BBC Director General Tim Davie Defends License Fee Model: ‘We Don’t Need More Share, We Need to Be Relevant’
K.J. Yossman BBC director general Tim Davie robustly defended the corporation’s license fee model at the Royal Television Society (RTS) convention on Tuesday afternoon, saying “I think the license fee is there to beat.” The license fee is a mandatory fee every household that watches live television on any service or network must pay annually. It is currently £159 ($171) per year. “There are loads of funding solutions you could get,” Davie said after being grilled by BBC journalist Amol Rajan. “My view is if I can’t, as editor-in-chief, act independently and impartially, then the BBC is over. Final thing is, I think you cannot separate funding model from editorial, intent and delivery.”