BBC Could Go Way of Blockbuster, Minister Says as Govt Considers Decriminalising TV Tax

by Victoria Friedman

Culture secretary Nicky Morgan has warned that the BBC could go the way of Blockbuster — becoming a total irrelevancy and going bust — unless it evolves.

Baroness Morgan made the remarks as her department launches a consultation on decriminalising payment of the licence fee which funds the British Broadcasting Corporation, saying  “accountability and value for money must be at the heart of how the BBC is funded”.

The TV tax is compulsory for anyone who watches live or records live television or uses BBC iPlayer. Payment is mandatory even if you watch live programming on a computer, phone, or other device and even if you watch live television from other providers but do not watch BBC programming at all.

Last year on the campaign trail, Prime Minister Boris Johnson had questioned whether it was right to continuing forcing consumers to sustain the BBC, saying: “How long can you justify a system whereby everybody who has a TV has to pay to fund a particular set of channels?”

In the consultation, Britons will be asked whether criminal sanctions should continue to be imposed for non-payment, or whether another method should be used.

The culture secretary had written in the Daily Mail: “Twenty years ago Blockbuster, the then heavyweight of video rentals, turned down a £38m merger offer from Netflix.

“Today Netflix is worth £50bn, 1,300 times its offer to Blockbuster — which has gone from 3,000 stores to a museum in Oregon, for people who want to remember what video cassettes look like.”

Tony Hall, the head of the BBC, is stepping down from his job: the latest hugely satisfying and thoroughly deserved victim of ‘Get woke, go broke’… https://t.co/OtsCt1o2xC

— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 20, 2020

“We don’t want a beacon of British values and world-class entertainment ending up like Blockbuster,” Baroness Morgan of Cotes added.

The broadcaster said that stopping the criminalisation of paying the licence could cost them £200 million a year. However, the government says that doing so would free up Britain’s criminal courts and protect vulnerable, poorer members of society. Failure to pay the television licence can result in a £1,000 fine, court attendance, and even imprisonment.

full story at https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2020/02/05/bbc-could-go-way-blockbuster-minister-says-govt-considers-decriminalising-tv-tax/