Government refuses to rule out charging consumers, even if they only watch on-demand, non-BBC content

Netflix users face being forced to pay the TV licence fee even if they do not watch the BBC, under plans being explored by officials.

One option for the future funding of the corporation is to make households who only use streaming services pay the annual charge, it was reported on Tuesday.

Bloomberg said the plan has been discussed by the Prime Minister’s office, as well as the Treasury and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Other options include allowing the BBC to advertise, imposing a specific tax on streaming services, and asking those who listen to BBC Radio to pay a fee.

On Tuesday, the DCMS said the Netflix proposal was not under “active consideration” but did not rule out that the option was on the table.

The BBC’s charter ends at the end of 2027, and Lisa Nandy, the Culture Secretary, is looking at ways to keep the corporation well funded at a time when more people are gravitating toward on-demand services such as Disney+.

Critics say the licence fee dates from a time when consumers had no choice but to watch programmes at the time of broadcast.

It currently costs households who watch live TV or use BBC iPlayer £169.50 a year, an amount that usually rises annually with inflation.

Even if they don’t watch BBC programmes, households are required to hold a TV licence to view or stream programmes live on sites including YouTube and Amazon Prime Video.

It is not, however, needed if people only watch on-demand, non-BBC content.

If the licence fee is expanded to those who only watch video-on-demand, it could risk a backlash from consumers who may argue they already pay subscriptions for the same services.

Another option under consideration includes making users of the BBC’s on-demand app pay a subscription fee rather than the licence, mirroring the business model of services like Netflix, Disney, Amazon Prime and Apple TV.

Ministers are also looking at tiering the licence fee so that lower-income households don’t pay the same rate as more affluent users.

Another option was to leave the licence fee largely as it is, with a few tweaks, but with better enforcement, a person familiar with the internal deliberations said.

A spokesman for the DCMS said that they wouldn’t comment on “speculation”, adding: “We will provide more details about charter review plans in due course.”

A government source said the process was at an early, information-gathering stage and was not being actively considered by Ms Nandy.

  • albert180@discuss.tchncs.deEnglish
    0·
    7 days ago

    Why not make everyone pay? That’s how it’s done in Austria or Germany

    It’s much less bureaucracy.

    Edit: And most people who claim that they never saw something from BBC on YouTube or heard it somewhere are lying. Let’s be real

    • sabreW4K3@lazysoci.alEnglish
      1·
      7 days ago

      Edit: And most people who claim that they never saw something from BBC on YouTube or heard it somewhere are lying. Let’s be real

      Yeah, but hardly any

      This is a tough one! Since we don’t have concrete numbers, any guess is going to be very broad. But, based on the information we have, here’s a very rough stab at it:

      I’d guess that BBC content likely accounts for somewhere between 1% to 5% of the total video views on YouTube in the UK. Here’s my reasoning:

      • YouTube’s sheer size: YouTube is absolutely massive. The amount of video uploaded every minute is staggering. Even if the BBC has millions of views, it’s still a drop in the ocean.
      • Global vs. UK: While BBC content is popular in the UK, it doesn’t have the same global appeal as some of the biggest YouTube channels.
      • Niche focus: The BBC’s YouTube presence, while strong in certain areas like news and music, isn’t trying to compete with the general entertainment that dominates YouTube. Important Caveats:
      • This is a VERY rough guess. It could be higher or lower.
      • “Content” is hard to define. This guess assumes we’re talking about official BBC uploads, not fan clips or anything like that.
      • Viewing habits change. What people watch on YouTube is constantly evolving, so this is a snapshot in time.

      Ultimately, without more data, it’s impossible to be more precise. But hopefully, this gives you a general sense of where BBC content might fit in the vast landscape of YouTube.

      Obviously that’s asking AI to guesstimate. But there’s a bunch of channels people watch more than the BBC on YouTube, should we pay them too?