It’s been labelled a “crackpot” idea, but one which MPs and the creator of the hit TV show Peaky Blinders believe could solve the BBC’s funding crisis.
Plans for the broadcaster to charge an “international licence fee” for people around the globe to watch its shows have divided the television industry.
Supporters point to a paywall that has worked in the US. They believe a fully-fledged global subscription platform could top up the corporation’s depleted coffers and potentially lower the UK licence fee.
But critics say there is little chance of forcing people in Brazil to pay a “busted flush” licence fee charge that the broadcaster is already struggling to enforce in Bradford.
How a ‘global licence fee’ could work
Exporting the 100 year-old licence fee was proposed by MPs on the influential Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) select committee.
The idea was submitted to the Government’s BBC Charter review, which will set out a new funding mechanism to put the corporation on a “sustainable” financial footing.
MPs said the broadcaster should “explore the opportunity for developing an international TV licence so that it can maximise the potential global audience and increase its revenue”.
The number of UK licence fee payers plummeted by 500,000 last year, with evasion and cancellations costing the corporation an estimated £1bn.
But charging international viewers for access to drama, natural history blockbusters and news, as well as classics from its archive, would be a lucrative moneyspinner say supporters, including Steven Knight, the Peaky Blinders creator.
The MPs cited evidence from Knight, who is writing the script for the new James Bond movie.
“Could you buy a BBC television licence if you are living in the United States – just be given a code (for iPlayer) to say that you have paid an amount of money, just as you do with a streamer?” Knight asked. “It is not an alien concept: you pay a certain amount of money, you get a passcode – a number.”
If the take-up was significant, it could even help lower the £180 a-year charge for UK licence-fee payers.
Global licence fee payers could get access to new series like Sir David Attenborough’s Blue Planet III and classic comedies from the back catalogue such as Blackadder, Knight suggested.
“Maybe that would be in demand. And not just America, either; I am talking about around the world— you have your BBC citizenship, you pay an amount of money, whatever amount that is, and that gives you access to the archive.”
Trump lawsuit ‘boosts US subscription’
The broadcaster is already taking a step in this direction by charging users of its app in the US to access a selection of its documentaries and films ad-free.
For $8.99 a month, subscribers also receive unlimited access to its global news and reporting, including a 24/7 livestream of the News channel.
But US visitors to BBC.com who don’t pay can still get limited access to news stories and listen free to the World Service online.
Insiders say its offer to US audiences of “news they can trust at a time of dramatic global uncertainty” has been boosted by President Trump’s $10bn defamation lawsuit against the corporation over the editing of a Panorama episode.
(Image: BBC iPlayer)
The BBC has apologised for editing comments which made it appear that Trump incited violent insurrection on 6 January 2021. But it is vigorously contesting the action and has asked a judge to force the President to sit for an in-person deposition.
“Asserting its independence as a news brand and refusing to be intimidated by Trump, unlike some US networks, is doing the BBC the world of good in America,” said one News insider.
They added it has raised the corporation’s profile “against [news] competitors like CNN”.
The broadcaster declined to share subscription numbers for its US app. But a relaunched BBC.com has recorded double-digit growth in the past year, reaching 139m visitors globally including 60m in the United States.
‘It’s a crackpot idea’
However, critics say there is little chance of forcing people in Brazil to pay a “busted flush” charge that the broadcaster is struggling to enforce in Bradford. Licence fee evasion rose to 12 per cent last year.
Jimmy Mulville, co-founder of Hat Trick, the company behind Have I Got News For You, said: “Good luck with that. People are watching the BBC illegally anyway. That’s a crackpot idea.”
Speaking on the TV Insiders podcast, Peter Fincham, former boss of ITV and BBC One, imagined “people who watch the BBC getting a knock on your door, they say ‘You may not have heard of this thing called the licence fee but we’d love you to contribute to it. Can you give us 50 of whatever the currency is in Guatemala so we can go on doing it? If you don’t, we might knock on your door again’.”
Director-General Matt Brittin is also a sceptic, suggesting that “the complex rights issues around the content and its ownership” could prove an obstacle to an international licence.
TV show ownership issue
Another issue is that production companies which make shows for the public broadcaster retain the Intellectual Property to those programmes. This allows the companies to profit from secondary rights sales to other countries and broadcasters.
However, it means the UK version of The Traitors, for instance, could not be included in a global TV licence without cutting a deal with the show’s owners, Banijay Entertainment.
David Elstein, the TV executive who launched Channel 5 and a former government adviser on the BBC’s future funding, told The i Paper: “Matt Brittin is right. The BBC could switch to subscription in the UK without much difficulty, but selling the same package overseas would require a significant and possibly expensive renegotiation of trade terms with independent producers.”
There would have to be a “renegotiation and potential loss of revenue from sales of the BBC’s wholly-owned programmes abroad”.
However, Dr Samir Shah, the BBC Chair, has said the corporation wanted to revisit the issue of rights with a view to changing the “balance of who owns the rights of content”.
This would allow “people outside Britain can pay for it”, he added.
UK subscription to test global TV licence
Elstein said the measures needed to put in place a global TV licence were “all doable, but it might take a few years”.
He recommended that the corporation test a subscription mechanism, putting some of its most popular shows behind a paywall.
“Probably best to start in the UK and see how popular the package(s) turn out to be,” he added.
But the corporation is opposed to a subscription service replacing the licence fee in the UK. It would force the broadcaster to drop public service programming and focus on commercial shows to retain paying viewers.
Last week, the News channel was also made available to stream live for free on YouTube for viewers in the UK and US, potentially negating a key selling point for its US paywall.
The BBC was approached for comment.