BBC Approves Of Digital Licence Charge

The final report of Gavyn Davies’ Funding Review Panel (see Digital Licence Fee Could Be £24) was broadly welcomed yesterday by BBC director-general, John Birt, and chairman Sir Christopher Bland. Birt said he was “grateful for the Panel’s strong advocacy of the powerful role the BBC can play in the digital era ahead”. He concurred with the Panel’s suggestion that developing digital and online technology is bringing about “the Fourth Broadcasting Revolution.”

Birt was, however, critical of the report’s recommendation that BBC core revenue should increase by 2-2.5% per annum in real term up to 2006. “The level of future funding they have recommended”, he said, “will not enable the BBC to offer its licence payers the substantial public service choice in the total digital era that the panel desires.”

The Corporation agreed with the Panel that a digital licence supplement would be the “best means of providing buoyancy for the BBC”. Making a substantive increase to the existing analogue licence fee, it added, should not be ruled out; this still remains a viable alternative. The Davies report has recommended that digital TV viewers should pay an extra £1.99 per month for their TV licence from 1 April 2000. This charge would be gradually reduced to 99p a month by 2006.

The notion of a BBC digital licence fee supplement has been attacked by a number of commercial broadcasters (see Newsline), who see it as a direct threat to the future take-up of the digital format.

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