The BBC’s Director General Tim Davie made a speech this week which suggests he’s leaning toward a radical fix for the Corporation’s financial woes. The question is whether even this government will buy an idea that, to put it politely, seems unlikely to be popular.
Davie’s problem is that the writing is on the wall for the licence fee. Last year the Corporation’s annual report noted that half a million households had stopped paying in the previous 12 months. All of which makes for grim reading for an organisation which has seen its real-term income fall by over 30 per cent in the last decade. Finding a replacement to the licence fee is now a matter of urgency which must be settled by 2027 when the current BBC charter runs out.
Davie’s problem is that the writing is on the wall for the licence fee
That is the background to the speech which Davie made in Salford setting out the challenge the Corporation faces.
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