The Boris Johnson-led UK government announced on Monday that it has decided to freeze the licence fee of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) at £159 for the next two years.
“The BBC wanted the fee to rise to over £180 by the end of the settlement. Instead, it will remain fixed at £159 until April 1, 2024. That’s more money in the pockets of pensioners; in the pockets of families who are struggling to make ends meet,” said UK’s cultural secretary Nadine Dorries, about the move that comes as a serious blow to the national broadcaster.
During the session at the House of Commons on Monday, Dorries also noted that it was time to begin questioning the funding of the BBC and whether the license fee was appropriate.
According to a New York Times report, BBC’s chairman Richard Sharp and its director-general Tim Davies, said in a statement, that the funding freeze is “disappointing” and that it will “necessitate tougher choices.”
The licence fee is the amount that all TV owners in the country must must pay, and it is the primary source of funding for the BBC. Introduced in 1923, the fee used to pay for radio. Currently, it funds eight national television channels, 10 radio stations, local stations (including Welsh and Gaelic language services), educational content and on-demand services.
This fee has increased in line with inflation annually over the past five years, as per NYT, and negotiations concerning the amount for the next five years had been on since late 2020 between the BBC and the UK government.
A freeze on this licence fee, coming as it does at a time when Britain is facing its highest level of inflation in a decade, could force the BBC, which is already involved in an extensive cost-cutting plan, to make further cuts, the NYT report notes. In 2021, the broadcaster cut 1200 jobs in a move to save £800 million annually and this financial year, it plans for its savings to rise above £950 million.
As per a Reuters report, analysts have said the below-inflation settlement will induce cuts in the BBC’s output. The government’s recent move and proposal to debate the continuance of the licence fee has also sparked accusations of ‘cultural vandalism’.
The BBC’s funding through the licence fee is currently guaranteed till the end of 2027, after which new terms will be decided by the government.
Ahead of the parliament session on Monday, Dorries had tweeted that it was time to “discuss and debate new ways of funding, supporting and selling great British content.” Hinting at doing away with the licence fee altogether, she had said, “The days of the elderly being threatened with prison sentences and bailiffs knocking on doors, are over. ”
Dorries and other Conservatives have long argued for an overhaul in BBC’s funding method. They have also claimed that the broadcaster is too left-leaning and too London-centric.
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During the session at the House of Commons, Dorries said that it was necessary for the BBC to address the challenges of modern broadcasting, while engaging with the British public across UK and not just London. She further added that in the last few months, she has made her stance clear on the need for the BBC to address issues around impartiality and “group think.”
Meanwhile, Lucy Powell, spokesperson for culture for the opposition, told the parliament that the funding freeze was an attack on one of the biggest institutions in British public life, and accused Dorries of “cultural vandalism.”
Others like Meera Selva, deputy director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, feel that the license fee is the closest model “for preserving editorial independence.”