This book makes a persuasive argument that the licence fee is no longer the right way to raise revenue for the BBC. While there was a case for this model when the only way to watch the BBC was through the ownership of a television, and there was no way to prevent anyone who owned a television from watching the BBC, technological developments have demolished this argument. Millennials consume more and more of their broadcast media through a tablet, computer or phone. Yet, non-payment of the licence fee now accounts for 10 per cent of all criminal convictions in the UK, so we may soon be in the invidious position where a majority of young people watch BBC programmes through devices that are not taxed, while older people who own a television but watch only ITV or Sky Sports are taxed and, in the case of non-compliance, subject to arrest. Those who support the continuation of the licence fee often do so using two arguments: that the BBC is vital for producing what has become known as 'public service broadcasting', and that the BBC produces news that is non-partisan together with unbiased coverage of current affairs.The authors of this book challenge both of these arguments and show that there are various ways in which the BBC could be made independent of the state and/or of compulsory funding.
This book makes a persuasive argument that the licence fee is no longer the right way to raise revenue for the BBC. While there was a case for this model when the only way to watch the BBC was through the ownership of a television, and there was no way to prevent anyone who owned a television from watching the BBC, technological developments have demolished this argument. Millennials consume more and more of their broadcast media through a tablet, computer or phone. Yet, non-payment of the licence fee now accounts for 10 per cent of all criminal convictions in the UK, so we may soon be in the invidious position where a majority of young people watch BBC programmes through devices that are not taxed, while older people who own a television but watch only ITV or Sky Sports are taxed and, in the case of non-compliance, subject to arrest. Those who support the continuation of the licence fee often do so using two arguments: that the BBC is vital for producing what has become known as 'public service broadcasting', and that the BBC produces news that is non-partisan together with unbiased coverage of current affairs.The authors of this book challenge both of these arguments and show that there are various ways in which the BBC could be made independent of the state and/or of compulsory funding.
Philip Booth is Academic and Research Director at the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) and Professor of Finance, Public Policy and Ethics at St Mary's University, Twickenham. He was formerly Professor of Insurance and Risk Management at the Cass Business School, where he also served as Associate Dean. He has an undergraduate degree in economics from the University of Durham and a PhD in finance. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and of the Royal Statistical Society. Previously, Philip Booth worked for the Bank of England as an adviser on financial stability issues. He has written widely, including a number of books, on investment, finance, social insurance and pensions, as well as on the relationship between Catholic social teaching and economics. Ryan Bourne (contributor) is Head of Public Policy at the IEA and a weekly columnist for City AM. He has previously worked at both the Centre for Policy Studies and Frontier Economics, and has written widely on a range of economic issues. He has both MA (Cantab) and MPhil qualifications in economics from the University of Cambridge. Tim Congdon (contributor) is often regarded as the UK's leading 'monetarist'economist, and was one of the foremost advocates of so-called Thatcherite monetarism in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He is currently a professor of economics at the University of Buckingham, where he has established a new research institute, the Institute of International Monetary Research (www.mv-pt.org). His books include Money in a Free Society (New York: Encounter Books, 2011). Stephen Davies (contributor) is Head of Education at the IEA in London. From 1979 until 2009 he was Senior Lecturer in the Department of History and Economic History at Manchester Metropolitan University.He has also been a Visiting Scholar at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green,Ohio, and Program Officer at the Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University in Virginia. Cento Veljanovski (contributor) is Managing Partner of Case Associates, and IEA Fellow in Law & Economics. He was previously Research and Editorial Director at the IEA (1989-91), and held academic positions in University College London (1984-87), Oxford University(1974-84) and other UK, North American and Australian universities. He holds several degrees in law and economics (BEc, MEc, DPhil). He has written many books and articles on media and broadcasting, industrial economics, and law and economics, including Selling the State: Privatisation in Britain Weidenfeld: 1988) and, for the IEA, Freedom I Broadcasting (1988), The Economics of Law (1990; second edition, 2006) and, together with Cambridge University, Press Economic Principles of Law (2007).
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