Paywalling Strictly won’t future-proof the BBC – it will destroy it ...Middle East

I’m starting to wonder whether the government is dangling a series of dramatic BBC shake-ups just to scare the public. Whether floating ever more absurd “proposals” to secure its future is in fact a shock tactic intended to drum into us just how much existential trouble it’s really in. Whether the threat of radical changes – which sound an awful lot like the dismantling of the BBC – will beat us into accepting that we don’t know what we’ve got till it’s gone and have us rushing to gratefully pay the licence fee.

If you’re anything like me, the latest discussions about possible future funding models will have had you spooked you. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy this week announced that one idea being discussed is putting major entertainment programmes like Strictly Come Dancing behind a paywall.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport also suggested that the BBC might explore using adverts across its TV channels, radio stations and websites. The logic is, by cranking up the BBC’s commercial income, it would not need to rely so heavily on the long-contested and increasingly resented licence fee.

Very sensible, really – cash in on the BBC’s most popular properties to prop up the rest of what it does. It’s just basic economics and, after all, it’s only what the streamers are doing – and how can the BBC have a hope of competing with them if it doesn’t take at least a few tips?

Let’s get the ideological stuff out of the way: a paywalled BBC is no BBC. A public service broadcaster, with a duty to serve every single British demographic, cannot ascribe monetary values to its programming and operate with a hierarchy that says some of its output is worth more than others.

It cannot preserve the most popular, and thus, yes, valuable, programming for those willing to pay more money – leaving those unable to with a washed-out, second-rate package.

It cannot fulfil its promise to “inform, educate and entertain” every audience and introduce them to the new and challenging if it removes the big-draw shows that led them to the BBC in the first place, and which convinced them to stay and find the rest.

You may well be thinking “well, yes, but that is how things are now”. We have never had more choice and if the BBC wants to survive it’s going to have to ape the tech corporations. True – to a point. Only a few weeks ago I calculated the “cost per episode” of Strictly this year, arguing that only by putting a price on our most beloved BBC programmes will we realise what good value the £174.50 licence fee really is. But mark my words: paywalling BBC programmes won’t future-proof good television – it will destroy it.

Most of us would like to think of ourselves as adventurous, but the truth is we are quite resistant to the new. We like familiarity, we have decision fatigue from overwhelming choice, and when we watch TV we want something we know we will like. (Before you protest, this is backed up by data that shows people use streamers to binge-watch comfort programmes they’ve already seen more often than to watch its original productions).

So, the only shows with a chance of getting behind a paywall are the ones we’ve already latched onto and consider unmissable – like Strictly, like The Traitors, which, for what it’s worth, I believe a lot of people would pay for. But a lot more wouldn’t bother – they stick them on because they’re what’s on. Ask them to hand over money and casual, passive viewers will opt out.

So those beloved, unifying, magical cultural moments – priceless, increasingly rare – that bring unexpected millions together just lost a massive chunk of their audience. And they won’t find a new one, because who’s going to pay “just to try it”?

Which brings me to my next problem: the audience. Believe it or not, in TV it really isn’t all about the money. A lot of programme-makers and producers could have made a lot more cash if their show was broadcast on another channel or a streamer – but they actively want to be on the BBC.

That’s not just because of cultural prestige, it’s because the BBC is where you’ll reach the biggest number of people. Stick a success behind a paywall and you might make money, but your programme isn’t getting watched anymore. So why not take it to Netflix and make more money?

And then there’s the issue of the future – which is what this is all about. As soon as a “paywalled” content tier is introduced, it is all that commissioners will be looking for. That will affect the type of shows that get made and rule out a lot of the journalistically important, the diverse, the original, ambitious, weird and esoteric.

The kinds of things you’d “only find on the BBC” – those will disappear, as it looks to commission more of what already works so it can go behind that paywall and make more money. The spirit of the BBC has been preserved because audience and values have historically come before cash. A paywall would entirely disrupt those principles.

A Strictly paywall will never happen – at least not while the BBC still calls itself a “public service” broadcaster. It might prop up the corporation in the short term. But it would mutate its identity, and that wouldn’t just betray everything the BBC stands for – it would betray TV fans too.

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