The BBC would be forced to ditch The Traitors and slash the licence fee under a radical shake-up proposed by GB News.
The BBC’s right-wing rival has submitted a detailed plan to ministers for overhauling the broadcaster, which is about to negotiate a reformed licence fee with the Government under new director-general Matt Brittin.
Some of the proposals appear markedly similar to those advocated by GB News’s star presenter Nigel Farage, leading to suggestions that they could be a “blueprint” for a future Reform UK government.
The proposal, seen by The i Paper, would force the BBC to drop entertainment shows such as Strictly Come Dancing and The Traitors, and limit it to areas commercial competitors are struggling to fund such as educational, cultural and children’s programming.
The £180-a-year TV licence would be drastically cut and only paid by households that use BBC services. Criminal sanctions for non-payment would be abolished.
The future of licence fee is up for grabs, with the BBC admitting the current model “can no longer support our public service mission” and the Government “considering differential rates for specific types of users”.
GB News – which has recorded more viewers on average than Sky News for the past nine months -responded to a ministerial call for interested parties to submit their own proposals as part of its consultation into a new BBC Charter, which will set out the funding and governance of the corporation for the next decade.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy is unlikely to back changes that would dramatically reduce the BBC’s size, while the corporation said attempts to “narrow our scope” would undermine its current ability to cater to 94 per cent of the population.
Reform UK has said it will rip up any Charter agreement agreed under Labour and introduce its own radical reform of the BBC, if it gains power.
The party said it had not contributed to the GB News document, which was produced independently. It said it opposed the licence fee model and that any alignment with Farage’s public comments “comes from the growing consensus that people should not be forced to pay the licence fee”.
What Farage has said about the BBC
The Reform leader has pledged to abolish the compulsory licence fee and said that the BBC should drop entertainment and sports programmes and be limited to providing a news service.
In its submission, GB News called on the Government to “reform the licence fee such that a smaller licence fee is payable only by households that choose to watch BBC content; and in order only to fund genuine public service content under a narrower remit”.
The BBC “should operate only where the market cannot already deliver”, with programming restricted to “under-represented genres that are not covered elsewhere”, it added.
BBC Sport and the BBC website should be cut back, following a review into “over-reach” by both, the submission argued.
‘Mouthpiece’ for Reform
Alan Rusbridger, the former Guardian editor, has accused GB News of being a dedicated “mouthpiece” for Reform, and led an investigation into alleged impartiality breaches at the channel.
The channel called Rusbridger’s findings “fundamentally flawed” and lacking “impartiality”.
Any similarities between the GB News plan and Reform’s policies were entirely coincidental, GB News said, adding that it would be “completely untrue to suggest Reform had any involvement in the [BBC Charter] submission. It’s a GB News submission made independently.”
However, the plan could find favour with Reform policymakers. A GB News insider said: “It’s a 30-page blueprint for a reduced BBC. Reform could use it as an off-the-shelf prescription if it won power. But the Tories could too if they were really being radical.”
Under the plan, the 46 million “warning” or “enforcement” letters sent by TV Licensing last year would be slashed.
The GB News submission said: “Criminal sanctions for non-payment should be abolished and a more proportionate scheme for ensuring payment by those who choose to watch BBC services should be established.”
Nigel Farage has interviewed Donald Trump for GB News (Photo: GB News)Nigel Farage on the BBC
“It is fundamental root-and-branch review that is needed. It’s unsustainable as it currently is.
“It’s unacceptable in the way it behaves and a licence fee of this measure is just completely inappropriate for an online world.” (The Daily Telegraph, November 2025)
GB News on the BBC
“The licence fee model requires wholesale reform. The current model is fundamentally flawed and unfair.
“The remit should be updated to significantly scale back the BBC’s programming in areas where strong commercial provision already exists (for example current affairs, entertainment, lifestyle formats).”
Under the proposals, the BBC would also be banned from putting programmes on YouTube, a central plank of the corporation’s strategy to reach younger viewers.
Instead of providing £137m to fund the World Service alone, the Government should make a pot of money available for all broadcasters, including GB News, to bid for to make public service news programming.
GB News, which is co-owned by Sir Paul Marshall, the hedge fund tycoon and owner of The Spectator, said it was seeking a meeting with ministers to discuss its proposals.
GB News, which recorded losses of £22m last year despite growing revenues by two thirds, was mocked at its launch for registering “zero” viewers. It was fined £100,000 by Ofcom for impartiality breaches last year.
It has since seen off Rupert Murdoch’s rival channel TalkTV and marks its fifth birthday next month.
However, insiders said its BBC plan was flawed. “Everyone agrees the metropolitan, elitist BBC needs to be brought to heel but GB News shouldn’t seek to take any government money,” one on-air figure said. “It undermines our claim to be the anti-establishment channel.”
The BBC, in its Charter submission, said the licence fee was ”not sustainable” in its current form, and suggested it could be extended to people watching streaming platforms, to close a widening gap between those who use BBC services and the number of people who actually pay the fee.
A Reform spokesman said: “The party has not contributed to the GB News submission. We are still working on our broadcasting policies but remain firmly opposed to the licence fee model.”
A BBC spokesperson said: “The BBC [is] used by 94 per cent of UK adults on average per month and is still the number-one brand for media in the UK.” The spokesperson added that “Charter Review must deliver radical reform to secure a funding model that is universal, fair, sustainable, and future-proof.”
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