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SOME 32,000 people could lose their jobs if BBC funding is cut through reducing the licence fee, the broadcaster’s director-general warned yesterday.
A 25 per cent fee decrease would hit independent British TV producers, suppliers and studios that make some of the most popular shows, Tony Hall claimed.
US corporations such as Netflix, Amazon, Google, and Apple make their own programmes and the BBC must consider what makes “British telly special” amid the growing competition, he wrote in the Daily Mirror.
A “significant chunk” of money that would be lost is usually spent on creating much-loved programmes such as Happy Valley, Luther, Poldark, Sherlock and Broadchurch.
Entertainment union Bectu told the Star that any cut to the BBC’s funding would put its future and those of people in the industry in jeopardy.
A spokesman for the union said: “We are very concerned with any threats to the BBC’s income. It should continue to be properly funded and any risk is a major concern.”
Subscription-based licence fees or blanket household levies could be future licensing options, Culture Secretary John Whittingdale told Parliament last month.
He confirmed the BBC would take over the responsibility for funding free TV licences for over-75s from 2018-19 at a cost of some £650 million, currently paid by the government.
The BBC already faces a £150 million shortfall in licence-fee revenue and announced in July that 1,000 extra jobs would be culled.
“A further dramatic cut [from licence fee reduction] ultimately threatens the future of the BBC itself,” Bectu said.
Mr Whittingdale has also said that the BBC’s royal charter review will consider whether it should be “all things to all people” or have a more “precisely targeted” mission.
In an interview at the Edinburgh International Television Festival yesterday, he denied the government wanted to “dismantle” the BBC and stressed there should be no political interference in the programmes the corporation shows.
He said: “The BBC is always going to occasionally broadcast things which the government doesn’t like.
“But it is absolutely right that the BBC’s editorial independence is paramount and that the BBC should not be pressurised by government as to what it can and cannot broadcast.”
