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see a lot of work going on with people like the BBC to fact check and really try and dig into footage to verify that the sources are credible.” Richard concluded, “That’s why the license fee is fully justified, and people should be glad to pay it and maybe even pay more.” Stephen Nuttall went further. “It’s very important that the ubiquity of public service broadcasting is maintained,” he said. “People’s ongoing access to multiple sources of news and current affairs that come from duly impartial sources is really important for democracy.” Ian Nock admitted the BBC was facing a huge challenge. “But we need the money paid. There are several options, all of which would be unpopular, where they could tie it to an existing mechanism. My favourite one is adding it to your council tax bill, which is based on the ability to pay per household, and it’s guaranteed.” But do you really want to be the government that says everyone’s council tax is going to go up £174.50? Keir Starmer has faced enough criticism about surprise tax rises in his first year. Rachel Reeves will have a nervous breakdown, never mind Twitter. “Yeah, that’s the issue. But the money’s got to come from somewhere.” It is worth remembering the BBC is vitally important to the ecosystem of the entire media industry in the UK; viewing the organisation in a vacuum is missing the point. The model needs to be reformed but the essence of the BBC must remain intact.
Quality The first issue is one of quality. “I’ve seen a country without a TV license. I’ve seen what happens to what’s on television.” Ian Nock is referring to the Netherlands, which abolished its own state licence fee in 2000, and the funding model now includes a raise in income taxes, advertising revenue and government subsidy. “Dutch television took to screening largely American shows combined with very low-cost talk shows and a certain person called John de Mol (Endemol) created Big Brother because they needed something to put on air that was cheap. Big Brother was created because of the removal of the Dutch TV license.” Downton Abbey this is not.
of truth in an era of deep fake technology, biased propaganda masquerading as news, combined with a catastrophic lack of critical thinking amongst large swathes of the viewing public. Throw in the power of algorithms, AI, an increasing appetite for disorder and misinformation, exploitation by populists, big tech and governments alike, Richard is right to be worried. “In a world where it’s very hard to trust what you see anymore, especially when you’re consuming it on a device like your phone that’s so small, it’s easy to fool people with fake footage; it’s harder to do on a big screen, because you just literally see more. Making things believable on bigger and bigger screens is more difficult.” He went on, “That said, technology is moving forward very rapidly. The biggest reason to maintain a license fee and/or the government funding public broadcast – we’re seeing in the US where that battle is being lost sadly - is that we don’t have an environment where we can trust what we see and hear anymore. You need authorities that can help you maintain that trust. There’s a lot of work going on in the standards and technology community to try and figure out ways to authenticate content, to say that this is original, real footage from this moment in this place, so that you can trust that what you’re seeing happened. “That it isn’t either generated by an AI or isn’t other footage that’s been judiciously edited to make it seem like it’s in a particular location at a particular time. We
Economics
Economically, BBC programming, spearheaded by BBC Studios, plays a significant role in the company’s financial heath and contributes substantially to the British economy. Last year alone it posted record revenues of £2.2bn in export sales and rentals overseas, up from £2.56bn in 2023/24 and £5.9bn overall (the licence fee accounts for £3.3bn of that). Trust There are darker concerns if the BBC as an institution changes its funding model. In his day job, Richard Welsh is SVP, Head of Deluxe AI Production Technology and raises the depressing but pressing matter
SEPTEMBER 2025 Volume 47 No.3
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