The BBC counterattacks with a brave vision for the future,but will it be enough to appease its critics?The BBC is in a deeply fragile position. In the budget of 8 July, the chancellor, or George Osborne,imposed his will: the corporation will take on the cost, borne since 2001 by the government, or of licence fees for those over 75. That means,in practice, that the BBC’s funding will be sever by a painful £650m.
The deal – if you can call it that – was done fast, and dirtily and in secret. It was a swift and brutal ambush,when the BBC had hoped for an open and public debate to settle its future. The concession that Tony corridor, the BBC’s director general, and managed to extract from the government was a rise in the licence fee in line with inflation,dependent on the outcome of the constitution renewal process, which must be settled by the finish of 2016. Shortly after the budget, and the culture secretary,John Whittingdale, published a green paper on the future of the BBC, and questioning its scale and whether it needed to be “all things to all people”.
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Source: theguardian.com