The United Kingdom broadcaster, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has come under fire from the Institute of Economic Affairs which says it should move to a subscriber model and end the “public service broadcasting tax”.
Director of the right-wing think tank, Annabel Denham (pictured) said the broadcaster needed to re-focus its content on what was popular and what people were willing to pay for.
“There are many, many issues at the BBC and in my view, it needs to be salami sliced and moved to a subscriber model just like the video streaming services are. It’s massively diversified, it needs to focus on one or two things,” Ms Denham said.
“What are its most popular radio shows, what are its most popular TV shows, focus on that and start to ask the people who actually want those services to pay for it.”
Currently everyone who owns a television set must pay a licence fee which goes towards funding the BBC. Ms Denham says that “ultimately it is a public service broadcasting tax”.
“People are forced to pay the licence fee whether or not they watch BBC shows or BBC news and that’s the ultimate problem we have here,” she said.
“When they move to a subscriber model, when they’re forced to think like an ordinary business and try to establish what consumers want and will pay for, then they can start to choose how they spend those funds.”
Ms Denham said that at the moment there was no accountability.
“There is no incentive for them to think in a more businesses-minded way because there is a tax people have to pay whether they like it or not,” she said.
London, 16 November 2020
