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Originally Posted by OLD BOY
Quite, but whatever, the Culture Secretary wants to convert the TV licence into a BBC subscription model, which surely is why we are having this debate.
I’m sure that the last thing we want is to follow the path of American TV, but we have better options than that.
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He does. He is not the first Tory to want this. He will not be the last. However, unless and until defunding the BBC appears in the party’s election manifesto, it is just the musing of a right-wing MP. His position as Culture Secretary gives him a platform to promote his view but no more influence in making it happen than anyone else.
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I don’t think PSB will be abolished, but I think it will be redefined and funded differently.
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I imagine this sounded really quite insightful inside your head. In practice it’s just the usual hot air.
Bearing in mind that there are six PSBs in the UK (BBC, ITV, STV, Channel 4, S4C, Five) and four of them are funded entirely by commercial operations, what is this ‘differently’ of which you speak? Public Service Broadcasting requires mass penetration in order to work commercially. S4C has proven that trying to do PSB on commercial terms exclusively for a niche audience doesn’t work - it has long required State support and has now almost fully transitioned from a mix of commercial revenue and direct State aid, to 100% license fee funding (as per Tory policy incidentally - the process will be complete in 2022).
What do you think PSB is and how might it be ‘redefined’? If you think it won’t be funded by commercial breaks in free-to-air programming, how will it be funded? And, if it is Tory policy to stop direct financial support for S4C and fund it out of the licence fee instead, what does that actually say about Tory policy towards the future of the TV licence?