New BBC chief warned to replace licence fee in funding battle

‘The decriminalisation of the licence fee is a done deal. But it may be the least of the BBC’S worries’

THE new BBC director-general will be told to come up with a replacement for the licence fee after decriminalisation of non-payment was described as a “done deal”.

Tim Davie faces a three-pronged attack on the licence fee from the Government when he takes up his job this week, senior sources said.

Ministers are expected to announce within weeks that people who fail to pay the licence fee will face civil penalties rather than criminal prosecution from 2022.

There are also moves to “level the playing field” by awarding broadcasting licences to commercial rivals. The media regulator Ofcom has already granted a licence to a new channel named GB News promising coverage “distinctly different from the out-of-touch incumbents”.

Meanwhile, Mr Davie will be challenged to replace the licence fee with a new funding model or face a battle when the BBC charter is renewed in 2027, Whitehall sources said.

One senior Whitehall source said: “The decriminalisation of the licence fee is a done deal. It will be done sooner rather than later.

“But it may be the least of the BBC’S worries. There is a real interest in levelling the playing field with more competition.”

One minister said: “There is real optimism that the BBC will come up with a palatable alternative to the licence fee themselves. Tim Davie seems open to the idea of a subscription model.”

The BBC Licence Fee (Civil Penalty) Bill is due for its second reading in Parliament in November. A senior government source said: “One in 12 magistrates’ court cases are for nonpayment of TV licences and there is a disproportionate amount of women who are penalised.

“A lot of them are vulnerable over75-year-old widows. Do we really want to see people like that being brought before the courts?

“The BBC is living in a fantasy world if they think the status quo is viable.” It is understood that Robert Buckland, the Justice Secretary, has told colleagues that prisons should be for “dangerous” people, not pensioners who have failed to pay fines. BBC insiders said the corporation expected the Government to decriminalise the charge.

In his speech, Mr Davie will outline plans to offer better “value for money” to licence fee-payers by producing programming that “better reflects the British public”. He will call for fewer repeats and more content similar to the hit drama Normal People to ensure the BBC caters for a broader range of views and backgrounds.

Mr Davie is concerned, a senior source said, that the BBC produces too much content designed to appeal to a Left-wing London-centric audience.

“There’s nothing wrong with metropolitan programmes, but we do make too many of them,” one BBC source said.

Mr Davie will also launch a crackdown on BBC presenters who air their political views on social media after repeated accusations of bias and clamp down on presenters making thousands of pounds on the side by hosting corporate events or moonlighting.

A BBC spokesman said: “The licence fee is the way of funding the BBC until at least 2027 and our focus is on providing the best possible value to the public who pay for us.”

Tim Davie faces a baptism of fire as the incoming Director General of the BBC: he will be told to come up with a replacement for the licence fee now that decriminalisation has been described as a “done deal”. This is the right decision, particularly given that most over-75s will be liable for the licence fee. There is no justification for hounding people through the courts to bankroll such an antiquated model, especially when much of the content produced by the BBC seems designed to insult them.

There are reasons to be optimistic about Mr Davie’s elevation. It is reported that he intends to tackle stars who top up their salaries with private work and journalists who sound off about their political views on social media. But the crisis in the BBC is not just about overt bias, it is also – to borrow a phrase of the Left’s – a case of systemic prejudice. The BBC conveys a liberal-left ethos through the programmes it makes and the messages they push. An alternative might be in the offing from GB News, a commercial rival recently granted a licence by Ofcom.

The Proms row felt like a turning point. Those who wanted to silence the lyrics to patriotic songs seemed to assume that the country shared their politics, but many of the people who are most loyal to the Proms absolutely do not, and they took real – possibly lasting – offence. Time and again, the BBC’S desperate bid to appeal to those who do not watch the BBC alienates those who do. The reason why BBC content is such a contentious topic among small-c conservatives is because they are some of its most loyal viewers and listeners. Every little partisan attack is actually rather hurtful. The BBC has to win back those it has estranged, and deliver value for money.