The BBC’s funding model is “completely outdated” and the UK government is ready to implement a new way of funding the public service broadcaster, Culture Secretary Nadine Dorries has said.
The BBC is primarily funded by licence fees, which is paid by every UK household which owns a television set or consumes BBC content on other devices.
In an interview with The Spectator magazine, Dorries said the licence fee model is “completely outdated.”
She said the government will “very soon announce that we are going to be looking very seriously about how we fund the BBC” and is “ready to implement a new way of funding the BBC.”
She said the government will be looking at ways media watchdog Ofcom can “hold the BBC to account” and decisions on any changes to the funding model would be made “well ahead” of the BBC Charter renewal in 2027.
Residents in the UK are required to purchase a TV licence if they watch or record programmes on a TV, computer, tablet, mobile phone, or any other device that can receive a TV signal. A TV licence is also required for downloading or watching BBC programmes on iPlayer, the broadcaster’s video on demand service.
The cost of a licence, which covers all devices in a household, is £159 ($198) per year. Failure to pay for a licence can result in a fine up to £1,000 ($1,245). According to the government, while evading the TV licence in and of itself is not an imprisonable offence and will not lead to a criminal record, “non-payment of the fine imposed for TV licence evasion, following a criminal conviction, could lead to a risk of imprisonment.”
John Whittingdale, a Conservative MP who served as culture secretary in David Cameron’s government, recently said the licence fee model “has many flaws.”
Speaking to GB News on April 20, he said the BBC is “an absolutely central pillar of the broadcasting establishment” but believes its funding model has to change “because simply the way in which people consume TV is just changing so rapidly.”
“It is difficult to go on justifying why everybody should be forced to pay a charge for it,” he said.
The licence fee is currently due to remain frozen at its current price for two years and will then rise in line with inflation for the following four years.
BBC bosses have warned the licence fee freeze will leave them with an annual £285 million ($354 million) shortfall by 2027–2028.
