In retrospect, Gordon Brown’s 1999 giveaway of free TV licences to the over-75s, though doubtless well-intentioned, was a hostage to fortune. Conservative chancellor George Osborne decided the cost of free licences to the over-75s ought to be borne by the BBC itself – meaning a huge cut to its funds. This equates, it is now calculated, to the combined annual budgets of BBC Two, BBC Three, BBC Four, the BBC News Channel, and the children’s services CBBC and CBeebies. The BBC should be supported to examine carefully these options and come up with a sensible solution. Younger audiences are using the BBC less and less; it is besieged by criticism from the right and, increasingly, from the left.

Source: The Guardian November 23, 2018 16:07 UTC