UK Culture Secretary Backs BBC License Fee Expanding To Cover Streaming Service Subscribers

The UK’s Culture Secretary has publicly signaled that she backs an expansion of the BBC license fee to include subscribers to streamers like Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video.

Lisa Nandy floated a range of ways in which the £180 ($240) annual fee could be revamped to more strongly incorporate the SVoDs, a plan that has already drawn the ire of the Motion Picture Association representing U.S. streamers and studios.

With charter renewal and a new BBC funding model approaching imminently, the BBC has argued the license fee could be expanded to cover households that watch non-live content via streaming services. At present, only those who watch live output like Netflix’s WWE coverage or the Champions League on Prime Video have to pay, and collection rates for this group are low.

Nandy suggested to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee for the first time that those who watch both the BBC and streamers could pay the license fee, while those who only watch the streamers may pay a smaller charge, while there could be “targeted concessions for people who need them.”

If the license fee scope expanded, Nandy said there is even potential to “cut the cost of the license fee for everybody.” She stressed that many ideas remain in play and those she is floating are “not a secret plot.” “We are having an open conversation with the pubic, parliament and the BBC about this,” she added.

Going into the charter renewal negotiations, the BBC has repeatedly stressed that while 94% of the UK population use its services every month, fewer than 80% pay the £180, leading to a loss of hundreds of millions of pounds per year.

Nandy’s thinking is that the streamers in the UK benefit massively from BBC shows, infrastructure and former staff, an argument that echoes the “Netflix TV tourists” debate from last year’s Edinburgh TV Festival. “At some point everything comes back to the BBC in this country and they should be shouting about that,” she added.

Nandy has had conversations with the streamers over all of these ideas and “they can speak for themselves” regarding a response,” she said, while stressing that the government continues to rule out a streamer levy, an idea taken up by several other nations that would see the SVoDs pay a small amount of their UK subscription revenue to a cultural fund for British content.

“[The streamers] would be reluctant to see additional charges on their consumers, but I think they would be more reluctant to see additional charges on their businesses,” she added. “We don’t want to deter investment to the UK. Some of the biggest streaming companies are here investing in very big numbers right across the country partly because of British creativity, partly because of the BBC but also because everyone is on the hunt for locally rooted stories with universal appeal and the UK is brilliant at that.”

While the BBC provides advantages to the U.S. giants in the UK, Nandy backed concerns that the corporation is spending too much on American acquistions like Scooby Doo, a practice that new Director General Matt Brittin said last week is being reviewed.

Layoffs announcement was “somewhat strange”

Nandy also addressed the thousands of BBC layoffs that are being implemented at present, which have led her to have conversations with BBC leadership, unions and workplace reps.

She said it is “somewhat strange” that the mega cuts were announced by the interim Director General prior to Brittin taking up his post in May.

Her concern is that the plan to slash costs by £500M over the next three years will damage the work that was done by Brittin’s predecessor Tim Davie to devolve power outside of London.