BBC Ownership and Funding

BBC Ownership and Funding The British Broadcasting Company or the “BBC” is publicity owned by both the public and Government since it was under the Royal Charter in 1927; this is because the people living in Britain play for the service of BBC’s Shows and programmes to play on their TVs at home; but the current director-general of the company is Mark Thompson. The public through the BBC’s TV License Fee also funds the company; which allows the public to access their stations such as BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Three and BBC Four; all payers are obliged to pay the fee whether they watch the BBC’s content or not as every piece of TV Equipment needs to be covered with the License Fee, which costs £145.50 per household each year. While companies like Sky are private, BBC is run by the public and Government, who decided what is broadcasted on their channel. While the BBC is free of commercial advertising, with the exception of Sporting Events, it also advertises its own programmes and statements made by political parties. The viewers of the BBC Channels can also pay for Pay-Per-View; which is used for one off sporting events such as Boxing Matches; this also allows people pay only for what they want to watch. However, the consequences for minority programming such as Boxing Matches are pretty much the same as the advertising model. The current charter, which was set up in 2007 and runs until the end of 2016; which is every ten years, serves the public interest and promote its public purposes, such as sustaining citizenship and civil society, stimulating creativity and cultural excellence and the world to the UK; they help to deliver to the public the benefit of emerging communication technologies and services, and that they take a leading role in the switch over to digital television. This charter is very important as it gives the whole country the opportunity to debate on the future of the BBC, such as how it will be funded, how should it be governed and how should it ensure that it serves the public interest in the decade to come? In July of 2015; the Government decided that it wanted the BBC to take the cost of free TV licenses for the over-75s; this prompted a negotiation with the BBC which to lead to an agreement which includes commitments to:  Increase the license fee through inflation in the next period of the Charter, from 2017, which is subject to Charter Review conclusions on the purposes and scope of the BBC and its undertaking.  Hopes to modernize the license fee and to adapt it for an on- demand age and return the ring-fenced money, which is £150m a year from the license fee which is currently being used to support broadband roll-out. Pros and cons