News

Freeview

Freesat

Maps

Radio

Help!

Archive (2002-)

How would you cut £613m from the BBC budget?

UK Free TV is making it possible for you to decide what to cut and what to keep. Use the tick boxes to select what you would cut from the BBC budget, and see your progress in the bar below. Please share!!!

KJavascript required!

Name	Cost	Reach*
Broadband rollout "topsliced" to BT	£150.0m	-
BBC One	£1,433.6m	45.3m
BBC Two	£533.4m	32.0m
BBC Three (online only)	£20.0m	-
BBC Four	£63.1m	10.6m

BBC Four	£63.1m	10.6m
CBBC	£100.3m	3.6m
CBeebies	£41.1m	5.8m
BBC ALBA	£9.0m	-
BBC News channel	£63.0m	8.8m

BBC Parliament	£10.1m	0.7m
BBC Radio 1	£54.3m	-
BBC Radio 2	£60.4m	-
BBC Radio 3	£55.1m	-
BBC Radio 4	£115.7m	-

BBC Radio 5 Live	£66.1m	-
BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra	£5.7m	-
BBC 1Xtra	£11.1m	-
BBC 6Music	£12.5m	-
BBC 4 Extra	£7.5m	-

BBC Asian Network	£10.7m	-
BBC Local Radio (England)	£153.8m	-
BBC Radio Scotland	£31.4m	-
BBC Radio nan Gaidheal	£6.0m	-
BBC Radio Wales	£19.9m	-

BBC Radio Cymru	£18.3m	-
BBC Radio Ulster/BBC Radio Foyle	£24.0m	-
BBC Online, iPlayer (and Red Button)	£201.0m	-
Orchestras and performing groups	£32.5m	-
S4C (inc direct funding)	£107.0m	0.6m

Development spend	£82.8m	-
BBC World Service operating licence	£253.6m	-
Licence fee collection costs	£110.3m	-
PSB Group pension deficit reduction payment	£376.8m	-
Costs incurred to generate intra-group income	£170.2m	-

Costs incurred to generate third-party income	£133.4m	-
Restructuring costs	£8.4m	-
Digital switchover (DSHS Limited)	£0.4m	-
Local TV	£2.9m	-

Notes: this page is based on the figures in the BBC Full Financial Statements 2014/15, less the change of BBC Three from £114.2m TV to £20m online service. Full Financial Statements also shows the current number of governement-funded 'Over 75s' licences - 4,215,808 - giving the eventual shortfall of £613.4m. BBC Worldwide/BBC America profit of £109m to BBC 'PSB Group' and one-off £78.6m for 'lease reclassification' also not shown. The 'Reach' is the number of people tuning into the service each week, from BARB Viewing Summary and RAJAR Quarterly Listening.

Comments

Sunday, 16 October 2016

James Livingston
6:39 PM

How much do the regional variations of BBC 2 cost and what is the reach?

link to this comment

James Livingston's 11 posts GB flag

Monday, 17 October 2016

Mark A

_{sentiment_satisfied}Gold

7:47 PM

Re; James Livingston.
The England BBC2 regions closed down when analog TV ended.
If they closed down the BBC2 SD and HD versions of BBC2 for Scotland, and Northern ,
then they would the costs of 3 HD and 3 SD on .

link to this comment

Mark A's 374 posts GB flag

Saturday, 18 February 2017

Ian
3:05 PM

I would get rid of the whole BBC and therefore the TV license fee, and restart the BBC as a commercial business as it is not right that the British public are forced to pay for a service they may or may not want.
The BBC could change to a pay per view or only service, then we will see just how much of the BBC programs are actually wanted, and if people would be willing to pay for them.
Of all the we have now, I probably watch maybe only five short BBC TV series each year, and if I could opt to pay for only what I watched, an would probably do without them.

I think it is very unfair to be forced to pay for so little.

link to this comment

Ian's 3 posts GB flag

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

7:42 PM

Ian:

Even if there were no BBC there would still be a legal requirement to pay for a TV receiving licence! Even if you use a computer to watch or only ever view 'catch up' you still need the licence. Only part of the funds raised equate to the sum paid by Government to the BBC. All the money collected initially goes into the Treasury 'pot' and then the Government doles out what it deems they want to pay to various organisations, such as DfID, MoD, Home Office, DEFRA and eventually the BBC.

link to this comment

MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

Sunday, 19 February 2017

Dave
9:30 AM

Incorrect Mike P - You do NOT need a to watch catch up OTHER THAN BBC I player!!

link to this comment

Dave's 19 posts GB flag

MikeB

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

11:34 AM

Dave: Wrong. You need a to receive live transmissions or which stream live. As the TV Licencing website explains:

'You must be covered by a TV Licence to download or watch BBC programmes on iPlayer live, catch up or on demand. This applies to any device and provider you use.
Don't forget, you still need a TV Licence to watch or record programmes on any as they are being shown on TV or live on an online TV service.'

Any channel as they are being shown on TV or live on a online TV service - which covers the other broadcasters as well.

As for Ian's orginal points, they are anything but original, and have been consistently debunked (which sadly, does not stop people saying exactly the same things over and over again).

Have a look at Brianist's excellent series of articles, such as BBC 2017 BBC 2017: Which of these 14 options is best to collect 4 billion quid a year? or his more recent ones of , etc.

How exactly could the BBC move to a or pay per view system? Every single (and ) would have to be replaced with one which would have the capacity to block BBC services unless a fee had been paid (and such boxes do not yet exist) The cost of those boxes, and administering that system would be huge - Brianist has cited the figure of 25% of Sky revenue is taken up in such a way, so how do you suggest the BBC could do so? Brianist wrote a whole articlehttps://ukfree.tv/article/1107052194/BBC_2017_The_problem_with_turning_Freeview_into_Pa about the problems involved - if you can do better, let us know!

If people were paying a licence fee, but nobody watch or listened to the BBC, you might have a case, but BBC1's weekly reach is close to 90% of households, and some 93% or more of other BBC services in total. Radio, net, news - all part of the mix - and people who say they never use the BBC are either very very unusual, or they are lying.

And want to know what happens when people have the BBC withdrawn in an experiment? They did it last year for 9 days (just Google it) - even the bulk of the ones who didn't want to pay the licence fee or felt it was too much had changed their minds after just over a week, and were pretty surprised by the relatively low cost for what they got.

You claim to only watch 5 short BBC series each year. However, what about the rest of the household? What about BBC news? Radio? Website? Apart from the cost of administering micropayments, think how much you'd pay over the length of a year for those service, being charged per hour (and thats if you could be - radio?). Currently, your paying 2.79 per week, all in. Watch 5 hours a week in total, and thats 52p an hour. How much does Netflix/Amazon/Itunes/Google Playstore charge per hour watched?

link to this comment

MikeB's 2,579 posts GB flag

MikeP

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

7:20 PM

Dave:

the law was changed last year, I think, so that ANY viewing whether live or catch-up on any device, even a smart phone, requires a Broadcast Receiving Licence.

Please check you fact first. I am absolutely certain of my statement having worked in the TV industry for over 50 years and been a Special Constable too.

Check before opening ***.

link to this comment

MikeP's 3,056 posts GB flag

StevensOnln1

_{sentiment_very_satisfied}Platinum

7:43 PM

MikeP: You are incorrect in your assertion that all catchup require a . This was proposed, however the commercial broadcasters opposed it and the final position that came in to force last September is that a TV licence is required to view any programs on or to view live (or as broadcast) streams on other catchup services, however no TV licence is required to view catchup programs on other services after the time they have been broadcast.

link to this comment

StevensOnln1's 3,672 posts GB flag

Saturday, 25 February 2017

David
3:12 PM

You only need a TV license if you watch or record live broadcasts or view the service. No license is needed for watching ITV iPlayer, All4 or Demand 5 or any service catch up at present.

link to this comment

David's 20 posts GB flag

Sunday, 26 February 2017

Dave
8:47 AM

Mike P - you may have worked in broadcasting for 50 years ...... but my assertion is CORRECT as supported by the last two posts - you need to check before opening .....

link to this comment

Dave's 19 posts GB flag

Select more comments

Page 7

Your comment please