Quote:
Originally Posted by jfman
Anything that puts costs onto the BBC is immediately one that is taxpayer subsidised. Similarly, project gigabit is subsidising internet rollout, and question 18 leaves open the question of subsidised internet connections.
The taxpayer is very much going to be on the hook for the cost of this for no net benefit. Everyone - even OB now agrees - that linear television lives on in an IP world.
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The BBC, except for World Service grants, is publicly funded by the licence fee rather than subsidies by the government. When BBC incurs costs, like the move to IPTV, it pays for these costs and doesn't turn to the government.
And there is widespread fee evasion as Cordbusters says according to the BBC, around 94% of UK adults use BBC services every month – TV, radio, iPlayer, BBC Sounds, BBC News online, the lot - yet fewer than 80% of households now actually pay the licence fee. That’s down from over 90% back in 2016/17. This is costing the BBC an estimated £550 million annually.
In response the BBC is pursuing significant cost-cutting of both jobs and programmes, whereas a subsidised organisation would simply go for government bailout.