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**Hugh** · 18-01-2022, 21:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by OLD BOY

The government is minded to abolish the licence fee in 2027.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hugh

Interesting approach - she wants to scrap the licence fee from 2028 and find a new funding model for the BBC, whereas in the real world if you were changing a business model, you research, agree and trial, and prove the new business model, then move from the old one; it’s almost as if it were ideological, rather than economic based…

Yeh, about that…

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/n...-fee-7zhv2jx9b

Quote:

Nadine Dorries backtracks from threat to ditch BBC licence fee

The government has pulled back from a threat to abolish the BBC licence fee from 2028 after Tory backbenchers claimed that ministers had failed to prepare alternatives.

Nadine Dorries, the culture secretary, confirmed yesterday that the licence fee would be frozen at £159 for the next two years. She did not, however, repeat a pledge to ditch the funding model altogether when the corporation’s charter was renewed.

Dorries, 64, tweeted on Sunday that this licence fee settlement “will be the last” but used less definitive language in the Commons, where she said that the BBC’s funding would be a matter of debate, adding: “It’s time to begin asking those really serious questions about the long-term funding model of the BBC.”

Dorries, who was admonished by Sir Lindsay Hoyle, the Speaker, for tweeting policy positions before addressing parliament, was repeatedly asked what alternative to the licence fee the government was proposing. “It’s not for me to decide until I have all the information,” she responded.

Pressed on whether the government would turn the BBC into a voluntary subscription service, Dorries said: “I haven’t mentioned a subscription service. I’ve said that we need to have a debate and discussion about how the BBC is funded.”

It’s almost as if it were raised as a distraction…