BBC viewers who watch less could pay less under proposals for licence fee ‘tiers’
‘There needs to be a proper debate about how we fund public service broadcasters’
THE BBC licence fee could be replaced with a “tier model” in which viewers and listeners can choose the level of access they want to the corporation’s output, The Daily Telegraph has learnt.
Under a plan being considered by ministers, only those who wanted access to the BBC’S television channels, apps and website would pay the full fee with cheaper licences for people who did not use every service.
Baroness Morgan, the Culture Secretary, said earlier this week that the BBC had to find a way of keeping its funding model “relevant” in an age of streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon, and the tier model was seen as a possible solution.
Whitehall sources said the tier model was one of the ideas “in the mix” as ministers tried to find a way of decriminalising non-payment of the licence fee.
By issuing passwords for the BBC’S TV channels, and website, as well as apps such as iplayer and BBC Sounds, the corporation would be able to cut off people who failed to pay the licence fee in the same way that electricity firms can cut people off, rather than pursuing them through the criminal courts.
The switch to digital television means the BBC could restrict access to its services in the same way that viewers already require a password to access Netflix and other subscription services.
A senior government source said: “A tier model with different levels of access would be one way of doing this. Boris Johnson is going to appoint a new culture secretary next week and it will be down to them to decide this. They might have different ideas.
“The person who replaces Tony Hall as BBC director general will also play a huge part. There needs to be a proper debate about how we fund public service broadcasters.”
Users of the BBC’S iplayer catch-up service already have to register, free, with a password to use it, and ministers believe passwords or Pins could be issued with licence fees to give
users a year’s access to the services they want. However, the tier model would not solve the problem of how to fund BBC radio, as there is currently no way of restricting access to radio stations. Any new funding model would also have to take into account the need to pay for the BBC World Service, which is seen as a key element of diplomatic “soft power” and was funded by the Foreign Office until 2014.
Rachel Wolf, who co-wrote the Conservative Party’s manifesto in 2019, has been hired to find out which funding models viewers would find acceptable, through her company Public First. Baroness Morgan signalled in a speech on Wednesday that the licence fee could be scrapped altogether when the BBC’S royal charter was next up for renewal, in 2027. She said: “We must all be openminded about the future of the licence fee beyond that point.”
The Prime Minister said during the general election campaign that he was looking at scrapping the licence fee.