|
 Hall, who took over as director general at the BBC last
April, will use a speech in Oxford on Wednesday to dismiss calls
by some critics for the 3.7 billion pound ($6 billion) a year
license fee to be shared with other broadcasters.
Every UK household with a television pays 145.50 pounds a year
to the BBC but this agreement ends late in 2016 and the
government has to negotiate a new 10-year deal with the
corporation in a climate of austerity as Britain seeks to rein
in its budget deficit.
With the BBC's reputation battered over the past 18 months,
critics including some ex-senior BBC executives have suggested
alternative funding, such as sharing the license fee with other
broadcasters, advertising, or outsourcing to the private sector.
But Hall will argue that sharing, or "top-slicing", the license
fee would weaken the BBC and UK broadcasters generally and
negatively impact the quality of content.
"The fragmentation of the license fee risks de-stabilizing a
broadcasting model that works," Hall will tell the Oxford Media
Convention according to notes released by the BBC.
"By weakening the BBC, you also weaken the competitive intensity
that underpins the success of UK broadcasting."
Hall will note that his battle to protect the license fee after
2016 is no longer about whether to scrap the system.
"Instead of saying that the license fee is so bad that no one
should have it, (critics) have begun to suggest the license fee
is so good that everyone should have it," Hall will say.
[to top of second column] |
But Hall will also make it clear that the BBC needs to continue to
justify the public money it receives. Political oversight of the BBC
has grown recently, with management called before several
parliamentary hearings in the past year.
Although the BBC has made savings, he will stress the corporation
needs to look harder if the public are to be 100 percent confident
of getting the best value for money.
Public confidence in the BBC has suffered over the past 18 months in
a series of controversies.
They included the handling of a child sex scandal involving former
TV host Jimmy Savile, a row over large severance payments to
executives, a failed 100 million pound digital project, and reports
of workplace bullying.
A YouGov survey earlier this month found 42 percent of respondents
thought the BBC offered good value for money, down one percentage
point from July last year, while an unchanged 48 percent said it did
not. The rest did not know.
About a third of respondents said the BBC should continue to be
funded by a license fee but another third said commercial
advertising should fund the corporation.
(Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith; editing
by Stephen Addison)
[© 2014 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2014 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. |
