London: The BBC could be part-funded by subscriptions on top of a licence fee in the future, the culture secretary has said, stressing that every option would be open to discussion in the government’s forthcoming review of the corporation.
John Whittingdale said such a funding model could not be introduced at present because there were no mechanisms to switch off certain BBC channels to people who had not subscribed to them.
He told a BBC show: “It may come in time and, at that time, it is possible that we could adopt a part-funded by a compulsory fee and part-funded by subscription [system], but we’re not there yet. But we think it’s right that, at least, we should begin to think about that question and whether or not that’s a direction we may wish to move in 10 years’ time.”
Earlier, Whittingdale announced a fundamental review of the size of the BBC, what it does and the way it is funded, and questioned whether the corporation should continue to strive to be “all things to all people”. Unveiling the government’s green paper on the future of the BBC last week, he said the time was right to question “whether this particular range of services best serves licence fee payers”. Agencies
