3 ms·

The BBC makes a substantial proportion of their revenue, and therefore covers a large percentage of the cost of production, from international sales. This means

by takno 10y ago

The BBC makes a substantial proportion of their revenue, and therefore covers a large percentage of the cost of production, from international sales. This means that rather than it all being paid for and ready to give away you'd see at least 50% budget cuts for stuff like Doctor Who and quite a lot things which are multi-country collaborations between the BBC and other broadcasters would never see the light of day at all.

davb 10y ago
And according to [1][2] from 2012 to 2017, the BBC will pay £1.10bn - £1.55bn to their contractor Capita to manage license enforcement. A change in licensing model could result in cost saving in this and other areas, and not necessarily mean underfunded programming. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_United_Kingdom#Capita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_Un... [2] http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/ss/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheadername1=content-type&blobheadervalue1=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1370006220586&ssbinary=true http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/ss/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&bl...
- takno 10y ago
  The Wikipedia article you quote states that as the possible earn-out over a 15 year period rather than the 5 year period you suggest. Overall collection costs as quoted in those documents are roughly 2.7%, which isn't wildly off what you might pay for credit card processing fees. I'm no great fan of the license fee myself (although I haven't heard of a compelling alternative), but cost of collection isn't a strong argument against it.
  - davb 10y ago
    You're completely right - I misread that period. Thanks for pointing that out. I'll leave my original comment so your correction still makes sense. I do, however, think that a minimum of £73.3m per year (£1.1bn / 15yrs) is a disproportionately large figure to pay for license fee enforcement. I absolutely think that the high cost of managing the license fee infrastructure is a good argument against the model, and the removal of those overheads (and others) may offset a some of the lost revenue. A change in licensing model and overall culture (which I do understand has been attempted several times in the recent past) might result in a more universally appealing BBC. I struggle to find BBC programming very compelling, particularly when compared with other domestic and international broadcasters. They always feel... out of touch.

by takno 10y ago

davb 10y ago

And according to [1][2] from 2012 to 2017, the BBC will pay £1.10bn - £1.55bn to their contractor Capita to manage license enforcement. A change in licensing model could result in cost saving in this and other areas, and not necessarily mean underfunded programming. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_United_Kingdom#Capita https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_licensing_in_the_Un... [2] http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/ss/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheadername1=content-type&blobheadervalue1=application%2Fpdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1370006220586&ssbinary=true http://www.tvlicensing.co.uk/ss/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&bl...

takno 10y ago
The Wikipedia article you quote states that as the possible earn-out over a 15 year period rather than the 5 year period you suggest. Overall collection costs as quoted in those documents are roughly 2.7%, which isn't wildly off what you might pay for credit card processing fees. I'm no great fan of the license fee myself (although I haven't heard of a compelling alternative), but cost of collection isn't a strong argument against it.
- davb 10y ago
  You're completely right - I misread that period. Thanks for pointing that out. I'll leave my original comment so your correction still makes sense. I do, however, think that a minimum of £73.3m per year (£1.1bn / 15yrs) is a disproportionately large figure to pay for license fee enforcement. I absolutely think that the high cost of managing the license fee infrastructure is a good argument against the model, and the removal of those overheads (and others) may offset a some of the lost revenue. A change in licensing model and overall culture (which I do understand has been attempted several times in the recent past) might result in a more universally appealing BBC. I struggle to find BBC programming very compelling, particularly when compared with other domestic and international broadcasters. They always feel... out of touch.