BBC blows £13million fee cash on reminders

THE BBC has spent more than £13.5million sending out nearly 85 MILLION licence fee reminders to people in under four years.

The Beeb admitted that it sent 84,718,124 reminders – dubbed ‘threatograms’ by some recipients – to supposedly unlicensed addresses from April 2008 to January this year.

The total for the period, £13,570,032, is footed by licence fee payers who stump up their £145.50-a-year fee to the Beeb.

A spokesman for the BBC said: “Unlicensed addresses are those not covered by a valid TV Licence, where we have a reason to believe a licence is required.”

The BBC confirmed in a Freedom of Information request that the £13.5m was paid to UK Mail, adding: “Postal services for TV Licensing are contracted to UK Mail (on behalf of Royal Mail).”

The corporation, however, refused to say how much it spent on paper, ink, printing, finishing and enclosing the letters, saying it would be ‘prejudicial to the commercial interests’ of the contractors.

A BBC source said: “The numbers are truly staggering. Basically, we are sending letters to 20m people a year and spending a lot of money in the process.”