BBC Director General Declares Licence Fee 'A Busted Flush'
Matt Brittin, the new BBC director general, has branded the £180 licence fee as 'a busted flush' and 'no longer fit for purpose' during a session with MPs. The fee, which was hiked to £180 in April, is described by Brittin as 'yesterday's model'. He told Labour Party government ministers and MPs: 'We can and should be doing as much as possible on [enforcing] licence fee collection under the current model, but it's yesterday's model, it's a busted flush, it's no longer fit for purpose, and that's why we need to make the case for the BBC and a shift of the licence fee model.'
Potential Replacement: A Compulsory Household Levy
Brittin did not specify exactly what he wants to replace the licence fee with, but he and BBC chair Samir Shah suggested the government should reconsider a compulsory household levy, which it previously ruled out. Brittin said: 'The challenge is it's been ruled out, and I can understand the concerns about cost of living and so on, on households, but I think it's got merits and others have found it to have merits.' Shah added that a levy 'would solve a lot of problems for us, and we're certainly open to it', but admitted it 'could be seen as, and is effectively another tax'.
Concerns Over Commercial Funding Models
Shah warned that under a Netflix-style commercial funding system, 'our drama would become increasingly narrowly focused on things that drive subscription'. He added: 'We would stop being universal, we'd actually stop being the BBC that we know.' Shah also noted that 'some of these things would be very, very hard to fund under a commercial funding model for the BBC.'
Changing Viewing Habits Challenge the Model
The licence fee model was conceived at a time of linear viewing, when audiences watched programmes at the time of broadcast. Changes in viewing habits, such as a move to video-on-demand, and the growth of new technologies, have resulted in the model being challenged. In a written ministerial statement in November 2024, Lisa Nandy, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, said the government was committed to upholding the licence fee until the end of the charter period to ensure the BBC was on a 'stable financial footing'. She also announced that the previous government's BBC funding model review would not be progressed. The government will instead consider the future of the BBC's funding as part of the next charter review.
