Half a million more reject licence fee in year of BBC scandals

[dutchman]

New director-general says decline has contributed to financial challenges facing corporation



The number of people paying the licence fee has fallen by more than half a million in a year of scandals at the BBC.

The BBC’s annual report, released on Tuesday, shows the number of people paying the fee fell by 539,000 to 23.3 million in the past year.

It follows a year in which the BBC was hit by a series of scandals.

In October, The Telegraph revealed that a speech by Donald Trump had been doctored in a Panorama episode, giving the impression that the US president encouraged supporters to storm the Capitol building in 2021.

An internal BBC review of the documentary Gaza: How To Survive A Warzone concluded that it had breached editorial guidelines on accuracy by failing to disclose information about the position of the child narrator’s father in the Hamas-run government.

The scandals led to the resignations of Tim Davie as director-general and Deborah Turness as chief executive of BBC News.

The fall in licence fee payers is the highest annual drop since the Covid pandemic, when numbers fell by 738,000. It means the number of people paying is the lowest since 1999.

The BBC report finds that income from the licence fee, which stands at £180 per household, “remains insufficient to sustain a universal public service”.

Matt Brittin, the BBC’s new director-general, said the decline had contributed to the “financial challenge” facing the corporation.

However, thanks to the rising cost of the licence fee, the BBC collected £3.88bn from it in the most recent financial year – representing an increase of £36m on the previous year.

The report also details the income of the BBC’s highest-paid stars.

The list is topped by Scott Mills, who was paid between £745,000 and £749,999 for hosting the Radio 2 breakfast show and Eurovision coverage before he was sacked in April over allegations about his personal conduct.

The second-highest-paid staff member is Greg James, the BBC Radio 1 DJ, who earned between £440,000 and £444,999, followed by Stephen Nolan, the Northern Irish radio presenter, with a salary of between £425,000 and £429,999.

Justin Webb is seventh on the list, with a salary between £375,000 and £379,999, and Naga Munchetty, with a salary of between £360,000 and £364,999, is eighth.

Fiona Bruce, the Question Time presenter, is ninth, with a salary between £345,000 and £349,999, and journalist Sophie Raworth is in 10th with a salary of between £340,000 and £344,999.

Laura Kuenssberg is now the BBC’s highest-paid journalist and its highest-paid woman, on a salary of up to £409,999.

Alan Shearer is the highest-paid person in BBC Sport, paid between £390,000 and £394,999 for his work as a football pundit.