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Originally Posted by OLD BOY
The licence fee is indeed doomed. From the Daily Telegraph:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics...unding-battle/
One minister said: “There is real optimism that the BBC will come up with a palatable alternative to the licence fee themselves.
“Tim Davie seems to be open to the idea of a subscription model and his background would certainly suggest that"
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No it isn’t.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-54014210
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The BBC's new director general has said he doesn't support any switch from the licence fee to a subscription service.
In his first speech since taking over, Tim Davie said such a change "would make us just another media company" that serves only "the few" ...
”For the avoidance of doubt, I do not want a subscription BBC that serves the few," Davie said during the speech in Cardiff.
"We could make a decent business out of it, and I suspect it could do quite well in certain postcodes, but it would make us just another media company serving a specific group."
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Mr Davie indicates what I’ve always believed. You can’t build a mass-market tv service with high penetration in British homes based on subscriptions. There is no example of it in the British media industry. Subscription products are inherently niche, and as the new DG sees the BBC as continuing to serve the entire country he is not going to propose a subscription model when charter negotiation begins in earnest.
Interestingly, and chiming with the other strand of this discussion, what he does want to do in pursuit of a respected, reliable BBC with mass appeal, is to
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“renew our commitment to impartiality", he said.
Impartiality is "the very essence of who we are" and is possible to achieve even in polarised times.
"It is not simply about left or right. This is more about whether people feel we see the world from their point of view. Our research shows that too many perceive us to be shaped by a particular perspective."
He added: "If you want to be an opinionated columnist or a partisan campaigner on social media then that is a valid choice, but you should not be working at the BBC."
New social media guidelines for presenters and staff will be "rigorously enforced", he said.
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