The BBC’s future can no longer be ducked

Next week, the BBC licence fee will rise by more than £10 to £169.50. The Corporation will argue that this is great value for money, less than £4 a week to fund its varied output, ranging from TV news to radio comedies, orchestras, documentaries and dramas. But the media landscape has changed so utterly in the past two decades that justifying a funding system first set down 100 years ago is almost impossible.

Tim Davie, the director-general, has finally publicly acknowledged that the BBC cannot simply ignore these developments and continue to live on past glories.

In a speech to the Royal Television Society, he said: “We stand at a significant moment. The jeopardy is high. The future of the UK, democratically, socially and culturally, is at risk.

“And for us to succeed, far from following where the market is driving others, we must double down on what audiences see as our unique value.”

There will be many, particularly younger people, who will see that as a somewhat hubristic statement. The notion that, without the BBC, civilisation will effectively come to an end has long sustained the corporation’s argument for state funding and yet will be an entirely alien concept to millions brought up on Netflix, Prime, Disney and a host of other platforms.

Mr Davie said it was “not just the future of the BBC … at stake, it’s the future of our wider creative industries”. Yet these are doing exceptionally well in the new media world, paid for through subscriptions by people who want the content on offer without being told it will make them better people.

Many of them resent paying for services they do not watch or listen to. Mr Davie said the BBC was prepared to examine the whole question of the licence fee, which will be up for renewal in 2027.

The Corporation would look at its scope, see how it could be more progressive, and make sure its enforcement is fair and proportionate. Getting rid of it entirely and moving to a subscription model is not to be part of the review, it seems.

“In the future BBC, you will be able to move across the content seamlessly, not limited by media type,” Mr Davie said. “If you are interested in a topic you should be able to easily mine the whole BBC.”

Perhaps so. But the big question remains: how should this be paid for? Even a Labour government will not be able to duck the issue.