The BBC Is Dead, Long Live the BBC
Changes to the broadcaster’s financing model will force it to abandon its traditional place in the British and global media landscape.
News from the far-flung reaches of the empire.
Photographer: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images EuropeFor years the BBC and its financing model have belonged to that small category of things that make no sense in theory but work well in practice. Now that model is imperiled, and the BBC will be forced to abandon its traditional role and find its place in the modern media landscape. The country, and the world, will be the poorer for it.
The U.K. government recently announced that the annual television license fee, the BBC’s main source of funds, will be frozen at 159 pounds ($217) for the next two years, then rise to keep pace with inflation for four years after that. More important, the minister in charge added (before colleagues told her to walk it back) that this would be the last such settlement. In the short term, the Beeb faces a tighter financial squeeze than the rest of Britain’s public sector. Beyond that, if the license fee ends, the very idea of BBC-style public-service broadcasting is in doubt.