Yesterday’s reports that the UK government intends to freeze the licensing fee for two more years and eliminate it altogether in 2027 led to high-profile figures rallying behind the BBC.
Hugh Grant, Gary Lineker and Lucy Prebble led the backlash. Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries tweeted “against culture secretary Nadine Dorries”. Daily MailArticle featuring the news, accompanied by a tweet: “The licence fee announcement will be the last. The days of the elderly being threatened with prison sentences are over. Time now to discuss and debate new ways of funding, supporting and selling great British content.”
The BBC is in the midst of negotiating the next five years of the current £159.50 ($218) annual fee and has been clear that anything less than its aim of having the fee continue to rise with inflation will lead to huge cuts to its output and redundancies.
A spokesperson for BBC did not confirm the authenticity of the reports and stressed: “There has been similar speculation before.”
Deadline spoke with a source who was familiar with the negotiations and urged caution.
This source said the negotiations are nowhere near finished and Director General Tim Davie’s negotiating team can continue returning to the drawing board for the remainder of this year if they are unhappy with the proposed settlement.
If the settlement is not reached, the BBC can try to have the current settlement (an inflationary rise) extended for five years. Or Davie can threaten to resign. In 2010, former DG Mark Thompson attempted to eliminate the free licensing fees for over-75s. This move worked.
“There is no obligation for the BBC to accept the deal and this will go on,”Source:
“Unacceptable pressure”
According to the BBC spokesperson: “Anything less than inflation would put unacceptable pressure on the BBC finances after years of cuts.”
The corporation has continually stressed that super inflation is causing programming costs to soar, especially in scripted and high-end docs, with chair Richard Sharp recently revealing some of the BBC’s biggest series have doubled in price and drama costs have generally increased by around 35%.
A lower inflationary increase followed by a total scrapping of the licensing fee would result in less original programming and higher-budget programming, and could threaten the future survival of the BBC.
Multiple reports pointed to the timing of the announcement, coming as Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s approval ratings are at an all time low due mainly to an investigation into parties that took place at his home and work office in 10 Downing Street.
The Prime Minister and his advisers are said to have been angered by the BBC’s coverage of the scandal.
“>The BBC’s supporters have focused on the notion that people don’t realize how much is included with their licence fee, which is roughly equal to an annual Netflix subscription but features multiple radio and TV channels showcasing content in all genres along with reams of educational and children’s programming.
The alternative, like a subscription or advertiser funded BBC, would have many problems. Funding the BBC via general taxes such as income tax raises concerns of government intervention.
“Yes the BBC brings you the best in news, in sport, in drama, in music, in children’s, in science, in history, in entertainment, in current affairs and Sir David bloody Attenborough….but apart from that was has the BBC ever done for us,?” said BBC1’s Match of the Day host Lineker, who retweeted a popular graphic showing all of the services the BBC runs at a cost to the public of 43p per day each.
Acclaimed comedy writer Iannucci, who directed The Death of Stalin and The Personal History of David Copperfield, focused his ire on the government, stating: “First you come for Channel 4 because you don’t like its reporting of events. Now you come for the BBC because you don’t like its reporting of events. Have you ever considered whether it’s the events themselves that are the problem?”
Lauded actor Grant, who has always been vocally supportive of the BBC and appeared in 2018’s A Very English Scandal, said the “BBC is something the whole world admires with envy,”While he denigrated the government “insecure, spittle-flecked nut jobs.”
Prebble, Succession writer, exhorted the general public to “support the BBC even when it’s being attacked as a distraction from this dirty meringue of a government.”