Giving the BBC a permanent Charter could undermine support for the licence fee if the broadcaster is allowed to switch off digital TV transmissions, campaigners have warned.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said the Government will end the “bizarre” need for the corporation to justify its existence every decade.
Instead of a time-limited Royal Charter, which expires every decade, the BBC will be placed on a permanent footing. However, critics warned that the change could make the BBC less accountable to viewers – which they claimed could impact support for paying the TV licence.
Concerns have been raised over BBC-backed plans to switch off Digital Terrestrial Television, or Freeview broadcasting, still used by millions, over the next decade, in a move to internet-only TV.
The cost of watching TV could rise by £200 a year in high-speed broadband costs for some of the most vulnerable people, it has been claimed.
Rural and isolated communities, where there is still no reliable broadband connection, fear they would be left behind as viewing by streaming becomes the norm.
Broadcast 2040+, which is campaigning to stop the Freeview TV signal being turned off before everyone has access to online TV, said: “If the BBC wants a longer Charter settlement as the Government have confirmed, that must be matched by a clear commitment to the BBC maintaining and ensuring universal access to its services.
“That must mean continuing to support broadcast TV and radio into the 2040s.”
Why licence fee would be affected if ‘millions cut off from TV’
Labour MP Sarah Champion told The i Paper: “The BBC exists to serve the whole country, not just those who can afford high-speed broadband or feel confident online. For many households, particularly older people and those on low incomes, terrestrial television remains their primary way of accessing BBC services.”
Champion warned: “If the Charter Review accelerates a move away from terrestrial broadcasting, it risks cutting millions off from the BBC altogether and weakening public support for the licence fee. Protecting universal access to BBC services must be central to any future decisions on long-term funding.”
Former culture secretary Sir John Whittingdale, who negotiated the last Charter review in 2016, questioned the wisdom of giving the BBC a permanent constitution. He told The i Paper: “We made big changes and government will always want and need to have the ability to do so.”
Whittingdale’s Charter introduced a new governance structure for the BBC and included a “health check” review halfway through the 11-year period to make sure the corporation was sticking to its remit – or to keep it on a short tether, critics argued.
A permanent Charter would make decision-making about the BBC less politicised, Whitehall insiders said. However, Reform UK is committed to axing the licence fee and a Farage-led government could ask Parliament to rip up changes made by Labour to the BBC’s constitution.
Roger Mosey, former BBC editorial director and head of TV news, said that a permanent Charter was “a very good thing”.
“But it needs to be accompanied by proper funding and also the ability to vary over time how that funding is achieved,” he added.
Mosey warned that there are “risks in accountability”, which could create a “complex bureaucracy” or allow vocal special interest groups to “shackle a creative organisation. So it’s the right direction of travel but a lot of detail to be filled in.”
Why BBC bosses ‘must answer to viewers’
A permanent Charter did not mean the £180 a-year licence fee in perpetuity, Nandy said. “The terms, the structures and the funding for the BBC will continue to be negotiated every several years,” she told a media conference.
In return for ending a time-limited Charter, the BBC must become more accountable and transparent, Nandy said. The director general and chairman will be “expected to answer to the people they are tasked to represent”.
A Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) spokesperson said: “This Charter will be the last of its kind as we seek to end the bizarre situation where if the Charter isn’t agreed in time, the BBC ceases to exist.”
The Government will set out its final decisions in a White Paper on the BBC later this year.
A BBC insider said removing the existential threat that the BBC could simply disappear without a Charter renewal was a “significant and welcome step”, allowing the debate to move on to “what we can deliver in the future and how we do it”.
The DCMS is considering whether a date for digital TV switch-off should be set from 2034. The Government and the BBC have said there would be no move to streaming-only TV until there is universal access to online television.
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