BBC demands £180 licence fee

Not your grandmother's auntie

By Team Register • Get more from this author

Posted in Bootnotes, 12th October 2005 09:32 GMT

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The BBC is asking UK viewers for at least another £1.6bn over the next eight years, in part to fund its shift to digital broadcasting.

The corporation will ask MPs to agree to increase the license fee by 2.3 per cent above inflation between now and 2013 to help underwrite the shift to digital as well as more original programming.

Auntie is already undergoing massive cost cuts, and says that along with its commercial activities these will account for around £3.9bn of the extra £5.5bn it needs to fulfill these obligations.

The rest will come by jacking up the license fee. That is expected to mean a license fee of just shy of £200 early next decade once inflation is taken into account.

Given that everyone who has a TV in the UK is obliged to pay the license fee, plenty of people will be asking what, exactly, they’ll be getting for their money.

Well, there’s already plans to beam Dr Who to your mobile. And, there’s that snazzy new look weather forecast computer. And comedies via broadband. Mmm, suddenly that $375,000 for the bbc.com domain looks like great value.

We've got one potential story line for cutting costs - let global warming raise the Thames and flood Eastenders out of existence.®

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