A prominent group of UK parliamentarians has urged the BBC to stop using licence-fee money to outbid commercial broadcasters for overseas programming.
Broadcasters including ITV, Sky and Channel 4 have long complained that the BBC is spending licence-fee income to secure foreign shows such as Schitt’s Creek, beating commercial rivals at auction. The cross-party Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee in Parliament has now backed those commercial concerns in a report looking at the BBC’s future role.
The committee acknowledged that the BBC may want to acquire high-profile titles to attract viewers — and particularly younger audiences — but warned that the corporation should not be paying inflated prices for international content when funds are tight.
“We accept why the BBC might pursue a strategy of buying programming that draws audiences, not least younger viewers,” the report said. “Yet when resources are limited, the BBC should not be overpaying for overseas programmes, especially if it is competing with other UK commercial broadcasters for those rights. We do not consider this to represent value for money for licence-payers.”
When BBC director general Matt Brittin appeared before the committee in July, MPs pressed him on the point. Natasha Irons, a Labour MP, asked what public service benefit there was in outbidding commercial services for titles like Scooby-Doo instead of investing that money in UK-made content.
Brittin responded that under 5% of the BBC’s content budget goes on foreign acquisitions and argued that such titles can bring audiences to public service output. He also said the corporation would review its approach to acquisitions as part of plans to deliver £500m ($670m) of savings over the next three years. “That is something I will be looking at as part of the cost reductions,” he told the committee.
ITV has been particularly vocal on the issue and spelled out its objections in a written submission. The commercial broadcaster said it could not see why public funds should be used to compete for content that could otherwise air on free-to-view commercial services.
“For that reason,” ITV wrote, “we would urge the government to add a new rule to the BBC’s charter preventing the use of public service broadcasting expenditure on any non-UK acquired content except where the BBC acts as the purchaser of last resort, and for the BBC to be clearer about the titles it buys.”
Elsewhere in its report, the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee urged the government to widen the basis of the licence fee as part of the charter renewal talks. The committee argued the reformed funding mechanism should “no longer be linked to a particular device or activity.”
The report said the aim of broadening the licence-fee base should be to include more households, which would increase revenue, but only if that could be achieved while cutting the cost of the individual licence fee and without threatening the BBC’s long-term financial stability or its ability to deliver public purposes.
The committee also suggested the government keep an open mind on the idea of a household levy, for example adding a BBC charge to a utility or broadband bill. The BBC has not rejected the concept, but ministers have repeatedly dismissed it.
Caroline Dinenage, the committee’s chair, described the moment as critical for the corporation. “This is a defining moment for the BBC,” she said. “If it continues on its present trajectory we risk consigning a national institution to managed decline and losing the vast benefits it brings to our economy and society.”
Dinenage added that, despite its shortcomings, the BBC is central to the UK’s creative industries, helps safeguard democratic discourse through media independence, and provides world-class entertainment and shared cultural moments. “Like a well-loved family member, we may grumble about the BBC, but we would miss it terribly if it were no longer here,” she said.
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