Future Timeline

A great summary of our current situation.

BBC licence fee to be abolished in 2027 and funding frozen

Sun 16 Jan 2022 11.13 GMT

The BBC licence fee will be abolished in 2027 and the broadcaster’s funding will be frozen for the next two years, the government has said, in an announcement that will force the broadcaster to close services and make further redundancies.

The culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, will announce that the cost of an annual licence, required to watch live television and access iPlayer services, will remain at £159 until 2024 before rising slightly for the following three years.

She also said this would be the end of the current licence fee funding model for the BBC, raising doubts about the long-term future of the public broadcaster under a Conservative government.

[...]

The BBC will have to negotiate with the government over an entirely new funding model when the final licence fee funding deal expires in 2027 – raising the prospect of a subscription service or part-privatisation.

The Mail on Sunday quoted an ally of Dorries as saying: “There will be a lot of anguished noises about how it will hit popular programmes, but they can learn to cut waste like any other business. This will be the last BBC licence fee negotiation ever. Work will start next week on a mid-term review to replace the charter with a new funding formula. It’s over for the BBC as they know it.”

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2022/ ... ing-frozen



BBC Broadcasting House in central London. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

^^^I always wondered about how the BBC could be so good under a conservative government. Conservatives in the United States have tried in the past to reign in our Public Broadcasting System. They failed because here the funding comes in large part directly from the people and on a voluntary basis. So, short of prohibiting donations, there is not much they can do except cut funding around the margins. I am not so sure how funding for the BBC works.

Another devastating video from Led by Donkeys:






Indeed, it's laughable.

What a joke and embarrassment this country has become: