TV licence fee should be made into a tax instead

Currently, the existence of the licence fee is guaranteed until December 31, 2027. A review of what future funding for the BBC will look like is underway with Culture Secretary Lucy Frazier saying it is necessary to make sure the model is “fair to the public”.

The Government has floated exploring alternative funding models for the BBC in the past, including subscription services but such proposals are misguided. A public broadcaster is a much-needed service and moving to a subscription service model won’t be any less expensive for low-income households.

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Through the licence fee, the BBC provides households eight national television channels, 10 network radio stations and a variety of online services, including BBC iPlayer. As part of its remit as a public broadcaster, educational services are provided which were vital for families during the pandemic.

Much of the debate around the licence fee has centred around the supposed bias of the BBC but a public broadcaster is needed in some form in this country. Whether it is facilitating educational services or propping up our cultural sector, the BBC is a much-needed public utility.

According to TV Licensing, 86 per cent of the levy goes towards funding for TV channels, radio stations and online services. For every £1 taken in licence fee payments, just 5p is spent on collection and pension deficit costs.

As part of the 2010 licence fee settlement, a portion of the licence fee goes towards Freeview and Freesat, paying for the country’s broadband rollout and funding local TV channels, as well as the Welsh language station S4C.

Scrapping the licence fee would put much of this cultural output at risk and disenfranchise communities even further. There is already a funding gap for many of these services due to the recent two-year freeze on the licence fee.

Despite the appeal of the BBC as an optional streaming service, many of the big streamers are loss makers for Hollywood and are not required to serve the country in the unique way a public broadcaster should.