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Should the BBC license be mandatory? Should the BBC license be mandatory?
Yes, the BBC license should be mandatory Yes, the BBC license should be mandatory
No, the license should not be mandatory No, the license should not be mandatory
A mandatory license fee supports minority tastes A mandatory license fee supports minority tastes
The BBC provides a service for the public good The BBC provides a service for the public good
BBC News is an essential public service BBC News is an essential public service
The BBC World Service serves the national interest The BBC World Service serves the national interest
The BBC doesn’t account for the majority of TV The BBC doesn’t account for the majority of TV
The BBC Trust cannot be trusted The BBC Trust cannot be trusted
The license fee disproportionately affects poor households The license fee disproportionately affects poor households
The TV license is unpopular The TV license is unpopular
Linear TV is dead Linear TV is dead
The license fee is impossible to enforce The license fee is impossible to enforce
The mandatory license stifles innovation The mandatory license stifles innovation
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Should the BBC license be mandatory?
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No, the license should not be mandatory

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The BBC doesn’t account for the majority of TV

With more channels and new ways of watching tv flooding the market, the BBC is no longer the main provider of television content. Yet the rising license fee forces all Britons to pay more into a system that they use the least.
Boris Johnson
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Context

The fee made sense in the 1920s when the BBC dominated the airwaves. Now, with the BBC holding a far smaller share of the market, it does not.

The Argument

The mandatory TV license system which pays for the BBC should be scrapped because the BBC is no longer the main channel on TV. With more channels than ever before broadcasting shows from all over the world, the BBC's viewership has declined, dropping from 25 million in 2014 to 18 million in 2019.[1] And according to a poll from 2019, the most popular channel was channel 4, next BBC, then ITV.[1] This goes to show that the privileged position the license fee affords it is unwarranted. Many people never watch the BBC and are still forced to pay the license fee for a service they never make use of. This can be seen as highly undemocratic.[2] What's more, the money collected from the TV license fee does not all go toward producing high-quality content. A bulk of the revenue is used to pay top-ranking tv personalities' high salaries. According to the Sun magazine, only £2.4 billion of the total £5.1 billion goes toward programming.[3] A staggering £100 million of this money was spent on tracking doing license fee dodgers in 2017[4]. Surely there could be better uses for this money. So not only does the BBC not account for a majority of tv viewership anymore, but the money is being used for somewhat questionable purposes beyond ensuring high-quality content. As such, there is significant opposition to the mandatory licensing fee, with some proposing it either be repealed or applied on a voluntary basis.[5]

Counter arguments

The license fee has been criticised because it forces people to pay money to the BBC despite it not accounting for the majority of TV. But those in favour of the fee fear for the future of the BBC if the fee is scrapped. In particular, proponents of the fee worry that the quality of the content will suffer.[6] The license fee allows the BBC to fund its programming without being limited advertisers. With public funding, the BBC has full control over its content and has the power to choose how to spend their money. For example, David Attenborough's Planet Earth has cost more than £16 million and Downton Abbey cost more than £1 million per episode. [6] Few funded channels can afford to spend so much even if the content is of extremely high quality. It's true, the BBC is not watched by everyone, but it is designed to benefit everyone. Because they rely on public funding, its content remains independent from private corporate influence.[6] The license fee ensure that remains in the hands of the public, ensuring that the power remains with the people and free of outside influence. This ensures top quality independent content for all.

Proponents

Premises

[P1] A TV license should fund the content people watch on their televisions. [P2] The BBC makes up a very small part of what people watch. [P3] Therefore, it is not fair that the BBC gets all of the TV license revenues.

Rejecting the premises

References

  1. https://www.statista.com/statistics/290866/bbc-news-viewers-reached-quarterly-uk/
  2. https://iea.org.uk/blog/the-case-against-the-bbc-licence-fee
  3. https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/9265232/theresa-may-bbc-free-tv-licence-scrapped-pensioners/
  4. https://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/762363/REVEALED-BBC-spend-100MILLION-of-taxpayers-money-chasing-licence-fee-dodgers
  5. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-51270012
  6. https://conversation.which.co.uk/technology/why-im-in-favour-of-the-tv-licence/
This page was last edited on Monday, 6 Jul 2020 at 22:56 UTC

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