TV viewers in the UK will be relieved to hear that the BBC licence fee, which was in imminent danger of being increased by 2%, will be frozen for six years. The annual licence fee thus remains at £145.50 and puts pressure on the public broadcaster’s future funding.
The Guardian reports that the BBC has been “sparring’ with the Tories for the last 18 months. Not content with just freezing the licence fee, the government has lumbered the BBC with a host of additional commitments. These include funding the World Service, meeting the cost of rolling out broadband Internet access to rural areas, and paying for local TV and online services.
