The Crisis in British Broadcasting

Abstract

The crisis in the British press has been paralleled in the recent past by a crisis in British broadcasting. Both BBC and ITV have been affected for different reasons. As far as the BBC is concerned the difficulties it is experiencing arise from the fact that the number of television licences has levelled off at some 16 million with approximately 1 million evaders. This is avery different situation from that in the 1950s when the number of new licences rose at a rate of a million a year; even in the 1960s licences were rising at a rate of half a million yearly. It is unlikely — although the number of television households will rise with the growth of population — that the total of over 17 million television homes in a population of 54 million will increase sufficiently fast to offset inflationary pressures. This means that unless the price of the licence is to be increased at regular intervals (some people suggest that it might be tied to the cost-of-living index), the Corporation cannot expect any significant increase in its revenue.