Michael Grade, Prospective Chair of U.K. TV Regulator Ofcom: ‘I’m Not Against the BBC Licence Fee’

variety.com:

K.J. Yossman Michael Grade, the foremost candidate to become U.K. regulator Ofcom’s new chair, told the House of Commons Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Committee that he is “not against the BBC licence fee.”Grade, who has held top posts at the BBC, ITV and Channel 4 over the course of his long career, was grilled by the committee on Thursday morning on a number of topics including his outspoken views about the BBC and Channel 4 as well as diversity.Asked whether Grade had considered alternative funding models for the BBC, he replied: “What we want is a debate about how we go forward.

The fact is the world has changed dramatically […] the BBC has done incredibly well to try and keep up with what’s happening in the rest of the world.

Can it go on asking for more and more money? I don’t know.” Grade was keen to clarify, however, he was speaking in a personal capacity as the BBC licence fee is “not a matter for Ofcom.”Earlier in the meeting, the BBC’s licence fee had also come up and Grade said: “What I want to see from public service broadcasting over the next decade or more is that we don’t do anything that undermines our ability to continue to invest in talent and content and skills that produce that content, and the BBC is a major contributor to that.”However he acknowledged there will be a charter review in 2027 and said it would be better to have a debate earlier rather than later about the BBC’s future funding. “I think that debate is a very, very important national debate.