BBC licence fee needs re-vamping, argue MPs

British MPs have condemned the BBC’s annual licence fee, claiming it needs to be modernised with a new levy in the next 15 years.

According to the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee, the licence fee has become “harder and harder to justify” as television content moves online.

Various proposals have been made, including a Netflix-style subscription that should bring in more money allowing the BBC to further improve the quality of its content.

BBC director of strategy told the Financial Times (FT): “You could sleepwalk into a set of decisions that would make it much harder for the BBC to flourish. You can’t fund all our content through Kickstarter.”

The BBC accounts for more than one-third of all TV watched in the UK but the organisation has struggled in recent years to cover its costs with the current yearly income of £145.50 per household.

The licence fee has been frozen since 2010 but the BBC has had more outgoings, including a £300m rural broadband rollout. This has led to cuts and critics claimed the end of the BBC will follow unless changes are made to the levy.

Patrick Barwise, a professor at the London School of Economics, told the FT: “Since 2010, we’ve seen a level of cuts that is unprecedented. If you carry on cutting at that kind of level, within a generation we won’t have a BBC.”