BBC Director General Tim Davie Defends License Fee Model: ‘We Don’t Need More Share, We Need to Be Relevant’
variety.comK.J. Yossman BBC director general Tim Davie robustly defended the corporation’s license fee model at the Royal Television Society (RTS) convention on Tuesday afternoon, saying “I think the license fee is there to beat.” The license fee is a mandatory fee every household that watches live television on any service or network must pay annually.
It is currently £159 ($171) per year. “There are loads of funding solutions you could get,” Davie said after being grilled by BBC journalist Amol Rajan. “My view is if I can’t, as editor-in-chief, act independently and impartially, then the BBC is over.
Final thing is, I think you cannot separate funding model from editorial, intent and delivery.” Davie also argue that the model was sustainable. “We can deliver the vast majority of households paying for a licence fee because they get good value from it,” he said.
When Rajan pointed out that in the previous year, 74% of the BBC’s budget came from the license fee with the remainder from commercial activities, he asked whether that ratio could ever increase in favor of commercial activities.
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