Director General To Blame For BBC’s Below Inflation Licence Fee

An aggressive approach during licence fee negotiations by BBC director general, Mark Thompson, was partly to blame on the below inflation settlement for the Corporation, sources have told the Guardian.

There is said to be widespread concern inside the BBC over the settlement, which was announced last week (see BBC Licence Fee To Rise 3%), and sources have indicated that chancellor Gordon Brown had hardened his stance in response to what the Treasury saw as thinly veiled threats from Thompson.

“Thompson should have known that that would have been the reaction. The deal was always going to be a tough one, but the BBC didn’t make life any easier for itself,” the source said.

According to both BBC and Treasury sources, Thompson took an aggressive line in his talks with the chancellor, saying that the government would have to live with the consequences of denying the broadcaster the licence fee increase it was seeking.

Some senior BBC staff said they were amazed that the director general failed to anticipate the chancellor’s likely response.

The Corporation had ambitions to secure a proposed inflation plus 1.8% rise over the next seven years from April 2007, which would have made the annual TV licence fee cost around £180 by 2013 (see End Of Year Round Up: Television).

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