC licence fee with subscription service
Radical change is needed at the BBC, say campaigners who want the Government to go far beyond proposals to give licence fee-payers ownership of the broadcaster
Radical change is needed at the BBC that goes far beyond what Labour is prepared to consider, according to campaigners who demand better value for the taxpayer.
The Government will explore “mutualising” the BBC so it will be owned by licence fee-payers, but this has been compared to “rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic”.
In a letter to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy, Rebecca Ryan of Defund the BBC calls for the Government to “properly explore the commercialisation of the main TV output of the BBC into a subscription model like that of Sky, Netflix, HBO or Disney+”.
The present licence fee costs viewers £169.50 a year.
Ms Ryan warned: “In recent years, it has lurched from failure to scandal in a seemingly unending cycle of mistakes and problems. The public’s view and support for the BBC is a long way from its rose-tinted heyday.”
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Former culture secretary Sir John Whittingdale said: “The idea of mutualisation is a red herring which fails to address the main issue – that the number of people who do not watch live TV as they are no longer willing to pay the licence fee is growing steadily.
"There needs to be a full debate beginning now about future funding options for the BBC as was starting under the Conservative Government.
“We need to decide how best to pay for the BBC in the future when a compulsory licence fee is no longer sustainable”.
The Culture Secretary had called for the BBC to be mutualised during her 2020 Labour leadership campaign and she said earlier this month that “nothing is off the table”.
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But Joanna Marchong, of the Taxpayers’ Alliance, said: “Mutualisation of the BBC will strike many licence fee payers as equivalent to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
"The BBC has spent years lurching from crisis to crisis, and the insistence on keeping the broadcaster funded using a compulsory tax will only do it further harm in the long run even though more involvement from taxpayers may be a minor improvement.
“The Labour government should be much braver and bolder and recognise that by moving the Beeb onto a subscription service can the organisation be saved from itself.”
Shadow culture secretary Julia Lopez said that “serious thinking” is required in the lead-up to the review of the BBC charter in 2027.
“Greater accountability of the BBC and a better connection to the public is welcome, but we are yet to see what Labour actually want to do in this space,” she said.
