BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

[muriel_volestrangler]

The BBC licence fee will be abolished in 2027 and the broadcaster’s funding will be frozen for the next two years, the government has said, in an announcement that will force the corporation to close services and make further redundancies.

The culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, is expected to confirm that the cost of an annual licence, required to watch live television and access iPlayer services, will remain at £159 until 2024 before rising slightly for the following three years.

She said this would be the end of the current licence fee funding model for the BBC, raising doubts about the long-term financial future and editorial independence of the public service broadcaster under a Conservative government.

Dorries said: “This licence fee announcement will be the last. The days of the elderly being threatened with prison sentences and bailiffs knocking on doors are over. Time now to discuss and debate new ways of funding, supporting and selling great British content.”

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/jan/16/bbc-licence-fee-to-be-abolished-in-2027-and-funding-frozen

Nice of her to wait until the BBC's centenary year to announce her attempt to kill it off. The Mail's gleeful source ("an ally of Dorries&quot 'added that “the days of state-run TV are over” and praised the growth of US-run private sector companies such as Netflix and YouTube'. Yeah, because Netflix and YouTube do such a good job of educating and informing the the public. Their news operations are legendary - or, rather, mythical. The Mail wants its news rival (one that shows how biased and unreliable the Mail is) dead.

[Goonch]

1. ;-{)🖖‍

[bbernardini]

2. I'm positive the person behind this is still mad The Doctor was a woman. nt

[Emrys]

3. It was a sad day when Dorries escaped

the onscreen bounds of Idiocracy and joined us in the real world.

This has long been a slavering pipedream of many on the right (and some on the left in more recent times).

The BBC's been running scared of such a move for years, which partially explains why its newsgathering has deteriorated so much in recent times to the extent of becoming a blatant propaganda arm for the Westminster government.

It's ironic that having succeeded so well in taming and neutering the BBC, Dorries et al. are now looking to effectively abolish it.

[LeftishBrit]

4. Dorries is loathsome

At least most of our Tories are not religious-right like the Republicans. But she IS!

I've hated her since I first knew about her, which I think was 2010.

And the Daily Hate-mail is disgusting!