Recommendation 5

We recommend that in the White Paper on the BBC Charter review the government sets out steps to broaden the scope of the licence fee in time for the start of the new Royal Charter in January 2028. At a minimum, the reformed fee should no longer be linked to a particular device or activity. 53 The intention of broadening the scope of the licence fee should be to capture a greater number of households, which in turn should lead to an increase in revenue. This should be done on the condition that the cost of the individual licence fee is decreased, as long as doing so does not reduce the sustainability of the BBC’s income and ability to fulfil its public purposes. (Recommendation, Paragraph 61)