BBC TV chief Danny Cohen has suggested programmes would have to be cut if the corporation was forced to bear the costs of free licence fees for the over-75s or decriminalising evasion of the charge.
Although the comments echoed those made by Cohen’s boss Tony Hall last year, they were seized on by some Conservative MPs as a threat to the government ahead of BBC charter renewal negotiations.
At an industry event held at Bafta in London on Monday, Cohen was asked about potential cuts to BBC revenues. “If the BBC takes on more financial obligations we’ve got less money to spend on content. It’s as simple as that,” he is reported as saying.
“If we took on one of those things, we’d just make less programmes. And that’s something I think none of us want to do.
Asked of other plans to cut the budget, he said: “Do I personally think we can keep salami-slicing the content budget? No. I think if there is a significant reduction in the licence fee, we are going to have a lot less content. Will we have to close services? Yes, I think so,” he said.
With BBC3 due to go online-only in the new year – if the controversial plans are approved by the BBC Trust – Cohen has previously said that sister channel BBC4 might follow the same route if its future funding was cut further.
“The reason we made this change for BBC3 is because we face a series of financial cuts the like of which the BBC has not had to cope with before,” he said last year.
“For BBC4, that means if future funding for the BBC comes under more threat then the likelihood is we would have to take more services along the same [online-only] route [as BBC3].”
“We will have to see what happens in the future with the licence fee whether we can keep BBC4 [as a TV channel].”
The BBC took on a number of new funding responsibilities in the 2010 licence fee settlement, including the World Service, resulting in its £700m Delivering Quality First cost-saving programme.
Conservative MP Andrew Percy told the Daily Mail: ‘This sounds like a threat rather than a reasoned argument in favour of the licence fee. Viewers shouldn’t be held to ransom in this way.”
