BBC hints at £180 TV Licence changes as enforcement becomes more difficult
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) could be about to alter its longstanding TV licensing fee.
It's already been reported this year that the £180 annual payment for all UK entertainment lovers was heading towards the scrap heap, as the Beeb considers rivalling Netflix via its popular iPlayer app.
Britons not paying the TV licence cost the BBC £1 billion last year, so this issue stands as an extremely real one that needs solving, rapido.
Now, the broadcaster's interim Chief Executive of News and Current Affairs, Jonathan Munro, has claimed that the current funding model is 'not fit for the public service mission of the future'.
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This comes mere weeks since the BBC revealed it's looking to cut thousands of jobs over the next three years as a way of reducing costs by 10 percent.
In attendance at today's Voice of the Listener and Viewer spring conference, Munro said the corporation is looking to save around £500 million.
"That is a significant portion of money to take out of our expenditure in a relatively short period of time," he stated.
Munro, who also happens to be BBC News' Global Director, went on to elaborate: "Why? Well, because there's a very simple truth here which we need to address in order to solve it – the gap between our costs and our income is growing. It's growing literally every week, every month. Our current funding model is not fit for the public service mission of the future. It was born in a different era."
Munro pointed towards a statistic that 94 percent of British adults enjoy its many services every month, but less than 80 percent of households shell out on a TV license.
He added: "You can see in those two stats that gap – and it is widening, not shrinking. News of savings is hard. It's hard for us, it's hard for audiences, because everything we touch or try to change, or in some cases, close down, is somebody's favourite piece of the BBC's offer to them.
"So, it's not easy to make these choices, but we're working through plans and we said to our staff within news that we will be able to say more in June."
Although he wasn't able to dig into the weeds of the situation at the conference, the 59-year-old wanted to discuss the 'principles that are shoring up those decision-making processes'.
The BBC must draw money from the way it is currently structured, and must continue shepherding unique journalism to the masses.
"We have to move our resources into [the digital space] and those resources are diminishing not growing," he revealed.
In Munro's eyes, the license fee model is now 'showing its age' due to technological advancement, making its enforcement 'very difficult' indeed.
Stay tuned for more on this development.
Dan Seddon